Hitler speaks to Reichstag on 6th Anniversary

Today, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany, went to the Reichstag. His speech was to mark the sixth anniversary of the Nazi rise to power. In the speech, he made aspersions to his ascendence to prophethood:

In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it.

He continued on with his diatribe against the European Jewry after bringing up what has been referred to as the "Jewish problem". He also brought in the Bolsheviks, another target of increasing hatred by Hitler and many within the Nazi power structure.

...if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!

Probably the worst of his remarks toward Jews came before this:

Europe will not have peace until the Jewish question has been disposed of. The world has sufficient capacity for settlement, but we must finally break away from the notion that a certain percentage of the Jewish people are intended, by our dear God, to be the parasitic beneficiary of the body, and of the productive work, of other peoples.

As expected, the Reichstag applauded his remarks enthusiastically. It seems that Hitler is promising the destruction of the Jews should they lead Europe into war. An interesting promise considering that Hitler seems to be the warmonger.

German ID Cards go into effect

Identity Cards go into effect in Germany and in lands under German control. Jews will be required to have their identity as Jews listed on their cards. At this time, it appears that it will be a stamp of "J" on the card (Kennkarte) or passport (Reisepässe). Some regulations indicate that people who have even one Grandparent that is Jewish will be designated as Jews.

Jews will also be restricted from working side-by-side with non-Jewish Germans.

Hitler is said to have passed word to Jews outside German lands that life is that intolerable Jews that they should know better than to live there. He also believes that they will finance the emigration of any Jews form Germany.

Czech Jew will not be forced to return home

A Czech Jew here illegally, will not be forced to return home to Nazi-held Czechoslovakia.

Federal Judge Philip L. Sullivan granted a writ of Habeas Corpus to the Jew, Solomon Weinberg and then freed him from custody. His Honor stated that to deport the Jew to Central Europe at the present time would be "cruel and unusual punishment".

Mr. Weinberg, 31, was born in a part of the late Hapsburg Empire that became Czechoslovakia. He immigrated to the United States in August, 1927, while employed on the liner Berlin. After missing the ship, he remained here.

He used another man's identity to acquire a passport to visit his dying mother in Poland in 1931. In May of 1932 he returned without a legal visa. He was married in June of 1936 in California but is now separated from his wife.

He was arrested this past June and deportation hearings were arranged soon after. The Judge who heard his case pointed out that Mr. Weinberg has always supported himself and never required state assistance.

He also stated "I do not believe the immigration laws contemplate and such strict compliance with the letter as would oblige the court to return a Jew to a country where his property would be confiscated and his life might be in jeopardy".

Unless Attorney General Homer S. Cummings decides to appeal the case, Judge Sullivan's decision will permit Mr Weinberg to remain in the this country.

Jewish Children expelled from Schools

On the same day British Jewish Leaders pled the case for the welfare of German Jewish children to the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the Nazi-led German Government has decided to expel all Jewish children from schools.

The next day, the British Cabinet met and discussed the issue. It has announced that it will take the British Jewish Community up on its proposal to save the Jewish Youth of Central Europe.

Jewish leaders ask Chamberlain to save Jewish children

British Jewish Leaders have petitioned the British Prime Minister to take on Jewish children from Germany and Austria. In the wake of the horrendous events of Kristallnacht, what the pogroms of November 9th are being 10th are being called. There is a fear that the children will suffer inhumane fates at the hands of the Nazis.

Among other measures, they requested that the British government permit the temporary admission of Jewish children who would later re-emigrate. The Jewish community promised to pay guarantees for the refugee children.

In light of Kristallnacht and the public outrage against the Nazi Party, the Prime Minister has assured the British Jewish Community that he would take their concerns and proposal to the cabinet for discussion today.

British sever Diplomatic relations with Germany

After the recent widespread pogroms throughout Germany and Austria that led to massive amounts of damage to Jews and Jewish property, the British Empire has severed diplomatic ties to the German nation.

This comes only six weeks after brokering a deal with France and Italy to bring the Sudetenland under Nazi control.

International Reaction to Pogroms

The recent spate of violence in Germany and Austria against Jews there have provoked some criticism elsewhere in the world.

The United States will be recalling its ambassador. President Roosevelt stated that he could "scarcely believe that such things could occur in a twentieth-century civilization". As an expression of the condemnation by the people and Government of the United States, the President ordered Ambassador Hugh Wilson to return from Germany at once.

No word yet on whether diplomatic ties will be severed. France has said it will ending any diplomatic connection with Germany in protest.

There has been talk among some politicians to declare war on Germany just for the atrocities it inflicted upon its own people. In addition, there has been an increase in German Jews trying to flee their homeland.

Jews forced to repay Reich

Yesterday, the German Government ordered the Jewish population of the Reich to pay possibly as much as 1 billion Reichsmark for the damages incurred during Kristallnacht.

Reichskristallnacht

Totals from the destructive progoms against German and Austrian Jews are now known. These may be adjusted slightly but all indications are that these are the figures. Some have been released by Minister Reinhard Heydrich and so come from the Nazi authority.

According to Minister Heydrich, 191 Synagogues were destroyed (constituting nearly all Germany had), with 76 completely demolished; 100,000 Jews were arrested; three foreigners were arrested; 174 people were arrested for looting Jewish shops; and 815 Jewish businesses were destroyed.

It is believed that 7500 Jewish stores and businesses were destroyed by violent Germans. The event has begun to be called Kristallnacht, Reichskristallnacht or Reichspogromnacht.

At this time there may have been a total of 91 deaths due to mob violence. It is unclear how many of these were Jews but it is believed to be all. Many Jews were beaten to death with other Jews being forced to watch on.

Synagogues were not merely damaged and burned but also looted with much of ceremonial treasures stolen and destroyed. Many Temples even had their mezuzot taken from the doorways.

Jewish cemeteries were not spared violence. Tombstones were uprooted and graves violated. Fires were lit, and prayer books, scrolls, artwork and philosophy texts were thrown upon them, and precious buildings were either burned or smashed until unrecognisable. Even the ancestors and the dead were not spared violence and the peace of being dearly departed.

Goebbels ascribed the events to the "healthy instincts" of the German people. He went on to explain: "The German people are anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race."

Events in only recently annexed Austria were no less horrendous. Of the entire Kristallnacht only the pogrom in Vienna was completely successful. Most of Vienna's 94 synagogues and prayer-houses were partially or totally destroyed. People were subjected to all manner of humiliations, including being forced to scrub the pavements whilst being tormented by their fellow Austrians, some of whom had been their friends and neighbors.

Thousands were arrested throughout the riots with no word on what the charges are (many were arrested under the pretence of protection as the Nazis call it) or when they will be released. Countless Jews commit suicide during the pogrom as well.

Internationally, the reaction to the extreme violence has been shock. Many foreign papers have printed accounts of the series of events and destruction of Jewish temples.

Riots against German & Austiran Jews subside

Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. There have several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. Even fashionably dressed women were clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the "fun".

Much Jewish property was damaged and destroyed throughout the violence which has now come to an end after Propaganda minister Joseph Geobbels requested it, though it sounds more like an order. They have been accounts of several deaths during the riots. Figures of the actual destruction is still being accumulated. It mat be some days before the total figures are known, including the dead, injured and arrested.

Riots in Germany & Austria

Violence erupted in the late hours last night. The riots and violence was in response to the murder of Nazi Ernst vom Rath in Paris at the hands of German-born Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan. Rath lost his life last night at a hospital in Paris even with Chancellor Hitler's own personal physician Dr. Brandt tending to his recovery.

Last night was also the fifteenth anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch which the Nazis look back fondly as an important day in the formation and evolution of their controversial political party.

Destruction of Jewish property has been widespread. Many synagogues, large and small, have been damaged and burned by angry German people. Using sledgehammers many shops windows have been shattered leaving glass shards and pieces all over the streets.

Jewish homes have been ransacked all throughout Germany and Austria. Although violence against Jews has not been explicitly condoned by the authorities, there have been cases of Jews being beaten or assaulted. In an interesting twist, foreign Jews have generally been left alone.

The Riots continue. The Police is not interfering with the mobs but many men are being arrested nontheless. A unsubstantiated rumor is the men are Jews being rounded up for further deportations.

Polish Jews deported to German-Polish Border

Germany has rounded up an estimated 15,000 Polish Jews and placed them on trains. They are being sent back to Poland. The Polish Government has refused to take them.

The German Government, remembering full well the results of the Évian Conference when no nation stepped up to take Jewish populations, is anxious to get rid of these Polish Jews. With their citizenship set to expire due to a Polish stipulation on passports and length of time outside Poland, they would become stateless and Germany's responsibility.

Regardless of Poland's refusal, the Germany gathered the Jews and have forced them to leave their homes in Germany. The trains are taking many thousands of them to Zbąszyń, a village on the frontier and also the village of Beuthen.

Polish passports must be revalidated by October 29th, today, for the Jews to be allowed to re-enter their homeland.

Pope Pius XI speaks

Pope Pius XI has been increasingly vocal about the Anti-Semitic laws being passed in Central Europe and other countries lack of action on the matter. He has been referring to the inaction as a Conspiracy of Silence. Recently, he made a speech to Belgian Catholic pilgrims at the Vatican in which he said

"Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we [Christians] are all Semites".

The Pope has been published in Mit brennender Sorge a German Catholic encyclical last year condemning Nazi Party policies against the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism.

Another Nazi Measure against Jews

The German Government is now requiring all Jewish women to add "Sara" to their given first names, and men to likewise add "Israel" to their names. This is to be on all legal documents and passports. This measure is to better identify Jews who have non-Jewish names.

The law goes into effect on January 1, 1939.

Main Synagogue of Nuremberg Destroyed

The Main Synagogue of Nuremberg was burned and damaged beyond use yesterday. The Congregation of the synagogue were given until August 3rd to sell to the City of Nuremberg. After the congregation could not come to a consensus, Mayor Willi Liebel, expropriated the land.

August 10th, there was a gathering of many Nazis in front of the grand synagogue. The Mayor attended and took part in the rally as well as the Gauleiter Julius Streicher. The rally then turned into a demolition and the synagogue was heavily burned and damaged.

The Synagogue has been a fixture in the Nuremberg skyline. No response has been lodged by the displaced congregation.

Italy cracks down on Jews

Italy has passed the Racial Laws against the Jews barring them from studying or teaching in a school of higher learning and revoking the citizenship of all foreign Jews obtained after January, 1919, and decreeing their expulsion within six months.

Street names changed in Germany

In Germany, a program has been started to change street names. Some of the streets apparently have Jewish sounding names. Considering the political problems that exist within Germany at this moment, it has become inappropriate to retain the names. So, the names will be changed to sound more German.

ID cards for Jews

The German Government passed a measure yesterday requiring all Jews to carry Identification cards. This comes after Jewish doctors were forbidden to practice medicine on non-Jews.

Évian Conference Concludes

After nine days, the Évian Conference wraps up in southeastern France. No resolution was passed. There was a great deal of official statements of sympathy by nations for the stateless Jews.

Most of attending nations were reluctant to shoulder the burden of the Jewish refugees.

The Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic did offer safe harbor to the refugees. The so-called Sosua Project would have 100,000 Jews settling in the Dominican Republic with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee paying the nation millions of dollars. Costa Rica is also offering the same resolution.

The American delegate noted that the United States has immigration quotas and would be making the German and Austrian quotas fully available. France also claimed it had met "the extreme point of saturation as regards admission of refugees."

The British delegation did not remind the conference attendees of its Palestinian mandate where Jewish settlements have been forming for decades. This may, in fact, have been intentional since there were even Jewish observers from Palestine at the conference such as Mrs. Golda Meyerson. Mrs. Meyerson is Ukrainian-born Jew who was reared and educated in the United States before emigrating to Palestine. She remarked to the press after conference ended, "There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore."

An Australian delegate even noted "as we [Australia] have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one."

Yesterday, a Nazi newspaper published an article with a headline stating “JEWS FOR SALE AT A BARGAIN PRICE--WHO WANTS THEM? NO ONE.”

Conference on Jewish Refugees

US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for a conference to decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of stateless Jews from Central Europe. And that's what he's getting.

Representatives from thirty-two nations and twenty-four volunteer organizations are gathering today in Évian-les-Bains, France. Here on the western banks of Lake Geneva and in the picturesque Rhône-Alpes area of southeastern France, these delegates will discuss a solution to the refugees coming out of central Europe.

In the past few years, laws have been passed down in Germany that have made Jews in that country stateless. With other oppressive laws taking business and property from German Jews, many have left the nation looking elsewhere for hope and prosperity.