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George Messersmith’s Report to the State Department on the "Present Status of the Anti-Semitic Movement in Germany" (September 21, 1933)

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Dr. Rosenberg, the head of the Foreign Office of the National Socialist Party, who has been considerably in eclipse since his visit to London several months ago, came prominently into the press again on August 24 when he commented on the Zionist Congress held in Prague. According to the “Voelkische Beobachter,” Dr. Rosenberg expressed himself as follows:

“The fact that Germany as the first of the great nations decided recently to remember its origin and its right to individuality in the formation of its political life, has, in spite of strong opposition, not failed to make a deep impression on the rest of the world. [ . . . ] National Socialism did not start this problem; but it has been its fate to have this problem forced upon it for solution, and in spite of what Jewry has done to Germany in the last fourteen years, the great movement of National Socialism has avoided taking vengeance on them in the legal way, taking into consideration the participation of the Jews in the war, and their deed, to avoid hardships as far as possible.
[ . . . ]”

In this same article Dr. Rosenberg brought out that if the plan of the Prague Zionist Congress to help all the Jews emigrate from Germany were carried through, this would make it impossible for the German Government to take action against those Jews who remained in the country for the offensive action of those who had left. He said that the position of Germany in the future towards the whole problem would be determined by [the] results of the Congress at Prague and by the leaders of Jewry throughout the world. In other words, he made the threat that if the action of Jewish world leaders was objectionable to the German Government, it would only result in greater hardships for the Jews in Germany.

In the issue of August 26 of “Der Deutsche,” which is the personal organ of Dr. Ley, the leader of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, this paper comments that it would be a very happy solution if all Jews in Germany could be got out of the country as the Zionist Congress in Prague was planning, and that Germany would place no obstacle in the way of Jews leaving as this would only make more room for Germans now without work. This article comments, however, that “to clear up this problem, there remains the question of how much in the way of property the Jews leaving Germany will be permitted to take with them.”

During the Nuremberg Party convention, the Chancellor and Dr. Goebbels both made significant speeches on the Jewish question. As the Department has, I believe, received copies of these speeches with appropriate comment, it does not seem necessary to comment on them further, except to state that these speeches indicated clearly that the Chancellor and Dr. Goebbels remain as implacable on the Jewish question as from the outset of the movement and place such stress on the question that, at the most important meeting the Party has ever held, their principal speeches are on racial questions.

It is, however, interesting to quote the following from the close of one of Goebbels’ speeches at the Nuremberg convention:

“Let me say at the close a few words concerning the measures which we have taken against the dangers of the world propaganda which is directed against us. It is quite clear that such a well-planned campaign against Germany’s peace and safety cannot remain unanswered by us. World propaganda against us will be answered by world propaganda for us. What propaganda is, and what might it has, and with what measures and methods it can be combated, that we know. We have not learned this in theory, but in practice, and have mastered it in our everyday work.”

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