14 APRIL 1933, Page 17

CONDITIONS IN GERMANY [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR. ] SIR.-

As an Englishwoman living in Germany I can only endorse Dr. Munthe's words. My English love of fair play compels me to point out that, whereas in your footnote you mention " the numerous cases of murder and assault for which the National Socialist Party in Germany has been responsible for the last two months," you omit to inform your readers of the murder of 300 Nazis and of violence to many hundreds. The " resort to violence " has not taken place within the last two months : the violence was first resorted to by the Conununists many years before Hitler came into power.

The point which strikes me forcibly is the lack of under- standing shown here for the Jewish problem in Germany. The boycott was the answer to the tales of ill-treatment which, as Dr. Munthe says, would make one laugh were they not so painfully sad. My work takes me daily through the streets of Berlin : I have not seen one case of ill-treatment. If one considers that in the hospitals 90 per cent. of the doctors, in the law courts 9Q per cent. of judges and lawyers are Jewish ; that the clothing trade is in Jewish hands to the extent that, on the day of the boycott, it was practically- impossible to get any article of clothing ; that all the big stores are run by Jews, all the big orchestras conducted by Jews, nearly all banks in Jewish hands—it surely must be clear that there is in Germany a problem which is, probably, non-existent in England. A partial explanation would seem to be that, at a time when other countries were closing their doors to foreigners, Germany opened her eastern doors to a large number of Eastern Jews. That German jobs should be for Germans seems, to my English mind, so natural that I can hardly understand how they can have been kept out of them for so long.

If The Spectator is a friend of freedom, " then it must surely recognize, as an incontestably established fact," that the Nazis have been intimidated, assaulted and murdered ever since the Hitler movement started. Much. more might be said. I should like earnestly to request all English people who wish to understand German internal affairs to endeavour to get hold of facts.—I am, Sir, &c., [There have in the past been plenty 61 affrays between Nazis and Communists, for which the former were at least as often responsible as the latter. But how- many assaults by Jews on Nazis have there ever been ? -The -legal and medical professions and the clothing trade have always been as much open to non-Jew: as to Jews. Why have the nun- Jews not gone into them -! The fact that a particular cor- respondent has seen no alm“rinalities is irrelevant in face of the categorical stories telc replied by British correspondent.. And since the German Press is now under censorship, they are, of course, never reported, and readers in Germany may be quite genuinely, thougli erroneously, incredulous.-- En. The Spectator.]