IN DEFENCE OF GERMANY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—If you would allow me a last word with regard to my letter, I should like to say only this. Your readers, not only in England but also in Germany, have resented the following sentence : "I am quite ready to recognise that some incidents were deplorable, as they did less harm to the Jews than to Germany itself." This was, as I realise, too crude and too short a statement ; it has been misunderstood. I want your readers to know that German opinion bitterly resented mob- violence. One of your correspondents asks me if the Jewish persecutions would have been "less deplorable if they had harmed the German State less and the Jews a little more." My answer is that I was thinking of assault and battery, and that physical violence could not have been excused in any case. Many incidents of this kind have, indeed, caused the same feeling in Germany as they did in England, and this is saying a great deal.
Mr. Israel Cohen calls my contention that the Jews "are alien in race and thought," and that they "never ceased to injure Aryan interests," a sweeping indictment ; he is, of course, quite right, but it would take a whole book to sub- stantiate this assertion ; there is material enough and to spare. I do not deny that the Jews rendered valuable services to the intellectual and economic development of Germany ; but, after the War, as soon as they had any opportunity of injuring Aryan interests, they established a domination which speedily became intolerable.
Mr. Cohen goes on to state instances for his contention that the German Jews are not "alien in thought." Of course, the Jews have always been in Germany, and it would indeed be remarkable if some members of this clever race had not succeeded in imitating German mentality. Indeed, there are some exceptional cases, but only surprisingly few of them. Mr. Cohen cites only one that I can accept, viz., Gundolf's work Shakespeare und der deutsche Geist." Messel's building in Berlin is certainly one of the best examples of modern Gothic architecture, but this style is not exclusively German ; very fine old Gothic churches are to be found in England (Salisbury, York, Exeter, Lincoln), France (Rouen, Amiens) and Italy (Florence). As to Helene Mayer, I never said that the Jewish race was incapable of distinction in the athletic field, or indeed any other domain.
I do not think many Germans would be inclined to deny that Jews are alien in thought and, I would add, in feeling. In England this difference may not be so apparent with regard to English Jews, but there must be a reason for the unpopu- larity of this race in all countries, and I submit that it can only be the dislike of a strange and uncongenial mentality.—
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