THE JEW IN NATIONAL LIFE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Spi,r—It might interest The Spectator and some of its readers to kilo*. that • its recent article on " The Jew in National Life " obtained some notice in Germany. The monthly periodical ROdwchule and Ausland has in its February number an article under the same title, in which The Spectator is quoted and criticised. The article is long, and I shall not here attempt to reproduce, even in summary, all the points it makes. It begins with what sounds like an argument of no higher type than the tit quoque. We are outraged becauSe 80,000 Jews have had to leave Germany : what philanthropist has protested against the thousands of German
'faniilies who " Russia, Lithuania, the Memelgebiet, the Corridor, Czechoslovakia . . . and elsewhere, have been suppressed, harried and robbed of their most elementary human rights" ? But, it continues, this argument would be most unworthy, were it indeed true that Germany's relations with the Jews had been comparable to the dealings of other .nations with German minorities.
Its main argument is based on the following sentence from The Spectator : " One would not wish England to be repre- *Med. solely or even mainly by Jewish minds ; for in truth then she' would cease to be England." There follow figures to show the proportion of Jews to non-Jews in various walks of life before the Nazi purge. A few examples are : Out of 8,605 doctors in Krankenkassen in Berlin, 1,879 Jewish= 52 per cent. ; lawyers, 56 per cent. ; Faculties of the Univer- sity of Berlin : law, 34 per cent. ; medicine, 43 per cent. ; philosophy, 31 per cent. Commerce : Metal industries, 57.3 per cent. ; textiles, 39.4 per cent: There are many more. In short, it is contended, if Germany was not to be represented
solely or even mainly by Jewish minds," immediate and drastic action was necessary, and hostility ought to find some excuse in the exigencies of the country's circumstances.
• I do not know on what authority the figures rest. I do know that there is much that might be said in criticism of the writer's contentions. But I leave that to others, and simply draw attention to the existence of the article because I was struck by the bitterness of its tone, and because I am impressed With the importance, in a problem so difficult as this, of know- ing that the other side not only has a point of view but is trying to take notice of our own. The bitter tone to which I refer was not directed against The Spectator's article. It was directed against the Jews, and the " morally sub- versive " influence which in the writer's contention they had exercised in Germany during the past twelve years.—Yours • very truly, W. K. C. GUTHRIE. 30 Barrow Road, Cambridge.
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