Page 202 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The American Diplomats 189

billion marks. 111 in another report, Wilson noted that Hitler had insisted
that austrian, not German, Nazis take charge of running the recently an-
nexed country because austrian Nazis were more anxious “to work . . . off
old hatreds and [desirous of] taking revenge” against political enemies and
persecuting Jews, whose assets they coveted. the state department was
112
especially concerned that the Nazis might force american Jews living in
Germany to declare their assets, and on June 2, 1938, Wilson sent a note
directly to President roosevelt urging him to “consider some form of re-
taliation.” 113
in mid-June, the ambassador’s reports became much more alarming. He
had learned that “a fairly large scale series of arrests” of Jews had taken
place in Berlin and other cities. the police had rounded up people whose
names were on their records for minuscule violations of the law that had
actually been settled some time earlier. the prisoners underwent physical
examinations before the police decided whether they should be sent to a
concentration camp or forced to do manual labor. Jewish community lead-
ers assumed that the purpose of this action was to stoke emigration, which
Wilson considered a plausible explanation. He mentioned a recent report
in the press that had indicated that if emigration was not accelerated, it
would take thirty years for Germany to be rid of all its Jews. 114
six days later, Wilson informed Washington of yet another campaign
against Jews, which, he said, “outstrips in thoroughness anything of the
kind since early 1933, extending beyond a mere summer exuberance of the
Party such as made itself manifest in 1935.” the major immediate cause of
the new campaign seems to have been Nazi anger over the influx into Ber-
lin of Jews from austria, where the Nazis were even more brutal than their
brethren in Germany. “is it not altogether outrageous,” Goebbels fumed,
“and does it not bring a blush of rage to one’s face, that in the last month
no less than three thousand Jews have emigrated to Berlin? What do they
want here?” in the new campaign small groups of civilians marched from
one store to another to paint the word Jude on the windows in large red let-
ters accompanied by the star of david and caricatures of Jews. a previous
decree ordering Jews to write their names in large white letters facilitated
the work of the gangs. Wilson toured the city and saw a “sorry spectacle
particularly in those districts inhabited by Jews, where practically the only
persons to be seen were policemen patrolling the vacant and besmirched
streets.” at least four foreign correspondents who took photographs of the
stores that had been defaced were arrested, but once they pointed out that
they were foreigners and had done nothing illegal, they were released. 115