Page 50 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 37

the rest of the country.” Other “bad districts” were Breslau and Pomerania.
in general, conditions for Jews were the most difficult in the countryside
and, after that, in small towns. Phipps was convinced that the “semi-patho-
logical fanatics” in the Nazi Party would eventually succeed in reducing the
Jews to a “racial minority devoid of even the most elementary rights.” He
also did not doubt that Hitler favored streicher’s anti-semitic campaign.
local officials would shut down Jewish shops; prevent Jews from patron-
izing restaurants, bathhouses, and boarding houses; and urge “aryans” not
to use Jewish doctors. Phipps found it difficult “not to sympathize with the
fate of the patriotic, decent, and industrious element amongst the Jewish
population.” a few of the anti-Jewish measures at this time were so repel-
47
lent that they deserve to be recounted in some detail.
in Breslau a Jewish manager at a large textile business spotted a beautiful
young woman who had just started to work at the firm and commented in
jest to one of his subordinates that “she was definitely worth almost com-
mitting Rassenschande,” that is, “racial defilement,” by making love to her.
the subordinate or someone else who heard the remark immediately in-
formed the senior manager and within short order the Jewish manager was
sent to prison, where he remained for two weeks. He secured his release
only by dint of his close connections with important Breslau citizens. 48
On august 8, 1935, the consul general in Munich, d. st. Clair Gainer, one
of Britain’s most perceptive consular officials, sent a report to the embassy
in Berlin on an occurrence he found troubling in the small Bavarian resort
town of Bad toelz, which was then forwarded to london. early in august,
the district council of Bad toelz, acting with the approval of the Bavarian
Political Police, closed the fashionable Park Hotel “on the ground that the
guests were principally Jewish.” the officials also announced that in the
future no “cure cards” would be issued to non-aryans, and the local branch
of the Nazi Party warned all Jews to leave the district within twenty-four
hours. these actions were taken, according to the official announcement,
because the local population was “shocked” to discover that so many Jews
stayed at the Park Hotel. Officials also noted that “serious disturbances”
had broken out in protest against the large number of Jews who visited
the area. actually, it was the local Nazis who had launched a campaign in
front of the hotel with placards that carried the following slogans: “death
to the Jews!” and “We want no Jews!” local Nazis also marched through
the main street with banners that denounced Jews as “Germany’s curse”
and “monsters,” and called on the local population “to throw the Jews out
of our city.” then, on august 4 the Nazi demonstrators smashed all the