Pamphlet of The Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith
Pamphlet of The Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith (CV)
Source: Cited in a sourcebook edited by Avraham Margaliot, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1972.
Hamburg Branch, 13 April 1932
German Men and Women!
We hereby issue a public call to every man, woman, and young person in Germany. There must be no further tolerance of the lies, crass aspersions, and defamation of Judaism and of Jewish people that are being disseminated at thousands of rallies that we are not allowed to attend, in irresponsible newspapers, and in tremendous numbers of broad-sheets. We protest all of these with all our hearts. Nevertheless, we still believe in you, in your conscience, and in your inner sense of truth. We expect you not to listen only to one side but to heed us, too - the other side. Please - read what we are saying here! Study these issues! Check out every detail! Every answer we present here is based on verified studies on which [scholars] agree. Everyone is free to consult them. You are being told that ethnicity and 'race' are the crux of life and that Jewish blood is of lesser value. But you are not being told how scholars relate to that: Today, there are almost no pure races in the world. All peoples in recent history are made up of individuals of mixed races. Even the German People are composed of a large number of diverse races. For this reason, even the racial scholars, those known as 'Voelkisch' have to admit that the German people would have disintegrated into its constituent parts had the 'racial' doctrine been emphasised. This is because civilised people in our times cannot possibly turn back the wheel of their development and become races again, just as an old man cannot possibly return to his childhood. The Jews themselves, as a population group, are also made up of many different 'races.' Just as there are tall Jews with blond hair and blue eyes, so are there short non-Jews with dark hair and brown eyes. Jews express their 'Jewishness' by bearing, uninterruptedly over a history of thousands of years, the specific spiritual baggage that their forebears carried - Judaism.
Ignoramuses define Judaism as a mysterious doctrine.' But as you all know, there is nothing mysterious about it; it is a book that every human being may discover and open. After all, it is the spirit of the Bible that makes these demands: Love thy neighbour as thyself. Thou shalt murder. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. This spirit has also given humankind the Sabbath day, and its Ten Commandments have given all of humanity its moral foundation.... Why do you put up with the behaviour of malicious boors toward the Jews? Why do you even let them show you - in serious issues of policy and economics - the scarecrow or monster caricatures of 'the Jew,' as those who hate him depict him in their generalisations? Wherever he is found, he 'dominates' you! They attribute everything that happens to the Jew, even outright contradictions: Capitalism and Bolshevism Capital and Marxism What are the facts? You will discover the truth by studying the real numbers! Not even one German in a hundred is Jewish. Is it really possible that this one will manage to harm a hundred of you? They say 'the Jews' are 'rich.' Count the 'rich' and see that under any circumstances, few Jews - and for that matter, non-Jews - are genuinely wealthy. Most Jews work just as you do, applying themselves and toiling in the struggle to make ends meet! In fact, the Jews have at all times and at all places belonged to the political parties that correspond to their economic and social class and condition. For example, a number of Jewish businesspeople and financiers belong to Right-wing parties, while most of the Jews, who belong to the middle class, align themselves with bourgeois parties. And, of course, there are Jews in the labour parties of all streams. In none of these parties, however, do they appear as 'Jews.' They appear as 'people,' like yourselves - as people who belong to a certain economic and social class and have various political outlooks. It is a shameful falsification of the facts to pretend that the Jews have some kind of uniform inclination. In fact, the inclinations of the Jews, like those of any other group in Germany, are fragmented in many diverse ways. While some Jews have wealth and influence, this does not mean that 'the Jews' invented 'capitalism' and 'Jewish capital.' And although a few Jews are prominently active in labour parties, this is not to say that 'the Jews' created Socialism and Bolshevism, let alone Marxism... ...the evildoers hope to take over wherever the seed of retribution and hate destroys the Jews' economic base.
This is why they call for an overt and covert boycott, urging [Germans] do not patronise Jewish-owned businesses'; do not to use the services of Jewish doctors and lawyers'; and so on. People of all kinds have always called on Jewish doctors and lawyers. Did they do this because [these Jews'] membership in a 'different race' made them 'inferior' or incompetent to give the right treatment, as the evildoers allege today? No, the public goes to them out of trust that was earned by good and responsible work. Even as we mention all the humble people who go about their daily labours faithfully, should we forget the actions of those special individuals in German culture and the prestige of Germany world wide, people such as...Rathenau, Max Liebermann...Einstein - to mention but a few? Did you know that fifteen of the twenty-five German Nobel Prize laureates are Jews?
You Trusted Them, Too You, too, trusted the Jewish individuals with whom you have had contact. What is forcing you to stop trusting them today? Do you wish to adopt a viewpoint based on hate, errors, and malicious lies? Remember that 100,000 Jewish soldiers fought on the front alongside their German comrades in the World War - and that 12,000 of them gave their lives for the Fatherland. Those who hate and defame us have taken matters to such an extreme that even the dead are not allowed to rest. More than 150 synagogues and Jewish graveyards have been vandalised in the past few years, mainly by young people acting under incitement. Political assassinations, the brutal beating of peaceful people, revolting excesses - these are all omens….
We Solemnly Proclaim We are not offended by the defamatory remarks of those who hate us. We have no bone to pick with them, just as we have nothing to do with lawbreakers among the Jews. We do not wish to be responsible for the crimes of individuals, just as we are not holding you responsible for the malfeasance of individuals among your ranks. We hereby express our protest against the ploy in which evildoers assume the right to desecrate and distort everything holy to us.
We Ask You Must sacred devotion to the German people and Fatherland always be intertwined with malicious, disgraceful anti-Semitism? Why do you [let them] pollute your unsullied aspirations with defamation, lies, outright and covert jealousy, crudity, and violence? Down with the lies! Down with the indignity of hatred! Cleanse public life of ignominy! Stand up against the agents of incitement and hatred! Their shameless lies and threats will drag Germany back to barbarism and subject it to the disgust and contempt of the entire world.
The Jews of Germany Wish to Act in Concert with All Germans For labour and constructive action, For justice and freedom, For peace among the entire German people! The Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith (CV), Hamburg Branch
