The Washington times., 1937-01-28
CAMPS HOLD
THOUSANDS OF
NAzI FOES

Anti-SemitiSm in Ndzi Ger
many and the problems of the
Protestant and Catholic
churches under the third Reich
are described in the folloWing
article, third of series reUeGL.
ING the UGSt changes Which
Chancellor Adolf Hitler has
wrought during his four years
OF supreme potDer. Saturday
marks the fourth anniversary
OF his taking oUer the German
government.
BY PIERRE ]. HUSS
(Copyright. 1887, by International
News Service)
BERLIN, Jan. 27 U.NSO
Ruthless suppression Of German
Jewry, bitter quarrels with the
Catholic and Protestant churches,
and an uncompromising struggle
for control of youth deeply an
tagonized world opinion against
Adolf Hitler in the first four
years Of his rule.
Vituperation against Hitler and
the Nazis and retaliation by
them in kind scared these years,
intensifying the determination of
the Nazis to have their own
way in Germany in spite of the
world.
Dissenting political and reli-
giouS believers soon filled vast CON
centration camps that came with
the Nazi rule in Germany. The
secret political police known as
Gestapo and commanded by Helm
rich Himmler ferreted out thou
sands of candidates for these
camps. A good many we're caught
through the membership lists Of
previous Communist organizations
and hundreds of others were con-
fined with hardly a hearing mere
ly upon the denunciation of some
private or party foe.
Thousands Still Held
A political amnesty granted on
Hitler's birthday last year COM
muted or curtailed the sentences
of some 100000 political offenders
throughout the Third Reich. Thou
sands still are within the guarded
camps, serving time for Com
munist affiliations, for slandering
Hitler, or for failure to get in step
with Nazi commands.
Pitiable indeed became the lot
of the German Jew under Hitler's
regime, for he became officially an
outcaSt, a Second-claSS citizen de-
prived of ordinary civil rights and
privileges. The first three years of
Hitler rule were marked by periods
of physical violence against Jews.
Then in September, 1885, during
the annual Nazi party congress at
Nuremberg, the Reichstag was
summoned and laws drastically
shackling German Jews were
adopted in outline. The end is not
yet in sight.
These anti-Semitic laws, forbid.
ding German Jews such ordinary
citizens rights as voting, holding
of public office, and marriage
with non-Jews, had one small ad-
vantage in that they outlaWed
physical violence and individual
initiative in depriving Jews Of
their rights.
Conflict With Church
But stringent economic reellla-
tions, sub rosa pressure to oust
them from commercial and indus
trial fields, and exclusion by law
from all ordinary phases of social
and public life through sharp de-
lineations, of "Aryan" and mon
Aryan," have rendered life increaS-
ingly more miserable and unbear-
able for Jews of the Third Reich.
The churches, both Catholic and
Protestant, locked horns from the
beginning with Hitler and Nazi ex-
tremiStS such as Rosenberg and
Won Schirach, and the din of battle
has not yet diminished. Efforts to
whip the Evangelical church into
one solid body coached by Nazi
preferences hit the rocks of the
opposition of strong groups by re-
doubtable independents.
At present, Nazis charged with
the job of bringing the church into
line must confess failure. The
stronger the efforts at coercion, the
stiffer grows the resistance.
Na%&oo Hoode