Storm Troopers Attack Jews 1938

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 16, 1938

Storm Troopers Drive Jews From Berlin Movies, Cafes

BERLIN, June 15 (U.P.) – Nazi Storm Troopers participated for the first time tonight in the renewed German anti-Semitic activity when they entered two theatres along the Kurfuerstendamm, in Berlin’s west end, and ordered all Jews in the audience to leave.

The uniformed Storm Troopers directed the manager of the motion picture houses to switch on the auditorium lights and then ordered any Jews to leave immediately.

Flying squads of police at the same time raided one of the most popular cafes frequented by Jews, at the corner of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Square along the Kurfuerstendamm, and arrested several Jews. The police raided another cafe around the corner a short time later.

Many Seek To Flee

German Jews, meanwhile, besieged the American and British consulates, seeking escape from the country, as reports spread of 1000 or more arrests in one of the most intense anti-Jewish drives since the “April Fool’s Day” purge of 1933.

The reasons underlying the new anti-Semitic wave were obscure, but Nazi officials did not deny that activities against Jews in Berlin and the provinces had been intensified and that arrests were being made. One high Nazi Party leader said the Jews had brought the renewal of the activities upon themselves by opposing Field Marshal Hermann Wilhelm Goering’s recent decree designed to take German business affairs out of their hands.

Informed quarters said the Government intended to “Aryanize” all Jewish-owned stores and shops in Germany by the end of July.

This program, if carried out, was expected by many observers to be the decisive phase of the Nazi-Jewish problem in Germany.

The new campaign extended, however, not only to stores and shops but to schools and other categories of Jewish life, and in many respects closely followed the recent Jewish “purge” in Austria..

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Britain Warns Nazis: LONDON, June 15 (U.P.) – Great Britain has warned Germany against either confiscating the personal property of or arresting British Jews under Field Marshall Hermann W. Goering’s April 26 decree “Aryanizing” business, it was revealed tonight.

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