JEWS OF GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1938, Page 8

JEWS OF GERMANY

FIGURES REVEAL DECLINE. A report that has been issued on the developments within the Jewish . community in Germany contains some , striking figures showing its steady decline, says the “Manchester Guardian.” From June, 1933, until the end of 1936 the Jewish population declined from 499,000 to 392,000, a loss of 107,000. The total decline from the beginning of the Hitler regime until the present day is. of course, much larger, as several thousand emigrated before June, 1933, and nearly 4000 emigrated in the first six months of this year. The result of this exodus is that many small Jewish communities have died out or are on the point of doing so. During the first six months of this year three communities in Baden were dissolved, and the synagogues in three other towns were sold. At present the Prussian Union of Jewish Communities is negotiating with more than a hundred communities regarding the sale and disposal of their synagogues. Apart from emigration abroad, there has also been a considerable internal migration—from small towns, where life for the Jews became impossible, to the larger cities. Of the total Jewish population, over 10 per cent are unemployed and over 20 per cent are in receipt of relief. Those formerly engaged in the liberal professions, have been particularly badly hit. The Jewish book trade has been one of the latest to come under the scourge of the Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment. Of two hundred Jewish booksellers only sixty have survived, and these now find it increasingly difficult to carry on. ,