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Mr. J. Glenn Gray, in his letter in the July COMMENTARY on my article “Our New German Policy and the DP's,” accuses me of lack of objectivity. I believe I can demonstrate that the lack of objectivity is his.

He hangs his case on the “conclusion to be drawn from reading the article—that all Germans have a bestial hatred of Jews.” I have carefully reread my article and nowhere find that emotion attributed to all the Germans. In a brief review of national attitudes, a writer is circumscribed by the practical necessity to give top priority to analysis of dominant tendencies. In that case, the discerning reader would not infer that there are no other tendencies whatsoever.

As evidence of endemic, predominant anti-Semitic tendencies in the great majority of the German population my article cited these two facts:

1. The report of Dr. Philipp Auerbach, Bavarian State Commissioner for Victims of Political and Racial Persecution, detailed hundreds of mass manifestations of violent anti-Semitism.
2. A US Military Government public-opinion poll found that 61 per cent of the German population admitted anti-Semitic predispositions. A more elaborate report, completed in 1947, revealed that less than two Germans out of ten can be relied upon to resist overt actions against the Jews. Taking into consideration the well known phenomenon of “concealment of guilt,” it is a conservative estimate that more than 80 per cent of the adult Germans are still unreconstructed anti-Semites.

After the completion of my article there appeared a report of the International Committee of European Studies (Lord Vansittart, Edouard Herriot), the studies of Richard Hanser and Miles Bouton in the American Mercury, and others. The conclusions of these studies were even more drastic than mine.

The US Military Government published a report recently (New York Times, July 13) that 76 per cent of the State Prosecutors and 60 per cent of the judges in Bavaria were members of the Nazi Party. The Bavarian government has announced the appointment of four former Nazis to the newly organized Supreme Court of Bavaria. The Ministry of Justice has announced the promotion of a former Nazi to the position of the Chief Prosecutor in Wuerzburg. The return of former Nazis to economic and political positions has reached a point where legislation has had to be introduced to protect the non-Nazis.

In the face of these indisputable facts, Mr. Gray denies that “such feelings are, or were, common to the whole population or even to a majority.” Here are the facts he offers in rebuttal:

1. “I know personally several (Jews in Military Government) who have won considerable affection among the German population.” I may be mistaken, but I think I detect a variation of the “some of my best friends . . .” theme in this piece of anecdotal evidence.
2. “The number of Jewish service men who have applied for permission to marry German girls . . .” The manner in which this statement is made would lead one to infer thousands of such cases. To the best of my knowledge the term “isolated few” would be more accurate. In any case, what this proves beyond the fact that some German girls are smarter than some Jewish boys, escapes me.
3. “Every defendant Nazi can produce at least one letter from a Jewish refugee testifying that the Nazi has proved a friend in need during the persecution.” The reduction ad absurdum, therefore, would be that all Nazis befriended Jews and that the murder of six million Jews was carried out by some enigmatic celestial bodies.

And last but not least: I wrote in my article that the culprits and war criminals were neither reported by the German population nor identified by the German authorities. Mr. Gray cannot really refute this by mentioning the fact that American authorities searched out the war criminals.

I leave the reader to weigh the evidence on the prevalence of anti-Semitism among the Germans.

But Mr. Gray has also taken exception to my “bitterness” in attributing a “bestial” quality to German hatred of Jews.

There is a little German town, Kleinmachnow, in the Soviet zone near Berlin. Some time ago the mayor of the city and the chief of the food office were in a local cafe with two friends, one a former SS man and the other a former Nazi party member. At a nearby table was a Jewish DP named Misha Czucker. The two officials began blurting out anti-Semitic abuse and finally threw Czucker out of the cafe. Czucker preferred charges but the German court acquitted the officials on a legal technicality. A few weeks later Czucker's headless body was found in a forest.

Perhaps “bestial” is not the appropriate adjective. Maybe somewhere in the lexicon of the human tongues there is a more apt word to do justice to a hatred that could bum to ash, bury alive, and tear asunder six million children, women, and men . . . . If a more suitable word were found, I would be prompt in replacing the criticized adjective.

Samuel Gringauz
New York City

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