Hitler becomes Chancellor; the JC hopes for the best
Grave outlook for German Jewry: Hitler becomes chancellor
● On Saturday morning, General von Schleicher, the German Chancellor sought a guarantee from President von Hindenburg that in the event of unworkable Parliamentary opposition he would dissolve the Reichstag and support a Presidential Government. This request the President refused and the Chancellor immediately handed in his resignation and that of the entire Cabinet. On Sunday, the President summoned Hitler and asked him to form a Government; with himself as Chancellor… Hitler accepted the offer and today presented his list of Cabinet appointments… Things are considerably more quiet in Berlin and in German provincial centres than might have been expected, following on the sudden access to power of the Nazls. The anxiety of the Jews in Berlin is somewhat abated, because the Hitlerists who are dominating the swastika beflagged streets, are comparatively quiet. Some minor, anti-Semitic incidents have happened. Firstly, the windows of a Jewish book shop have been smashed; secondly, at one Berlin station the Jewish passengers were threatened with being thrown from the trains; thirdly, a Jewish funeral was molested; fourthly this morning there were Nazl students’ demonstrations before the University and at the Bourse antiSemitic speeches were delivered against Jewish capital, with Nazis crying “Robbers,” “Plunderers”and “Down with the Jews” . Still, in a city of four million these are but are but isolated cases and there is no question of organised excesses as was at first feared.
Hitler’s victory
Thanks to Hindenberg’s desire for a Government based on a Parliamentary majority, rather than to any sudden accession of strength to the Nazi forces since their check in th Reichstag elections last November, Herr Hitler has achieved his ambition and is today Chancellor of the German Reich…he is there, and it would be idle to minimise its gravity. On the contrary, it is full of menace alike for the internal peace and constitutional stability of Germany, for the course of her international relationships and, we say it with profound regret, for the security and the lights of her Jewish citizens. On a calm review there are, indeed, factors in the situation which do not suggest a tragic finality…Perhaps the most solid hope that still remains is that the Nazi chiefs might acquire in office that sense of responsibility which they could not feel when wooing the passions of the rabble.