In this connection it may be interesting for the Department to know that a few days ago I had a conversation in the Ministry of the Interior of the Reich with the Ministerialdirektor Dr. Buttsman, whom I had gone to see with regard to an American physician in Germany, and he insisted on talking on the Jewish question. He told me the usual defence, which is made in various Ministries and in the press and which we hear constantly from all sides, and stressed particularly that in solving the Jewish problem Germany was doing a service for our country and for the rest of the world as well. He said that in carrying through the various laws affecting Jewish professors and professional men, it had been endeavored to avoid all hardships, and that in applying the numerus clausus the German government was following the only possible course. I told him that I did not want to discuss the Jewish question but that since he had raised the matter I should be interested in knowing how many Jewish professors there were left under the numerus clausus in the University of Berlin. He then gave me the impression that very few of the professors has been disturbed, and when I told him that so far I could learn only one was left, if he were still there, he had nothing to say. I then asked him how many Jewish professors were left in the University of Leipzig and he said that most of them were undisturbed. When I brought to his attention that five had been let out one at a time less than two weeks ago and that I understood no non-Aryan professor was left in Leipzig, he had nothing to say. I merely mention this to indicate that there is a remarkable insincerity which one finds in high-ranking officers of the Government. As Dr. Buttsman is apparently one of the high-ranking officers of the Government to whom American and foreign professors are directed for information when they come to Germany, it is quite possible to understand why some of the professional men who come to Germany leave it with such an incorrect picture of the situation.
The position of the Jewish physicians in Germany is becoming more difficult continually. They have been excluded from the physicians’ organizations in which membership is a necessity if the physician is to enjoy any of the ordinary privileges of his career. They are excluded from the hospitals and clinics, except from those which are Jewish. They are for the most part not permitted to treat patients belonging to the various insurance organizations, public and private, unless they be purely Jewish organizations. The only exceptions in this connection which have been made are those in favor of Jewish physicians who served at the front during the war. Such war service, however, is no guarantee of privilege. I transmit herewith two clippings taken from a newspaper in Nuremberg. In the first clipping are given the names of eleven Jewish physicians in Nuremberg who have been re-admitted to practice with the sick benefit insurance organizations in the city; but the newspaper, in order to show its readers its regret that this official re-admission to practice has taken place, surrounds the item with a black border. The second clipping is from the same newspaper of the following day and refers to the previous article. The head of the Physicians’ organization in Nuremberg, Dr. Strock, publishes the same list of eleven physicians and says that this publication of their re-admission was made without his knowledge and consent. He goes on to warn all people not to in any way consult or use these physicians in spite of the fact that they have been re-admitted. The “Vossiche Zeitung” of August 24 carries an article to the effect that the new “Academy of Physicians” has been established and that no physician of non-Aryan origin is to be admitted to the Academy.
The situation of the Jewish lawyers in Germany has in no sense become better. A general depression prevails among the majority of lawyers who have been re-admitted. Dr. Max Alsberg, one of the most distinguished lawyers at the Berlin Bar and who was only 56 years of age, committed suicide in a sanatorium in the Engadin some days ago. The “Berliner Tageblatt” of September 13 carries an article of considerable length, commenting on Dr. Alsberg’s professional reputation, stating that he died of a heart attack from which he had suffered for some time. I am informed from a reliable source that Dr. Alsberg took his own life as a result of the depression from which he was suffering.
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