The position of the German Jews, As seen by Alfred Wiener, of the Leadership of the Centralverein

Description by Alfred Wiener, of the leadership of the Centralverein of the position of Jews in Germany:*

Between Heaven and Earth

...The great majority of German Jews remains firmly rooted in the soil of its German homeland, despite everything. There may be some who have been shaken in their feeling for the German Fatherland by the weight of recent events. They will overcome the shock, and if they do not overcome it then the roots which bound them to the German mother earth were never sufficiently strong. But according to the ruling of the laws and regulations directed against us only the "Aryans" now belong to the German people. What are we, then? Before the Law we are non-Germans without equal rights; to ourselves we are Germans with full rights. We reject it, to be a folk or national minority, perhaps like the Germans in Poland or the Poles in Germany, because we cannot deceive our own innermost [feelings]. We wish to be subject as Germans with equal rights to the new Government and not to some other creation, whether it is called League of Nations or anything else. As far as we are concerned that also closes the question of Geneva,** which at present occupies Jewish people everywhere.

Thus we are suspended between heaven and earth. We will have to fight with courage and strength in order to get back to earth, in the eyes of State and Law too...

Source: C.V.-Zeitung, No. 22, June 1, 1933.

* Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger judischen Glaubens – Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, commonly abbreviated as C.V.
** The reference is to the League of Nations, where Bernheim's Petition concerning the rights of the Jewish minority in Upper Silesia was discussed on the application of the Comite des Delegations Juives.

Source: Yad Vashem