confiscated, the people could either believe that or believe nothing. The foreigners, of course,
laughed; they knew that they weren't awed, and the mass meetings and distribution of boycott
leaflets went on. But the Nazi leaders chose to declare otherwise, and next day there was a
washing of windows throughout Germany, and "business as usual" became the motto for both
Aryans and non-Aryans.
IX
There were curious outgrowths of this anti-Semitic frenzy. An "Association of German
National Jews" was formed, and issued a manifesto saying that the Jews were being fairly
treated and there was no truth in the stories of atrocities; some leading Jews signed this, and
the name of Johannes Robin was among them. Perhaps he really believed it, who could say?
He had to read German newspapers, like everybody else; those foreign papers which reported
the atrocities were banned. Perhaps he considered that the outside boycotts would really do
more harm than good, and that the six hundred thousand native Jews in the Fatherland were
not in position to offer resistance to a hundred times as many Germans. The Jews had
survived through the centuries by bending like the willow instead of standing like the oak.
Johannes didn't mention the subject in his letters, either signed or unsigned. Was he a little
ashamed of what he did?
It seemed to an American that a man could hardly be happy living under such conditions.
Lanny wrote a carefully guarded letter to the effect that Hansi was giving important concerts
and Irma various social events; they would be delighted to have the family present. Johannes
replied that some business matters kept him from leaving just now; he bade them not to worry
about the new decrees forbidding anyone to leave Germany without special passports, for he
could get them for himself and family whenever he wished. He added that Germany was their
home and they all loved the German people. That was the right sort of letter for a Jew, and
maybe the statements were true, with a few qualifications.
The Nazis had learned a lesson from the boycott, even though they would never admit it. The
brass band stage of persecution was at an end, and they set to work to achieve their purpose
quietly. The weeding out of Jews, and of those married to Jews, went on rapidly. No Jew could
teach in any school or university in Germany; no Jewish lawyer could practice; no Jew could
hold any official post, down to the smallest clerkship. This meant tens of thousands of
positions for the rank and file Nazis, and was a way of keeping promises to them, much easier
than socializing industry or breaking up the great landed estates.
The unemployed intellectuals found work carrying on genealogical researches for the
millions of persons who desired to establish their ancestry. An extraordinary development—
there were persons who had an Aryan mother and a Jewish father, or an Aryan grandmother
and a Jewish grandfather, who instituted researches as to the morals of their female ancestors,
and established themselves as Aryans by proving themselves to be bastards! Before long the
Nazis discovered that there were some Jews who were useful, so there was officially
established a caste of "honorary Aryans." Truly it seemed that a great people had gone mad;
but it is a fact well known to alienists that you cannot convince a madman of his own
condition, and only make him madder by trying.
By one means or another it was conveyed to leading Jews that they had better resign from
directorships of corporations, and from executive positions which were desired by the nephews
or cousins of some Nazi official. Frequently the methods used were such that the Jew
committed suicide; and while these events were not reported in the press, word about them
spread by underground channels. That was the way with the terror; people disappeared, and
rumors started, and sometimes the rumors became worse than the reality. Old prisons and
state institutions, old army barracks which had stood empty since the Versailles treaty, were
turned into concentration camps and rapidly filled with men and women; motor trucks
brought new loads daily, until the total came near to a hundred thousand.
Lanny wrote again to say what a mistake his friends were making not to come and witness
Hansi's musical and Irma's social triumphs. This time Johannes's reply was that his business
cares were beginning to wear on him, and that his physicians advised a sea trip. He was
getting the Bessie Budd ready for another cruise, this time a real one; he wanted Hansi and
Bess to meet him at one of the northern French ports, and he hoped that the Budds would
come along— the whole family, Lanny and Irma, Mr. and Mrs. Dingle, Marceline and Baby
Frances, with as many governesses and nurses as they pleased. As before, the cruise would be
to whatever part of the world the Budd family preferred; Johannes suggested crossing the
Atlantic again and visiting Newcastle and Long Island; then, in the autumn, they might go
