"Thus, I shall ask an intelligent audience composed of intelligent Christians and intelligent Jews: 'Why is there persecution in Germany today? How can we destroy it?' "

Before attempting to answer these questions, permit me to review for the uninformed members of this audience the chief incidents immediately preceding the latest manifestation of persecution suffered by thousands of innocent Jews, natives of Germany; a persecution which, fortunately for all, has recieved a superabundance of publicity both at home and abroad.

A few days ago, a young Polish Jew fired a shot that was heard around the world. Because his Polish-Jewish parents were dismissed from Germany by an order issued by the Nazi government, expelling all foreign-born Jews from the reich, this frenzied youth murdered a German public official in Paris.

Reprisals for this imprudent act were rapid on the part of the Hitler government- peculiar reprisals. Instead of demanding an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, the German government levided a fine of approximately $400-million against the 600,000 German-Jews resident in Germany.

Following this, the American newspapers were aglow with headlines. Our public officials were loud in their denunciations....

To be effectual in our discussion which is not content merely with offering sympathy for the innocent German-Jews; which is not satisfied with registering protests against the German government- to be effectual in our discussion, which aims at unveiling the cause of persecution and then, at destroying it, it is necessary to record the following facts.

...while it is true that foreign citizen Jews resident in Germany were disparaged and expelled, it is likewise true that many social impediments were placed in the pathway of Catholics and Protestants by the Nazi government- impediments which are revolting to our American concepts of liberty. But despite all this, official Germany has not yet resorted to the guillotine, to the machine gun, to the kerosene-drenched pit as instruments of reprisal against Jew or gentile.

[pg 20] "...In all countries Jews are the minority. They have no nation of their own; they have no flag. "The World Almanac" states that there are only 15-million Jews in all the world and only 4-million resident in North America. Certainly they are in the minority- but a closely woven minority in their racial tendencies; a powerful minority in their influence; a minority endowed with an aggressiveness, an initiative which, despite all obstacles, has carried their sons in the pinnacle of success in journalism, in radio, in finance and in all the sciences and arts.

....The Jew has challenged the Christian for his sympathy and cooperation. In turn the Christian challenges the Jew for this. Thus, in a spirit of mutual cooperation; in a scientific spirit of coldly facing causes in order to remove effects, let us pause to inquire why Nazism is so hostile to Jewry in particular and how the Nazi policy of presecution can be liquidated.

It is the belief, be it well or ill founded, of the present German government, not mine, that Jews- not as religionists but as nationals only- were responsible for the economic and social ills sufferred by the fatherland since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

Imbued with this idea, be it right or wrong- an idea that spread rapidly, particularly since 1923 when Communism was beginning to make substancial advances throughout Germany- a group of rebel Germans under the leadership of an Austrian-born war veteran- Adolph Hitler by name- organized for two purposes. First, to overthrow the existing German government under whose jurisdiction Communism was waxing strong and second, to rid the Fatherland of Communists whose leaders, unfortunately, they identified with the Jewish race.

Were there facts to substanciate this belief in the minds of the Nazi party, I ask?

Official information emanating from Russia itself informed the world that Communism, while barbarously opposed to every form of Christianity, made it a crime for any comrade to utter a single word of reproach against Jews.

...More than that, the 1917 list of those who, with Lenin, ruled many of the activities of the Soviet Republic, disclosed that of the 25 quasi-cabinent members, 24 of them were athiestic Jews, whose names I have before me.....[Pg 21] Be it emphasized that these Jews were not religious Jews. They were the haters of God, the haters of religion. Throughout Germany, antipathy towards all Jews, however, grew rapidly. It was increased year by year- and particularly in 1935 when the official disclosure made manifest that the central committee of the Communist Party, operating in Russia, consisted of 59 members, among whom were 56 Jews; and that the three remaining non-Jews were married to Jewesses.

I speak these words, certainly holding no brief for Germany or for Naziism. Simply as a student of history, I am endeavoring to analyze the reason for the growth of the idea in the minds of the Nazi Party that Communism and Judaism are too closely interwoven for the national health of Germany.

Nor do I speak these words to defend the athiestic, international Jews and gentiles throughout the world who follow the footsteps of Lenin and advocate the principles of Marx. I do ask, however, an insane world to distinguish between the innocent Jew and the guilty Jew as much as I would ask the same insane world to distinguish between the innocent gentile and the guilty gentile.

Believe me, my friends, it is in all charity that I speak these words as I seek to discover the causes that produced the effect known as Naziism- Naziism which was evoked to act as a defense mechanism against the incursions of Communism.

Let us not forget the object of this discussion. My purpose is to contribute a worthwhile suggestion to eradicate from this world its mania for persecution.

...I ask you: Should not all good men- Jew and gentile, Catholic and protestant, Christian and non-Christian- coordinate their forces to restore sanity, peace, and justice to an era which for its ferocity, its barbarism and its hatred has outstripped the Diocletians, the Neros and Torquemadas of old?

....Persecution is an injustice wherever it exists. Today's persecution was born from the loins of yesterday's persecution. Thus, if Naziism, a persecutor of Jew and Catholic and Protestant, is a defense mechanism against Communism, be assured that Communism, another persecutor, was a defense mechanism against the greed of the money changers, who persecuted and pilloried the teeming populations of Europe.

[pg 22] "...Thus, one persecution begets another as one injustice evolves into another. The inevitability of cause and effect will pursue its course to its logical destiny of chaos as one injustice continues to reproduce a worse injustice. It is our concern, therefore, to destroy the cause in order to prevent a succession of disastrous effects. To abolish persecution, let us destroy hatred. To eliminate hatred, let us establish justice- justice for all without exception. Any other approach to our problem is unscientific. And, may I add, there can be no justice without God; there can be no God without love- love for Him and for our fellow-men whom He fashioned according to His image and likeness.

Therefore, I say to the good Jews of America, be not indulgent with the irreligious, atheistic Jews and gentiles who promote the cause of persecution in the land of the Commnists; the same ones who promote the cause of atheism in america. Yes, not be lenient with your high financiers and politicians who assisted at the birth of the only political, social and economic system in all civilization that adopted atheism as its religion, internationalsm as its patriotism, and slavery as its liberty.

Our President recently said: "Such news from any part of the world"- speaking of the persecution of the Jews in Germany- "Such news would inevitably produce a similar profound reaction among American people in every part of the nation." Alas! the news of Christian persecution came to our shores. Alas! the press and the radio were almost silent. Alas! this present government made friends of these murderers by recognizing their flag! Those were the days when there was silence in the press; days when there was silence on the radio because opposition to communism was a "controversial" subject. Turn the pages of history to recent years when the disciples of the Communists, atheists, internationalists, and anti-Christians obtruded their philosophy into Mexico. Although the Christian world stood aghast while hundreds of millions of dollars of property, including ecclesiastical institutions, were confiscated,there was no condemnation officially utterred against a Cardenas, there was no recall of the Ambassador Josephus Daniels, there was no national protest on that occasion, there was no invitation extended to the persecuted Christians of Mexico to seek refuge in our land."

[Note: I have written extensively on the topic of the Cristero War, Catholic prosecution in Mexico, which Fr. Coughlin refers to:

• Historical details reemerge: U.S. Government supplied 10 Million rounds of ammo, 10,000 Enfield Rifles, military planes & tanks to Slaughter tens of thousands of Catholic Freedom Fighters 10/17/13
• When the U.S. government supplied ammo & military planes to kill thousands of Catholics 9/18/13
• U.S. Senate Testimony On the Cristero War April 29, 1920.]