27 October 1933 On 27 October 1933, a large crowd of Arab protesters assembled in Jaffa’s central square. They were outraged at injustices committed by a British run administration, which refused to listen to the wishes of the Arab Palestinians who still numbered over three quarters of the country’s population. In particular, they were angry…
28 July 1933 On 28 July 1933, six months after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, the Cabinet decided against implementing any regulations on the sales of British aircraft or advanced aero engines to Germany. The only qualification was that, if, at any time, other countries were prepared to insist on a ‘written assurance from the German…
31 May 1933 On 31 May 1933, Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking in the House of Lords, agreed that it was right to be concerned at the ‘the oppression of members of the Jewish race’ in Germany. However, he reminded peers that Britain also had to understand the situation from the anti-Semitic…
29 March 1933 On Thursday 29 March 1933, Lord Hailsham, speaking in the House of Lords as Secretary of State for War, argued that any official representation made on behalf of Jews in Nazi Germany would be ‘an unwarrantable interference,’ declaring ‘I think it would be only right that I should say at once that…
25 March 1933 Hitler had been in power for less than two months when the British press was already attempting to downplay the crimes of the Nazi regime. On 25 March 1933, the Daily Express ran with the misleading headline ‘Jews Deny Persecution by Nazis – Reward for Proof of Murders,’ which cited statements from two conservative…
24 March 1933 On 24 March 1933, the Daily Express reinforced anti-Semitic prejudice with a front page splash portraying Jews as an all powerful bourgeois plutocracy. Under the headline ‘Judea Declares War on Germany,’ it reported on the decision of some Jews to boycott German products in reaction to the murderous Nazi persecution. Both the headline and…
1 March 1933 The burning down of the German Reichstag (parliament) on the night of 27 February 1933 was blamed on ‘red terror.’ The arson may well have been instigated by the Nazis, but the incident gave Hitler the opportunity he hungered for to eliminate the communists, socialists, trade unionists and all effective opposition that…
27 February 1933 On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag ( the German parliament ) was set alight. Even today we still do not know for sure who was responsible. Neither German socialists nor communists had ever resorted to such an act of terrorism previously. It was also obvious that, whoever might have been the incendiary,…
THE DAILY EXPRESS PRAISES THE PURITANISM OF NAZI BERLIN AND ITS SMART STORM TROOPERS [ 25 August 1933 ] On 25 August 1933, Selkirk Panton, the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Express, commended Adolf Hitler for cleansing Berlin of its gay community and other decadent elements. He had ended the ‘dull despair of a spineless city,’ adding…
BRITAIN REBUKED OVER LEGITIMATING CHILD MARRIAGE IN PALESTINE [ 27 June 1933 ] On 27 June 1933, the League of Nations Mandates Commission questioned A. M. Young, the Chief Secretary of the government of Palestine, on the the British reluctance to tackle the issue of child marriage in Palestine. Ten years earlier, the country had…
