DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE end The Legal Chronicle,

2

February 12, 19

other Jewish friend with whom the other important, in fact sl
I had collaborated for the publi- more significant element that cc
cation of works of Ibsen and stitutes the national minority: t
By HALVDAN KOHT
Bjornson. Incidentally, German language. That is the distincti
4
Jews were really leading in in- trait of nationality, the possessi
EDITOR'S NOTE: Prof. Halvdan Koht, former Foreign Minister of
troducing Nordic authors into the of a language of its own. If
Norway and president of the Norwegian Academy of Science,
literature and the theatres of Ger- wil maintain its existence, it mi
was the guest speaker at the recent meeting of the Yiddish
many; they were very badly maintain its language. In this
Scientific Institute. This is a condensation of his significant
thanked for it. When the Nazis gard there is a manifest dill(
Every shipyard in our country is began their pogroms of the Jews, cnce between the Jews of Weste
address.
,setting amazing records in the con- and this lady, a highly intelligent Europe who mostly have abr
not
be
organized
as
new
inde-
I shall speak to you about
struction of a merchant marine so and cultivated woman, had to cloned their particular langua
what we use to call the prob- pendent nations.
essential to the transport of supplies flee from Germany, she said to and nationality, and the Jews I
How difficult these problems and men to the seven seas. The me that she felt completely up- ing in or emigrated from Easte
lems of national minorities, and
it is inevitable that in doing so were was most particularly illus- overall cost of these hundreds of rooted. For three centuries her Europe who have kept up a lr
I shall have to touch on the trated by the history of Austria. ships now building runs into mil- ancestors had lived in Germany guage of their own. The lat
and had identified themselves with have a right to claim the sai
Jewish problem. When I do it, The Austrian constitution of 1867 lions of dollars.
the German nation and civiliza- rights for their language as ott
however, I am very well con- seemed to offer all nationalities
within
the
Empire
a
complete
tion; she had no other nation, national minorities. Obvious
scious of the difference between
and being exiled at her age, she that cannot be the matter of so
this problem and many others equality, assuring them of their
would not be able to strike roots ly individual efforts, it demar
that are ranged in the same inviolable rights to maintain and
in any new nation, even settling for group action and collecti
class. Indeed, if you earnestly cultivate their particular life and
down with friends in Norway. rights. In this field the school
will go into the study of all these language (I quote the very words
Hers was a sad fate, and I sup- the chief instrument of defer
problems, you cannot but be of the constitution). Nevertheless,
pose she was not alone in feeling and progress, and no governan
struck by the observation how the monarchy was steadily filled
can be said to give justice to
that way.
tl:ey are complicated and varie- with conflicts of an almost inde-
scribable
bitterness
which
finally
i
national minority unless it
gated, and you will be forced to
No doubt in all Western Eu- granted
led
to
the
very
destruction
of
the
full freedom, accordi
conclude that they cannot all be
rope
the
Jewish
question
would
Empire.
fixed rules, to organize instil
solved uniformly.
be essentially liquidated by grant- to
Meanwhile, ever more, the situ-
rights tion in its own language in scho
When, some hundred and twen- ation
ing
to
the
Jews
all
civil
of the national minorities
and liberties in full equality with subventioned by public means
ty years ago, the universal atten- became a question that troubled
There are other aspects of I
other citizens. In saying so, I
tion of peoples and governments
•
ct
take no standpoint to Zionism; I language question,—the use of 1
was drawn to national problems the whole world. They were filled
with aspirations of many kinds,
Many of them are called "Victo- have no objection to the Jews minority language in courts,
through the rebellion of the political
as well as cultural, and ry" ships and you are contributing seeking a home in their old legal documents, in legislation,
Greeks and other national min- such aspirations
tended to foster
orities within the Turkish Em- conflicts within nations and be- to this victory by your purchase of country. But evidently it would public announcements. Anyhr
least ten per- be an impracticable task to gath- what I have said will suffice
pire, it appeared to be a very tween nations. It became increas- War Bonds . . . at
payday. er all Jews from all parts of the make it quite clear that the clai
simple solution to confer com- ingly evident that the security cent of your income, every
plete political independence upon of universal peace made a general We'll need these ships after the war, world in small Palestine. Even of national minorities necessar
after the terrible slaughtering of will embrace two distinct etas
each one of the rebellious groups. agreement upon how to meet this •too, when Peace comes.
them in Germany and Poland of rights,—the individual ci
U. S. Treasury Department
After a while, however, it turned danger ever more urgent.
there will be too many millions rights and the group rights.
out that there were minorities
Then, during the former war
If such a minority lives in
within the minorities, oppressed —that war that we for some universal peace. Amongst them of them left to make such a re-
particular district, separate fr
it different ways by the new years insisted upon calling the was a committee for national immig•ation possible.
The great hope of the Jews will other nationalities, it may e)
governments and creating ever last world war—, when people minorities of which I had the
new wars or dangers of war on earnestly began to discuss how honor to be elected president. I be the advance and the final vic- feel entitled to a more or I
the whole Balkan Peninsula. In to organize international rela- based myself upon what was tory of democracy and freedom developed political autonomy. TI
the Berlin Conference of 1878, tions so as to establish a durable attained in law and practice by throughout the world. Where true will be a matter that has to
the Great Powers made a serious peace, the problem of national previous efforts, in particular the democracy reigns, there is no judged on its merits in each p
attempt to allay the hatreds and minorities was taken up on an Berlin treaties of 1878 and Au- Jewish question, I may adduce ticular case. In all cases, In
hostilities that resulted from such international basis as an indis- strian legislation, and in 1917 my own country as a positive in- ever, the great principle of
mocracy will be the fundamen
interior dissidences by imposing pensable part of a general peace I was able to present a draft of a stance.
When the Norwegian nation, rule for solving the minor
upon the newly-established na- program.
general international treaty that
That is the only r
tions the duty of religious toler-
Some people objected to the in- defined and circumscribed the in 1814, constituted herself as a questions.
that
is
able
to secure justice r
free
democracy,
she
took
over
as
rights
of
national
minorities
with-
ation.
clusion of this question in the
give
satisfaction
to all pool
an
inheritance
from
the
past
the
in
the
existing
States.
I
must
The treaties made for this pur- range of truly international prob-
At this moment I know of
pose are memorable in the his- lems, asserting that the situation mention that an Austrian scholar prohibition of Jews entering the
tory of national ideas as the first of the minorities was a matter of international law, Professor country. But very soon it was more than two nations wh
nationalities included in
measures attacking the problems only regarding interior policies Rudolf Laun, now living in the felt that this provision was con- the
same
body politic are granted
trary
to
the
spirit
of
freedom,
United
States,
gave
valuable
as-
and
that,
in
fact,
it
could
not
of national minorities as inter-
rights which they may r
national problems. They took, disturb the international peace. sistance in formulating the ar- and the effort to strike it out of the
claim. These are Swit2
however, a definitely limited view They forgot that the very world ticles of the draft. I think it was the constitution was taken up by sonably
greatest national leader, land and the Soviet-Union, b
of the questions involved in keep- war they were passing through the first attempt to bring the our
of them constituted on a fed
ing exclusively to the religious was started by a gun fired by a rights of national minorities into Henrik We•geland, a poet of the ative basis. In Switzerland, vi
genius, the champion of
aspect of them, and while, in representative of a discontented the shape of truly international highest
all the ideas that made for the its four officially acknowled
earlier treaties of a more particu- national minority. They forgot law.
greatness
of Norway during the languages, the establishment
the
whole
country
of
Balkan
Shortly
afterward
I
learned
lar character, only Christian dis-
century following. He devoted an legal equality was relatively e
wars.
They
forgot
the
history
of
that
another
international
com-
sidents had been promised pro-
important part of his life and because in only few of the twen
tection of their religious free- Austria and of Italy. They over- mittee had been working simul- work to the opening up of Nor- two autonomous cantons was m
dom, the Berlin treaties aimed at looked all the rebellions within taneously on the same problem. It way for the Jews; every child than one language spoken. In
securing equal rights to the Jews the belligerent nations, for in- was a committee appointed by in Norway has learnt in the school Soviet-Union, each one of
of Rumania. Thus, even the Jew- stance the Arab risings against Jewish organizations and, inde- to admire him for this struggle. many republics admits two
Turk domination.
pendent of my project, they had
ish problem was made an inter- the Nobody
would venture such ob- arrived at a draft treaty essen- His efforts succeeded in 1851. At three different languages, so t
national interest.
jections in the present war. It tially along the same lines. This that time, his short but brilliant the country presents a rich
Unf or t u nately, the Powers, has become much too manifest remarkable coincidence showed life had been terminated six years riety of nationalities free to
split as they were by all kinds what danger is contained in the how natural and how well founded ago. But even before the final and to cultivate their own I
of rivalries, did not take the existence of dissatisfied national the idea of such a treaty was.
adoption of the freedom for the gu a ges.
actions needed to achieve what minorities. The peacemakers after
Jews, a deputation of them had
Nobody can doubt that e
In
a
way
it
was
a
strange
fea-
they had put on paper as inter- the former war had attempted
been allowed to enter Norway in in these multilingual nations th
ture
that
such
drafts
should
ema-
national law. And then, the later a partial solution of this question
order to dedicate a monument on exists a consciousness of natio
development proved that the prob- and tried to create a machinery nate on the one side from Norway his grave. There it still stands unity strong enough to m
and
on
the
other
side
from
a
lems of national minorities were for solving further questions that
the chief cemetery of Oslo, every citizen to the highest t
committee. Neither of them in
not at all exhausted by rules re- might arise. But they were not Jewish
carrying the both tragic and rifices for the common fatl
was
directly
affected
by
minority
garding religious freedom. The broadminded enough to act on questions that might seem apt to glorious inscription: "Grateful land. You might even feel j
spirit of nationality came to de- general principles upon which a lead into international conflicts. Jews from out of the boundaries tified in asserting that just
of Norway erected this memorial
mand many other concessions and solid future could be built, and
of the opportunities gi
Norway had a language ques- to him." I have had no informa- cause
out of their work grew dissen-
rights.
to the development of differ
tion
that
might
divide
the
nation
All people who loved freedom sions and new conflicts, grasped along the same lines that in tion about the Nazi gangsters now tiation, the devotion to the slit
had been euthusiastic about the as pretexts of new wars by belli- other countries made different na- In power in Norway having ven- nation (if I may call it so) is
rising of the Greeks; philhellen- cose governments. The victorious tionalities oppose each other. tured to strike out this inscrip- more vivid and profound. Ind(
ism meant the awakening of lib- Allies might have done better if There, however, the nation was tion or tear down this Jewish the feeling that your country
eralism all over the world. Simi- they had had the courage and absolutely undivided. The split of monument. I know that such an lows you the satisfaction of
lar was the case with the rising the magnanimity to follow the languages resulted from the his- act would be felt by the whole your mental abilities is one of
of the Hungarians in 1848; this proposals elaborated by practical toric occurrence that once in the nation as a vile sacrilege. The vital conditions of self-cons(
persecutions of Jews at this mo- patriotism.
heroic fight inspired the ardent idealists during the war.
The international association time the upper classes had re- ment ordered in Norway we feel
admiration of the whole world.
The experience of Switzerl
ceived
the
Danish
language
for
But here again it soon became that was founded in 1915 under official and literary use, and now, profoundly shameful to our na- and the Soviet-Union offers
obvious that the establishment of the name of Central Organization with the advance of democracy tion and to all our best traditions. ready answer to the object
political independence, when it for a Durable Peace, had appoint- and popular education, the vern- Even under the Nazi tyranny, often heard against the free(
finally was obtained, immediately ed a series of special committees acular began to fight its way into the representatives of our people of national minorities,—the 1
evoked new national problems, for the study of all the questions literature and public use. The and our Church, have manfully that the free maintenance of tl
those of the minorities that could regarding the establishment of rivalry of the two languages was protested against the injustices particular culture may lead
and cruelties inflicted upon the the weakening and even to
directed into a channel of peace- Jews,
dissolution of the national St
ful competition by granting to
What, thus, I have said about Mental uniformity may be
the municipal school-boards and
If You Are Interested In Quality Meat, Call at
the parish councils the right to the Jewish question, holds true in strength of a dictator-eee li%
decide each one for itself what essential regards as to all toes- exclusively for war. Different
11632 Dexter Blvd.
language they preferred for their tions of national minorities. The tion is the flower of a free
schools and churches. Otherwise simple realization of the ideas of ciety, and only voluntary c(
(Between Burlingame and Webb)
both languages were given full democracy will solve that impor- eration will constitute a last
part of them that is related solidarity.
equality. The fact is that the tant
struggle about the languages rath- to the life of men as individual
That is the matter that s
not be forgotten under the st ►
er led to the strengthening than citizens.
But
the
national
minorities
the weakening of the conscious-
have gle for minority rights, that
Kosher Meat & Poultry Market to
natural demands not only for the man solidarity is a just as v
ness of national unity.
legal
status
of
individuals,
but able element of social evolut
As to the Jews, I do not think
it is a mistake to say that gen- just as well for group rights. We When we claim freedom for
erally they had no desire to are accustomed to think of re- national minorities, we do so
secede from the political unity ligious freedom as implying the the firm hope that it may si
of the nation in which they lived. right to combine with fellow be- international peace. In fact, 1
As to their standing as a cul- lievers for common worship and is the great goal of this war
tural group their position was even tax themselves for this pur- make an end of aggressions
different in Western and Eastern pose; in democratic countries this establish a world community
Europe. Everywhere, as a group right is never refused. But in justice and peace. In fighting
they had one fundamental de- countries with an established this aim we would do harm
mand, that of religious toleration, church supported by the State, our own ideals if we should ci
implying the right of organizing the consequence would be that any one of the small nations
for their religious cult. Otherwise, people being not members of such have helped develop the civil
however, in the countries of West- church would be exempt from tion we are defending. Just
ern Europe, they wished to mingle paying taxes to it (in Norway Well we would betray the jut
and cooperate on equal footing that is law as to municipal taxes), we are proclaiming, if we fai
k.r
with other citizens in their home or the State should grant subven- acknowledge the value and
country. There, they were not tions to the independent religious rights of the minorities who
simply Jews, but they were Ger- congregations. not form nations for themsel
man Jews, French Jews, Danish
In such free churches, syna- But all such claims only g
Jews and so on, and they desired gogues, or temples, a national sacred and righteous, if a,
to remain so. I remember a very minority will have the opportunity them waves the banner of
good Jewish friend I had in Ger- to maintain its particular Ian- manity. Under that banner
many. She was the widow of an- guage. And here we meet with shall triumph.

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