From The Fraternal Visitor Christadelphian Magazine (1937):
If Jesus lived in Germany.
If Jesus lived in Germany And plied His craft to-day, Doing His honest carpentry In His own perfect way; Oh! would he find his workshop wrecked By some mad Nordic crew, His windows labelled “Men, beware! Within there works a Jew?”
And if He took those labels down And gathering up His tools, Set the wrecked workshop straight again That had been spoiled by fools And went on working as before, What would the Nazis do? Would they again insult the Lord Because He was a Jew?
Oh would they take Him from the shop, And drag Him down the street To a Brown House, or secret place, Where Nazi Brown Shirts meet? And would they strip His body bare, And beat Him black and blue With rubber truncheons, just because He had been born a Jew?
And when they had insulted Him, And bruised him at their will, Would they sent His broken body, When hate had had its fill, To some great concentration camp; And say it was His due To keep Him from His fellow men Because He was a Jew?
Behind the veil that hides the Lord From our poor mortal eyes He stands, and sees with pitying eyes The Jews in sorry plight–– Hated, despised, insulted, scored, Beaten and murdered, too. They were His brothers when on earth. For Jesus was a Jew.
Oh! you who claim the Name of Christ And claim to walk His ways, Can you join the Jews’ oppressors In these last evil days? If you persecute His people You pierce His heart anew; They were His kinsmen here on earth Your Lord was born a Jew
(Selected from the Hebrew Christian Quarterly by E. A. M. Thacker.)
- The Fraternal Visitor, April 1937
GERMANY.––Bro. L. A. Ramsden writes: Having heard little news of the German brethren for some time, it was with great joy that we were able to arrange a meeting with our aged Bro. Maier upon a recent visit to the Rhineland. Meeting him some 80 miles or so from Stuttgart we spent five hours talking on the work of the Truth in his country. we learned that it is still possible to hold meetings in private, but these are subject to periodical inspection and, it appears, suffer no ill so long as the Jewish aspect of the Truth does not happen to be the topic on these occasions. The houses of private citizens too are visited, and specimens of their reading matter taken away. Our brother related how on one occasion his table was strewn with literature on “Christ and War,” etc., but as the official could not read English, he was persuaded to take “Christ and Love” as the first one was not yet concluded. One young brother was recently sentenced to a term of 18 months for refusing to accept military authority. His present whereabouts are unknown to his anxious brethren. Everywhere one was struck with the seemingly prosperous condition of the country. The brethren of Germany send to all of like precious faith across the world, their sincere love and greetings, and any brother or sister travelling their way can be assured of a hearty welcome.
- The Fraternal Visitor, August 1937
For over two years, Jews living in Poland are reported to have been suffering intense persecution in every phase of their daily lives. The Polish Government has agreed to a policy of economic pressure which take the form of private and official boycott of Jewish trade and industry, purging the Jews from the professions and crushing them with exceptional taxation. It is the policy of the Polish anti-Semites to enforce Jewish emigration from Poland, a policy which threatens the security of the three and a half million Jews living there. It is obvious that the Jews have nowhere to go, and the clamour for their expulsion is one of the inhuman results of the extreme “Nationalist” creed. Though persecuted and threatened with racial extinction, yet, “for all that, when they be in the hand of their enemies, I will not cast them away neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly” (Lev. xxvi. 44.)