Foreign News: Grandson of Abraham

If Henry Leonidas Stevens Jr. of Warsaw, N. C., Commander of the American Legion (TIME, Sept. 12), should suddenly resign with the announcement that he had just discovered that his grandfather was a Negro, it would cause no more commotion in the U. S. than shook Germany last week at the news about Col. Düsterberg. Germany’s Legion is the Stahlhelm, an organization of 1,000,000 veterans which plays politics frankly, drills on all occasions, was organized by a retired soda-water manufacturer named Franz Seldte and is drilled by a veteran of the Imperial General Staff: Lieut.-Colonel Theodore Düsterberg, “Second in Command of the Stahlhelm.”

Stahlhelm policies are those of Hitlerism very much diluted. They are nationalists and militarists, but do not believe in seizing the government for themselves. They are not openly antiSemitic, but have been described as “susceptible to anti-Semitism.” The great difference is that the Stahlhelm backs, while the Nazis oppose, the Government of Chancellor Franz von Papen. Last week Hitlerites struck a foul blow. Der Angriff, Hitlerite paper of deformed, bitter little Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, published an article to prove that Col. Düsterberg, who frequently has indulged in Jew-baiting, really had a Jewish grandfather, Selig Abraham Düsterberg. According to Der Angriff Col. Düsterberg’s grandmother was of Jewish descent too, his great-grandfather was administrator of the Jewish culture society in Paderborn in 1824. Immediately followed a despatch from the Jewish Tele graph Agency that Col. Düsterberg had resigned his position with the following bitter announcement: “I actually originated from Jews, but I have only now learned the fact myself.”

The Jewish Telegraph Agency was wrong. No one denied that Col. Düsterberg was a grandson of Abraham. Colonel Düsterberg maintained a painful silence. But the Stahlhelm bravely rallied round their Second in Command. Said Major von Stephani. organizer of the Stahlhelm’s recent Berlin convention (TIME, Sept. 12):

“The Stahlhelm does not judge men by their ancestors but by their deeds. Not only is he not thinking of resigning, but he intends to move from the Magdeburg Steel Helmet headquarters to Berlin, where he will be in closer touch with the government in carrying out special duties.”