"The baptism hasn't turned him into a non-Jew…" (44kb)

The clock announces three o'clock. At this moment the church door opens. Veilchenblau and his wife come out. They say goodbye to the pastor. Then they slowly come down the stairs.
"Do you notice anything about the Jews that's become non-Jewish?" asked Anni.
"Not one thing!" whispered Grete. "They still have the same noses and ears, the same legs, the same lips, the same Negro hair! And they waddle around just like they did before!"

Veilchenblau seems to have heard some of the girls' comments. He suddenly stops and shamelessly smirks at the girls-and spits as he passes them. Then he slowly continues on with his Rebekka. The girls look at each other embarrassed.
"What a dirty thing to do! And he pretends that he doesn't want to be a Jew anymore! says Anni.
And Grete cries out: "The baptism has not made him into a non-Jew. And that Rebekka is still a Jew.

Then the two girls head home. But their thoughts are still focused on the Jews' baptism.
"Do you recall," says Anni, "that our group leader once said: 'No more than you can make a Negro into a German, can you make a Jew into a non-Jew!'"
Grete angrily stamped her foot on the ground.
"I don't understand the clergymen who continue to baptize Jews. They're just taking criminal riff raff into the church!
"You're right," says Grete. "Despite the baptism, the Jews are still the same crooks they were before. Martin Luther already said that. Popes also said it. And Julius Streicher too!"

Anni stood still. Then she spoke and her words were serious and full of meaning:
"I believe that a time will come when Christians will curse the clergymen who let Jews join the churches. Because the Jews just want to destroy the Christian church. And they will destroy it if our clergy continue to accept Jews in the church. As the saying goes:

If a Jew comes running
And wants the pastor to baptize him,
Then don't trust him and don't do it,
A Jew will always remain a Jew!

The baptismal font won't help.
Even it won't make the Jew any better!
He is a Devil now
And remains one for eternity!

About the story

The Nazi policy of exterminating all Jews that came into effect just a few years after this book was published did not discriminate between deporting orthodox Jews, non-religious Jews and those born Jewish and baptized, or those whose parents or even grandparents adopted Christianity. Some influential German church leaders and many church members fully agreed with this policy of violent racial purification while most others chose to remain silent about the deportation of baptized Jews they knew. In many cases, Germans were asked to provide documentary proof that they had zero Jewish ancestors. One of Adolf Hitler's personal anxieties appears to have been a fear that somewhere in his family tree lurked a Jew, compromising his Aryan blood. Hitler had the Gestapo undertake detailed, highly secret investigations of this matter that showed there was no basis for this fear, but it probably continued to worry him. Interestingly enough, the same deep fear about blood purity appears to have haunted Hitler's personal idol, the profoundly anti-Semitic composer, Richard Wagner, who feared (wrongly) that his birth father was a Jew and was concerned that the shape of his skull might reveal this terrible fact. In the Nazi world, having flat feet--let alone a "Jewish" nose or curly dark hair—could raise serious questions about someone's status as a pure Aryan.