“Fascism in Austria is not marked by open anti-Semitism,” declared Dr. Julius Tandler, Austrian anatomist and “social planner,” in an interview.
Outside Austria on a vacation when Dollfuss declared war on the Social Democrats, Dr. Tandler Socialist leader, hurried back to Vienna, where he was promptly clapped into jail.
Upon his release, a few days later, he left for Shanghai to teach anatomy. At the invitation of the New York University Medical School he came here for a series of lectures.
Before the Fascist regime in Austria Dr. Tandler has been Commissioner of Public Health and Welfare of Vienna. His reforms drew experts of the world to Vienna to study his methods of “social planning.”
“Fascism in Austria,” said Dr. Tandler in answer to a question, “is not marked by open anti-Semitism. It is political — directed against suppressing the Social Democrats. There are many Jews in the Heimwehr which supports the Fascist government.
“On the other hand, people who say that the Social Democratic Party in Austria is predominantly Jewish are mistaken. Jews are in a minority. There is really no anti-Semitic issue in the Austrian government.”
Deploring the suppression of individual liberties in Austria, Dr. Tandler would vouchsafe no prediction as to the future of Fascism in that land. “Conditions are too unsettled,” he said, “and anything I would say would be only a guess.”
Dr. Tandler corrected the reporter when he referred to him as “a Jewish doctor.” “I am Jewish—yes,” he corrected, “I am a doctor—yes. But not a Jewish doctor. In the field of medicine, I recognize no race. Chinese, Negro and Jewish doctors are the same to me.”
Dr. Tandler will return to Shanghai in the near future.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
