Aryan Footwear

Europe's outstanding example of mass production in industry, the great Bat'a Shoe Co. of Zlin, braced itself last week against a dire economic threat. Recent German press stories have declared: "The Bat'a family are Czech Jews." If this charge can be made to stick, Bat'a chain shoe stores in Vienna and other parts of Greater Germany face confiscation. Even if not made to stick it may seriously injure their business. Actually, most of the Bat'a family are tall, big-boned, straight-nosed, bristle-haired blonds.

But last week in his native Zlin (which lies in Moravia well back of the Sudeten German district), Shoe Master Jan Bat'a, half brother and successor to the late founder, Thomas Bat'a, who was killed when his private plane crashed (TIME, July 25, 1932), felt obliged to make an answer. He announced in the Bat'a magazine Zlin that he had sent German officials genealogical data tracing his Roman Catholic ancestry back to 1576.

"Really I do not care about those false statements," wrote Jan Bat'a. "I am only curious to see whether there is still someone in Germany today with the courage to place truth above lying propaganda. I would not be ashamed to be a Jew despite all the attacks of the German press. I would feel equal with all people. But I am no Jew."

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