As the number of refugees grew, so did the opposition to them. The problems faced by the Committee for the Relief of Jewish Refugees from Germany grew. Two female figures of the Committee, Marie Schmolka and Hanna Steiner, soon emerged as the main figures in the programs that actually helped the refugees.
While Schmolka became the Czechoslovak representative of HICEM, an organization founded by the merger of several charitable organizations helping European Jews emigrate (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Colonization Association a Emigdirect), Steinerová prepared group emigration programs.
All this was done in a situation where, for example, the agrarian newspaper Večer repeatedly printed articles such as the one in the picture (from October 1938), titled "Jewish emigration does not understand we do not want them here".
Translation of a fraction of the article into English:
The Jewish emigration does not understand that we do not want them here.
The constant drawing of attention in our press to the danger posed by them to the peaceful development of our inner and outer security, the need of guarantees of the economic situation and stability, that work in our new state would be in our hands and for our people, the constant calls for a speedy end to the epoch of Jewish emigration meets with the mass approval of the general public, who observe what is happening around us and in our country.
We don't want that! ...
We do not want to be merciless, but we cannot let our poor slice of bread be nibbled away by people who have never had any sympathy for us and for whom we have been only a means and a way to their own profit.
Why did the Czech public reject refugees from Nazism?