Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Nazi Anti-Semitism radicalized Summary: Jews banned from commercial activities, businesses forced to register as "Jewish," Jewish doctors denied right to treat "Aryan" patients, and Jews forced to adopt "Jewish" first names Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.org Followup-To: soc.history Organization: The Nizkor Project Keywords: Archive/File: documents/documents.004 Last-modified: 1993/09/23 As Europe moved closer to war, Hitler's anti-Jewish program was intensified. As we now know, the "Nuremberg Laws" of 1935 were just the beginning. The Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews was gathering steam: "During 1938 the relatively stable position which the Jews had held since 1935 began steadily to disintegrate. This development was part of a general radicalizing of the regime which followed the purge of conservatives in the winter of 1937-38. The process began in the economic field, where the replacement of Schacht as Minister of Economics in December 1937 had removed a conservative influence which had helped to restrain extreme antisemitism in the economy. Measures taken against Jews before 1938 had affected their way of life in a wide range of activities, professional, cultural, political, personal and also economic. But there was as yet officially no general exclusion of Jews from economic affairs, although discriminative practices had had the effect of restricting their activities. For many years Jewish firms continued to function, some even enjoying Government subsidies. Jewish business skills often proved indispensable. In 1938 the gradually developing practice of the 'Aryanization' of businesses proceeded on a much greater scale. Jews had attempted to evade this practice by transferring their assets in name to 'Germans', but in April 1938 the Ministry of the Interior stepped in to establish some order with a decree demanding the disclosure of Jewish property over the value of 5000 marks and Article 7 of the decree laid down that 'The Deputy for the Year Plan [Goring] is empowered to take such measures as may be necessary to guarantee the use of reported property in accordance with the requirements of the German economy.' Decree on the changing of first names, 17 August 1938 Further decrees followed in the summer of 1938, all laying more restrictions and prohibitions on Jewish activities in economic and professional life. On 6 July, changes in the industrial code introduced a total ban on Jews in specified commercial occupations, and the third regulation under the Citizenship Law of 14 July demanded the registration of Jewish businesses. The fourth regulation prohibited all Jewish doctors from treating 'Aryan' patients. Senior Jewish doctors had already been excluded from hospitals since December 1935. On 17 August, in order to facilitate identification, a decree was introduced forcing Jews to adopt Jewish first names: Section 1 1 . Jews must be given only such first names as are specified in the directives issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior concerning the bearing of first names. 2. Section I does not apply to Jews of foreign nationality. Section 2 1. If Jews bear first names other than those authorized for Jews by Section I, they must, from 1 January 1939, adopt another additional first name, namely 'Israel' for men and 'Sarah' for women. Restrictions were imposed also on the movement of Jews in Germany. From July 1938 Jews were required to have special identity cards, and on 5 October a new decree on Jews' passports demanded that these should bear the letter J (for 'Jew')." (Noakes, 471-472) Followups to alt.revisionism Work Cited Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham. Documents on Nazism 1919-1945. New York: Viking Press, 1974
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