Chapter 3. Germany: 1933-1938
[3.3. Discrimination of Jews from jobs and schools in the
Third Reich since
1933]
[1 April 1933: Boycott day
against Jewish shops]
In the meantime, economic disaster had befallen the Jews of Germany. On
April 1, 1933, just two months after Hitlers' accession to power, the
Nazis instituted a boycott of all Jewish stores and Jewish
professionals. An official prolongation of that boycott beyond one day
was prevented by a vociferous protest movement abroad.
[All in all the boycott is a flop (see: Hans-Jürgen Eitner: Hitlers Deutsche. Das Ende eines Tabus.
Casimir Katz
Verlag, Gemsbach 1991, p.378). The boycott should hit Jewish
storehouses and one price shops (p.260). The boycott appeal is
organized by Goebbels and Streicher with Hitlers consent and is
performed by the SA. The boycott day is a flop. Later many Germans are
starting sympathy purchases and oppose to the NS methods (p.378). The
big majority of the the German population refuses to pogrom like
methods against Jews (p.379)
In: Eitner: Hitlers Deutsche 1991].
[There is more effect with the work prohibitions and other
restrictions, which are not much opposed by the German population,
because the law would bring Germans into prison when they would help
the Jews]:
[4 April 1933: Work prohibition
for Jews for lawyers]
However, the elimination of Jews from the German economy proceeded at a
very quick pace. On April 4 a decree was published practically revoking
the right of Jewish lawyers to practice in Prussia.
[7 April 1933: Work prohibition
for Jews up to 1/4 Jews as civil servants]
On April 7 a law ("for the reestablishment of the professional civil
service") provided for the forcible retirement of all civil servants
who had one Jewish grandparent or more, with a few exceptions.
[22 April 1933: Jewish doctors
are excluded from sick funds]
On April 22 Jewish doctors were dropped from panels of sick funds,
which until that time had provided most of them with the bulk of their
income.
[2nd June 1933: Jewish dentists
are
excluded from sick funds]
A similar law was enacted on June 2 for dentists.
[29 Sep and 4 Oct 1933: Artist
and journalists are forced into Nazi organizations - Jews excluded]
After September 29 authors, actors, and musicians (and after October 4,
journalists as well) had to belong to Nazi organizations, which of
course excluded Jews.
[30 June 1933: Ban of Jews from
functions in government and universities]
On June 30 officials and professors of the "Jewish race" were, to all
intents and purposes, banned from exercising their functions in
government and universities.
[End of June 1933: Kahn's
estimation: 33,700 Jews lost their jobs]
By the end of June [1933], Kahn estimated that 20 %, or about 33,700 of
the gainfully employed Jews, had lost their jobs.
(End note 15: See note 9 above [Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, Dr.
Kahn's material, 1931-1940, memo of 6/27/33 [27 June 1933])
[Summer 1933: Laws against Jews
have effect]
The worst, however, was not the legal situation, but the permanent
insecurity that now had entered German Jewish life and was to remain
until the final destruction. Nazi officials used to deny that the
boycott against the Jews was still in existence after April 1, 1933,
but in practice the boycott not only did not stop - it increased in
ferocity as time went on [because the law prohibits Jews from
professions and the German population is prohibited to help Jews by
law]. German Jewry, with its peculiar occupational stratification, was
particularly vulnerable to this kind of economic warfare. Over 60
percent of gainfully occupied (p.112)
Jews engaged in trade.
(End note 16: From 29 - ZA statistical section, 1933 reports. A total
of 61.33 % of German Jews were engaged in trade, and 24.4 % in industry
and crafts. A further 5.6 % were professionals. Of the 160,000 people
who were engaged in trade, more than half, 89,368, were owners of
trading establishments, 52,869 were employees, and only 2,913 were
workers; 14,956 were family members of the owners).
In the beginning the Nazis made what seemed to be certain exceptions in
their anti-Jewish measures. This was done in deference to pressure by
President Hindenburg. They declared that 1 % of the persons in official
positions could be Jews; pre-1914 public servants and people who had
been frontline soldiers in World War I were also to remain. However, in
practice, these exceptions were quite insignificant. Among the people
regarded as Jewish, the Nazis included persons with one Jewish
grandfather. Also, only those who were politically reliable could keep
their positions.
[April-Oct 1933: Figures of banned
Jews from their job]
Of the 6,000 Jewish public servants in Germany, at least 5,000 lost
their jobs during the first months of the Nazi regime. Of 2,800 Jewish
lawyers, at least 1,500 lost their jobs in April 1933. Of 7,000 Jewish
doctors, 4-5,000 were to lose their livelihood during those spring
months; a similar fate was in store for dentists, druggists and
chemists, municipal officials, and public welfare workers, who together
numbered another 2,500 gainfully employed people. The actors,
musicians, journalists, and others accounted for some 13-15,000 Jews
who were now out of work. Although their numbers were not very
significant, Jewish workers were deprived of the possibility of
maintaining their jobs as the Nazi regime tightened its hold over
Germany.
[Discrimination of Jews from the
Arbeitsfront with insurance, sick benefits and other essentials]
A law was passed forbidding Jewish membership in the official Nazi
worker's organization, the Arbeitsfront. All workers who wished to take
advantage of insurance, sick benefits, and other essentials had to
belong to the Arbeitsfront. Soon there were no German workers who did
not belong to that organization - except Jews.
The importance of all these factors for an organization like JDC which
wished to help German Jewry was all too clear. "All that [what] has
been done
during the past 50 years by world Jewry for their oppressed and needy
brethren all over the world will now have to be repeated within three
to five years for German Jewry alone."
(End note 17: The Position of the Jews in Germany, 4/28/33 [28 April
1933], 14-47)
[Numerus clausus for Jews at
German NS schools and universities]
On the education front the picture was no better. No German school
could have Jewish students in excess of 5 % of the total (p.113)
enrollment. Up to that time the percentage of Jews in German high
schools had exceeded 10 %. Only 1.5 % of new pupils in the universities
could be Jews, and among the older students only 5 % could be Jews. No
East European Jew who had arrived in Germany after 1914 could be a
student at a German university. All these factors presented JDC with an
emergency situation. (p.114)
