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)
