"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (145 page)

44.
RGBl.
I 1063; cf. also the draft of this decree, which was sent with a covering letter of February 19, 1940, by the Reich Ministry of the Interior to the highest authorities of the Reich for their comments (BA R 22/4430).

45.
Note from the Reich Ministry of Justice of August 3, 1942 (BA R 22/4433); the officials involved were
Ministerialdirektor
Schäfer,
Ministerialräte
Koffka and Anders, and
Oberregierungsrat
Dr. Hans von Dohnanyi.

46.
Handwritten (unsigned) addition to the note of August 3, 1942: “The same [i.e. lack of proof of Aryan descent—Author] is true of
Oberregierungsrat
Dr. v. Dohnanyi; the outcome of his case is transferred to an outpost” (ibid.). Schäfer was pensioned off as part of the major personnel reshuffle of fall 1942; it is not known how other cases were dealt with.

47.
Similar sanctions were imposed even
before
the revision of the disciplinary provisions in the German Civil Service Code of 1937. Thus the pension of a middle-ranking Jewish official was reduced “only” to 70% by the Justice Disciplinary Court on account of his long irreproachable service and advanced age; a post office official who had mixed with Jews since 1933 and continued relations into the summer of 1933 had her pension reduced to 75% for six years; a tax inspector who had received a loan of RM 500 from a Jew was transferred on disciplinary grounds and sentenced to a fine of RM 50, taking into account the mitigating circumstance that he had been wounded in the war and decorated (all examples quoted from Schulze, Simons, and Förster,
Die Rechtsprechung des Reichsdisziplinarhofes
[1935], 28, 70, 116).

48.
H. Huber,
Der Aufbau des deutschen Hochschulwesens
(1933), 17, according to whom 45% of the official posts were already occupied in 1933. Non-Aryan lecturers had been suspended even before the Professional Civil Service Code was promulgated (Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
[1962], 280). The number of university lecturers fell from 8, 515 to 7, 881, by 7.5%, between the winter term 1932–33 and the summer term 1933. A total of 1,664 scientists were dismissed (Hartshorne,
The German Universities and National Socialism
[1937], 87 ff., 92 f.). According to Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
(1962), 321 or 14.34% of the official teaching staff and 11% of the regular professors were removed from office in the winter term 1932–33, an estimated third of them on racial grounds, 56% on racial
and
political grounds, and some 6.5% by “voluntary” resignation. In the law faculties, departures on racial grounds are said to have been as high as 78.5%.

49.
According to Schütze, “Beamtenpolitik im Dritten Reich,” 59 ff., quoted by Mommsen,
Beamtentum im Dritten Reich
, 56 nn. 62–64. Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
(1962), 507, report that by 1937, 369 of the 1,663 senior officials in Prussia (established posts) had been dismissed or pensioned off, and a total of 349 senior officials in the other
Länder
. The disparity between these and the Ministry of the Interior figures given in Mommsen,
Beamtentum im Dritten Reich
, 56, is presumably due to the fact that the latter do not include the period up to 1937. According to Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
, only three of the 34 Prussian district presidents and only one of the 13 other than Prussian officials of the same rank remained in office. All 31 Prussian district vice presidents were dismissed; of the 14 deputy officials of the same rank, 6 remained in office (507). Only 101 of the 361 Prussian
Landräte
remained in office, and 178 of the 326 non-Prussian
Landräte
. By the beginning of 1937, 81% of the political positions of the general and interior administration in Prussia were occupied by Party members, as were 63% in all the other
Länder
(508). Detailed figures are available for Prussia. In the police force the following numbers were dismissed or superannuated by December 31, 1933, under the law of April 7: administrative police, 60 officials (1.3%); criminal police, 103 officials (1.5%); Security Police, 200 officers (7.3%), 326
Wachtmeister
(1.7%);
Landjägerei
, 12 officers (13.5%), 73 officials (0.9%); municipal police, 45 officials and officers (15%), 131
Wachtmeister
(1.3%); medical staff, 3 officials (2.5%); veterinary staff, o officials; training staff, 16 officials (42.1%); newly admitted personnel: 627 officials, 1,163 employees, and 879 wage-earners from the “national movement,” of whom 1,898 belonged to the SA, 1,086 to the SS, 368 to the Steel Helmets, and 317 were Party members (report of February 1, 1934, from Daluege to Hitler, BA R 43 I/2290; Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
[1962], 504 n. 161).

50.
More details in Mommsen,
Beamtentum im Dritten Reich
, 56, 56 nn. 62–64, with reference to Schütze, “Beamtenpolitik im Dritten Reich.”

51.
Cf. Seel, in Frank,
Deutsches Verwaltungsrecht
, 151, 158 f.

52.
For a definition of “ex-combatant” (
Frontkämpfer
), see no. 3 of the Third Implementing Order to the Professional Civil Service Code of May 6, 1933 (
RGBl.
I 245): “(1) An ex-combatant as defined by the law is anybody who took part in a battle, engagement, trench warfare, or siege in the World War (between August 1, 1914, and December 31, 1918), according to the entries in the war roll…. (2) An ex-combatant is anyone, in particular, who has received the war-wounded decoration. (3) Participation in the battles in the Baltic, Upper Silesia, against Spartacists and separatists, and against the enemies of the national revolution is equivalent to participation in World War battles.”

53.
Compilation from the Reich Ministry of the Interior, undated (presumably end of 1933), quoted in Mommsen,
Beamtentum im Dritten Reich
, 57 n. 65.

54.
Lorenzen, “Das Eindringen der Juden in die Justiz vor 1933” (1939), with extensive statistics on Jewish judges and lawyers. According to these figures (765 f.), the following numbers of Jewish judges and public prosecutors employed in the Reich judiciary between November 9, 1918, and December 31, 1935, had been dismissed: 928 by January 30, 1933; 574 officials by April 30, 1934, on the basis of Professional Civil Service Code sec. 3; 239 officials on the basis of the Reich Citizenship Law, sec. 3 (“only citizens of the Reich may hold … an official office”); a total of 1,741 non-Aryan officials by December 31, 1935. (Lorenzen was
Amtsgerichtsrat
in the Reich Ministry of Justice) The statement by Blau,
Das Ausnahmerecht für Juden in Deutschland
(1965), 18, according to which 381 of 717 non-Aryan judges and public prosecutors lost their jobs and 336 stayed in office, has not been confirmed, since the source quoted in
DJ
(1934): 950 f. refers only to the lawyers and notaries leaving the service.

55.
Prussian Ministry of Justice circular of June 27, 1933, cited by Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
(1962). Of the 1,704 non-Aryan judiciary officials in Prussia (out of a total of 45,181 officials), 214 high-ranking officials, 35 assistant judges, 65 junior barristers, and 17 others remained in office (19.4%) (Schorn,
Der Richter im Dritten Reich
, 730 f.).

56.
Lorenzen, “Das Eindringen der Juden in die Justiz vor 1933,” 765 f.

57.
Statistics quoted by Schorn,
Der Richter im Dritten Reich
, 730 f., who gives an overview of the conditions in the individual State Superior Court districts.

58.
The 8 Jewish assistant judges were dismissed immediately (total 17 dismissals, i.e., approx. 3% of senior officials); (of 70 Jewish junior barristers, 7 were allowed to continue their training for the time being and 63 were dismissed). Of the 6 judges referred to in the text who remained in office, 2
Oberlandesgerichtsräte
, both qualified judges who had been proposed for promotion to the
Reichsgerichtsrat
, were forcibly retired in the course of the year. One (Hess) emigrated to the USA and was apppointed honorary
Reichsgerichtsrat
after the war; another (Prof. Goldschmidt) was killed when the ship he was traveling in was torpedoed. The two others,
Oberlandesgerichtsräte
and excombatants, resumed their duties after “forced leave” but were definitively pensioned off in 1935 on the grounds of the First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 14, 1935 (
RGBl.
I 1933). One (Dr. Wolff) died in Auschwitz, and the other (Ikenberg) emigrated and returned after the war (details from Wolfram and Klein,
Recht und Rechtspflege in den Rheinlanden
, 217, 233).

59.
Johe,
Die gleichgeschaltete Justiz
, 65 ff., based on material from Hamburg; he states that even before the Professional Civil Service Code was promulgated, three public prosecutors (including the prosecutor general) asked to be freed from their duties. The presiding judge of the
Landgericht
was superannuated at his own request. The irremovable Jewish judges were excluded from penal justice by a reorganization of duties, so arranged that Jewish judges no longer sat together in the disciplinary courts. Five further judges were dismissed on the basis of the Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935 (
RGBl.
I 1146). In fall 1936 five Jewish judges and public prosecutors (most in the civil law field) were still active (Johe,
Die gleichgeschaltete Justiz
, 67), as were those judges with Jewish wives working in civil law (circular of October 4, 1937, from the Reich Minister of Justice, quoted in Johe,
Die gleichgeschaltete Justiz
, 67 n. 29). On April 13, 1933, the president of the
Land
Justice Administration (Rothenberger) ordered that “the convocation of Jewish and Marxist jurors and commercial court judges should cease in the Hamburg courts” with immediate effect (67 n. 30).

60.
Data on overall figures from a speech by Hamburg justice senator Rothenberger, quoted in Johe,
Die gleichgeschaltete Justiz
, 70 nn. 36, 37.

61.
Data from the official report of December 4, 1950, by State Superior Court presiding judge of Hamm to the minister of justice of North Rhine–Westphalia, in Weinkauff and Wagner,
Die deutsche Justiz
, 102. The official figures given by Schorn,
Der Richter im Dritten Reich
, 730 f., are not the same, however.

62.
Mommsen,
Beamtentum im Dritten Reich
, 56; regarding Gürtner, see von Krosigk,
Es geschah in Deutschland
(1961), 319 f.

63.
Cf. the official report by State Superior Court presiding judge of Hamm (Weinkauff and Wagner,
Die deutsche Justiz
, 102), according to which grounds for disciplinary measures (promotion freeze, demotion, forced retirement, dismissal) included membership in one of the Weimar parties or a freemason lodge; denunciations and actions from Party offices, e.g., on account of mistreatment or condemnation of SA members on trial before 1933; being on friendly terms with a Jewish lawyer; not giving the German salute; not making donations to the NSDAP; and having a “defeatist attitude.” In addition, a judge was attacked by the press following a decision not approved of by the Party and subsequently taken away by the SA and mistreated. It is not stated which of these grounds gave rise to which sanctions.

64.
According to the statistics of the Prussian Ministry of Justice quoted by Schorn,
Der Richter im Dritten Reich
(the number of non-Aryan cases is given in parentheses), among higher-ranking officials 2 cases were dealt with on the basis of Professional Civil Service Code sec. 2, 2 (1) cases based on Professional Civil Service Code sec. 2a, 100 (36) on Professional Civil Service Code sec. 4, 290 (95) on Professional Civil Service Code sec. 5, and 192 (64) on Professional Civil Service Code secs. 5 and 6, a total of 586 cases.

65.
Cf. sec 5, pars. 1 and 2, of the First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 14, 1935 (
RGBl.
I 1333).

66.
The law providing for changes in the general Civil Service regulations (
RGBl.
I 433), designed to clarify the new position created by the Professional Civil Service Code of April 7, 1933, was enacted as early as June 30, 1933. No clarification, not to speak of finalization, of the changes was achieved, however, as the subsequent amendments show.

67.
RGBl.
I 39 f.

68.
RGBl.
I 1146.

69.
See, for example, the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in Austria by the decree of May 31, 1938 (
RGBl.
I 607).

70.
RGBl.
I 1333; cf. in this regard the circular of December 21, 1935, from the Reich and Prussian minister of the interior, issued also in the name of all Reich ministers (
MinbliV
[1935], no. 52, 1506), according to which Jewish holders of an official post (civil servants and all persons called upon to fulfill important duties such as, for example, “arbitrators, meat inspectors, stamping officers”) were excluded as early as November 15, 1935, by virtue of the law. A previous circular of December 9, 1935, from the Reich and Prussian minister of the interior (
MinbliV
[1935], no. 51, 1467) ruled that all Jewish officials remaining in office should be pensioned off in accordance with sec. 4, par. 2, of the First Decree, effective
December 31, 1935
. For the corresponding pension entitlement arrangements, see Reich Supreme Court III 12/39 of December 8, 1939 (HRR 1940, 864). (Sec. 4, par. 2, of the First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law was repealed by sec. 2 of the Seventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of December 5, 1938 [
RGBl.
I 1751]).