"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (149 page)

4.
RGBl.
I 480, with the First Implementing Order of July 26, 1933 (
RGBl.
I 538), and the Second Implementing Order of January 16, 1941 (
RGBl.
I 40).

5.
In accordance with sec. 1, par. 2, this regulation ceased to have effect two years after its promulgation but was extended by the law of July 10, 1935 (
RGBl.
I 1015), until December 31, 1935.

6.
This is shown especially by the deprivation of citizenship of famous scholars, artists, and so forth.

7.
First Implementing Order of July 26, 1933, no. 1a,
RGBl.
I 538.

8.
Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
(1943), sec. 1, note 1.

9.
First Implementing Order of July 26, 1933, no. 1a,
RGBl.
I 538. Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
, sec. 1, note 1.

10.
Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
, sec. 1, notes 5 and 6. Though the Reich and State Citizenship Law of 1913 also recognized withdrawal of nationality, including that of the family of the person involved, such withdrawal was limited to extremely narrowly defined cases (secs. 27 and 28).

11.
First Implementing Order of July 26, 1933, no. 5,
RGBl.
I 538.

12.
Lorenzen, “Das Eindringen der Juden in die Justiz vor 1933” (1939), 965 f.; Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
, sec. 2, note 11 (57).

13.
First Implementing Order, no. 1,
RGBl.
I 538.

14.
For details see Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
, 53.

15.
Sec. 1 of Law on Limitation of the Right of Inheritance on Grounds of Antisocial Behavior of November 5, 1937,
RGBl.
I 1161; cf. also Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
, note 6 to sec. 2 (56).

16.
Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
(1936), introduction, 30; and Reich Citizenship Law, sec. 1, note 3: “In certain cases, however, nationality may be either acquired or lost under the current legislation without the control of the state (marriage, legitimation, etc.). Such an arrangement is difficult to reconcile with the current legislative philosophy. The state can never be denied a say in any case in which a person comes under its protection or wishes to leave it. This standpoint must be accommodated in a future new regulation of the right to nationality” (52).

17.
RGBl.
I 593, by virtue of which secs. 10–12, 26, par. 3, subpar. 2; 31; and 32, par. 3, of the Reich and State Citizenship Law were revoked, as were sec. 15, para 2, and sec. 34, insofar as they allowed a claim to naturalization. German nationality was granted at the discretion of the naturalization authorities. Claims to naturalization were generally excluded (secs. 1, 2); Lichter,
Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
, 49; Kluge and Krüger,
Verfassung und Verwaltung
(1941), 167.

18.
RGBl.
I 1146.

19.
Program of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) of February 24, 1920, quoted in Sartorius,
Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht
(1944), appendix 1. See in particular Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, 1 ff., 47 f.; Maßfeller, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht” (1935) (a reproduction of the text of the law with detailed annotations); Gütt, Linden, and Maßfeller,
Blutschutz und Ehegesundheitsgesetz
(1937), 16 ff.; Frick, “Das Reichsbürgergesetz” (1940); Stuckart, “Staaatsangehörigkeit und Reichsgestaltung” (1943); Huber, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht” (1941).

20.
See Frick, “Die Rassenfrage” (1939).

21.
Lösener, “Die Hauptprobleme der Nürnberger Grundgesetze” (1935); similarly, Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, introduction, 3, 13.

22.
Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, introduction, 15, 16; see, further, 24 f.

23.
Huber, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht.”

24.
Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, introduction, 22 ff., 3.

25.
Ibid., introduction, 1.

26.
More details in Huber, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht,” 16 f., 27 ff.: “A Reich citizen is a citizen who possesses nationality in the Reich and has proved his readiness to serve the German people and the Reich loyally.”

27.
Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, 55.

28.
RGBl.
I 1333; sec. 4, par. 1; cf. Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, 53, 55; nonetheless, so-called privileged Jewish
Mischlinge
(that is persons with one or two Jewish grandparents), who did not count as Jews, could be citizens of the Reich.

29.
Huber, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht,” 17, 27.

30.
See Lösener, “Als Rassenreferent im Reichsinnenministerium” (1961); demands were made, however, for the Reich Citizenship Law to be introduced (only) for citizens of equivalent race even before the seizure of power (Nicolai,
Grundlagen der kommenden Verfassung
[1933]). It may therefore be presumed that the idea of the Reich Citizenship Law originated before 1935.

31.
Conditions for acquiring citizenship in the Reich were thus possession of German nationality, being of “German or related blood,” and “the will and ability of the citizen to serve the German people” (Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, 54).

32.
See Huber, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht,” 25 f., 32.

33.
Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, 25, 29.

34.
First Decree to Reich Citizenship Law of November 14, 1935, sec. 1, par. 1 (
RGBl.
I 1333); see Gütt, Linden, and Maßfeller,
Blutschutz und Ehegesundheitsgesetz
, 196, for more details.

35.
Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, suggest a variety of “objective characteristics” as criteria for the aptitude to “serve the German people,” such as a “blameless leadership record” and “proven professional competence,” but also “fulfillment of military and labor service conscription” (54). Grounds for forfeiture of citizenship rights were thus “serious crimes, activities hostile to the state, neglect of citizen’s duties, such as not serving in the Wehrmacht, unworthiness to serve, unsuitability for an official post, and professional unworthiness” (26 f.).

36.
RuPrMdI circular of November 26, 1935, par. 2S,
MinbliV
no. 49, 1430.

37.
In practice, persons “of German blood” were members of the races or race mixtures as represented by the National Socialist race theory in Germany (Günther,
Rassenkunde
[1930], 13 f.: Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, introduction, 6 f.). Persons of “related blood” were primarily members of European nations or races (6 f.), with the exception of Jews and Gypsies.

38.
RuPrMdI circular of November 26, 1935,
MinbliV
no. 49, 1430.

39.
See Stuckart and Globke,
Reichsbürgergesetz
, introduction 6, 15, who state that “strictly speaking there is no more a Jewish race” than a German one. Cf. Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 278, for more details.

40.
RuPrMdI circular of November 26, 1935,
MinbliV
no. 49, 1430, where it is stated, “The criterion whether someone is or is not Jewish is not whether he is a member of the Jewish religious community, but whether he belongs to the Jewish race. To avoid difficulties in bringing proof, it is, however, expressly stipulated [in the First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law] that a grandparent who belonged to the Jewish religious community is automatically considered a member of the Jewish race; no evidence to the contrary is admissible.” The official Party justification for associating race with religious affiliation was that at that time neither confession nor descent indicated anything about the quality of being Jewish, because the Jews had become emancipated and assimilated since the mid-nineteenth century. In the centuries preceding that time, the Jews had been a unit in terms of their faith. For that reason the religious affiliation of the ancestors had to be pursued beyond the point at which extensive assimilation occurred, that is back to about 1800 [for which reason the religious affiliation of the
grandparents
was significant—Author]. If the ancestors were Christian until 1800, the person involved was not classed as Jewish, and vice versa (Groß, “Die rassenpolitischen Voraussetzungen zur Lösung der Judenfrage” [1942], 2 ff., 6 ff.). (Groß was head of the NSDAP’s Race Policy Office.)

41.
OVG (Administrative Supreme Court), Hamburg, of October 6, 1939,
DVerw
(German Administration) (1940): 362 f.

42.
After the Wannsee Conference, the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories negotiated a new definition of the term
Jew
. The agreed formulation opened the door to arbitrariness in the extreme: “(1) The term
Jew
will be defined as follows for persons who have their residence or who usually live in the Occupied Eastern Territories: (2) A Jew is a person who professes to belong to the Jewish community or has otherwise declared or acknowledged himself as a Jew or whose association with Jewry comes out of some other circumstances. (3) A person who has a parent who is Jewish according to the definition of par. 1 is considered equivalent to a Jew. In doubtful cases the
Generalkommissar
[commander of the Security Police and the SD] or the agency commissioned by him will decide with generally binding effect”; these prescriptions were also to include Jews
from
the General Government, the Protectorate, from Romania, and from Slovakia (Nuremberg doc. NG-5035; quoted by Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 283 ff.). Himmler as RFSS, however, wanted no definition of the term
Jew
(RFSS memorandum of July 27, 1942, to Gruppenführer Berger, his liaison officer with the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, cited by H. Heiber, ed.,
Reichsführer, Briefe an und von Himmler
[1970], 167 f.).

43.
First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 14, 1935, sec. 7; for more details, see H. Graml, “Zur Stellung der Mischlinge 1. Grades,”
Gutachten des IfZ
2:31 f. The provision in sec. 7 signified that in accordance with sec. 5, par. 1, of the First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law, so-called equivalent Jews (
Geltungsjuden
[persons counting as Jews under the law]) could apply for equivalence with
Mischlinge
of the first degree, and
Mischlinge
of the first or second degree for equivalence with those of “German blood.” According to notes made by Bernd Lösener, then
Rassenreferent
in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, on September 10, 1941 (cited by Graml, “Zur Stellung der Mischlinge,” 32; and Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 293), before fall 1941 Hitler granted 339
Geltungsjuden
equivalence with “
Mischlinge
of the first degree,” 238 “
Mischlinge
of the first degree” were promoted in the Wehrmacht, and 394
Mischlinge
were granted equivalence to “German blood”; see Lösener, “Als Rassenreferent im Reichsinnenministerium,” for more details.

44.
Reich Ministry of the Interior circular,
MinbliV
(1942): 1711, quoted in
Verfügungen
, 146 f., where it is stated: “Until further notice, applications from Jews and Jewish
Mischlinge
will not be dealt with…. Processing of current applications shall cease immediately.”

45.
According to Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 281, there were 72,738 half Jews living in Germany and Austria at the May 1939 census. Lösener estimates their number at 64,000 in 1939, the number of quarter Jews at 43,000, and half Jews in Bohemia and Moravia at 30,000 (Nuremberg doc. NG-2982). For the legal status and the fate of Jewish
Mischlinge
in particular, see Fauck, “Verfolgung von Mischlingen”; Graml, “Zur Stellung der Mischlinge,” 31 f.; Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 284 ff.

46.
See the memorandum from the Race Policy Office of the NSDAP (Hecht and Wetzel, authors) of November 1939 (Nuremberg doc. NG-3732, quoted by Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 283 f.), where it is stated: “With regard to the German-Jewish
Mischlinge
of hitherto Polish nationality, the …
Mischlinge
of the first degree are to be deported forthwith to the Polish
Restgebiet
(rump state). In the case of German-Jewish
Mischlinge
of the first degree, exceptions can be made in very special circumstances, if the persons involved have shown complete loyalty to Germanness and if the
Mischling
involved is married to a person of German blood. German-Jewish
Mischlinge
of the second degree may remain in the territory of the Reich if their previous political or
völkisch
behavior has given no cause for concern.” No flexibility, however, is to be found in the statement, “Polish-Jewish
Mischlinge
of any degree are without exception considered equivalent to Jews and Poles and are to be deported in any circumstances.”

47.
Report of the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942 (Nuremberg doc. NG-2586), according to which exceptions were foreseen for
Mischlinge
if children (“
Mischlinge
of the second degree”) considered “of German blood” were forthcoming from the marriage, also for
Mischlinge
for whom an exceptional authorization (in the event of special services) had been granted. Persons exempted from “evacuation” should be sterilized “voluntarily”; sterilization was, however, a precondition for remaining in the Reich. The sterilized
Mischling
should then be freed of “all restrictive regulations.” Mass sterilization of all Jewish
Mischlinge
, proposed by the Reich Ministry of the Interior (to ensure their remaining in the Reich), was not carried out on account of the great administrative expense involved (report on a discussion in the RSHA on March 6, 1942, Nuremberg doc. NG-2586); on this and on the deportation of Jewish
Mischlinge
, see Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 285 ff., 289.