"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (158 page)

26.
See letter of August 27, 1942, from the finance section (Vialon) of the
Reichkommissar
to the general commissariats in Riga, Kaunas (Kowno), and Minsk on “administration of the Jewish ghetto,” the directives on administration of the Jewish ghetto and of the asset accruing there (IfZ, Akz. 3322/63, Bestand Fb 85, 185/8; quoted in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 540 f.). Par. 2 states: “The principal object of asset management is movable assets. To this must be added the exploitation of Jewish labor, which in this respect may be considered accrued assets.”

27.
RGBl
. I, 772.

28.
For more details, see Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 106 ff., 168 ff., 205 ff., 303 ff., Göppinger,
Die Verfolgung jüdischer Juristen Abstammung
(1963), 40 f.; statistics of Jewish refugee movements in Bracher, Sauer, and Schulz,
Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung
(1962), 1283.

29.
The assets of people deported to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp also fell to the Reich, although Auschwitz was still part of the Reich territory (Reich Ministry of the Interior decree of December 3, 1941, Nuremberg Doc, NG-5336). See, for example, Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 577f., who uses the case of Jews deported from Würzburg to show that though the usual “travel money” was collected from the Jewish, the transports were not given money as was usually the case, because “there could be no more expenses.”

30.
The form is reproduced in Adler,
Derverwaltete Mensch
, 553 ff.

31.
The basis for the seizure order was the Reich Ministry of Finance decree of November 4, 1941, to the chief presidents of financial management, according to which the Gestapo was to submit the inventories of assets and seizure orders to them. Under the Reich Ministry of Finance decree of December 9, 1941, the chief presidents of financial management were to receive only the inventories, while the seizure orders were served by the Gestapo (Nuremberg Doc. NG-4905). See also the Reich Ministry of Finance directives of February 27, 1942 (Nuremberg Doc. NG-4903); and April 4, 1942 (Nuremberg Doc. NG-4982); and the RSHA directives, Dept. IV B 4, on the treatment of Jews to be deported to the General Government that winter, under the terms of which the seizure order was to be issued by the Gestapo (undated, quoted in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 518 ff.); for the seizure orders, see ibid., 510 ff., 518 ff., 553 ff., 577.

32.
In this connection see the confidential information from the Party Chancellery 65/869 of October 2, 1942 (
Verfügungen
, 2:143 ff., 147), and the Reich Ministry of Finance decree of December 9, 1941, to the chief presidents of financial management (Nuremberg Doc. NG-4905).

33.
Communication from the head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) to the Foreign Office of October 29, 1940, quoted in Fauck, “Vermögensbeschlagnahmen an jüdischem Eigentum,” 25.

34.
See also ibid., with reference to deportations from Stettin (Szczecin), Schneidemühl (Pi
^a
a), Königsberg, and other north German towns and from Baden and the Saar. Similarly, see Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 417 f.; according to him the earliest victims of deportation (from Vienna, Baden, and Stettin) lost almost their whole assets.

35.
Fauck, “Vermögensbeschlagnahmen an jüdischem Eigentum,” 25; see the communication of January 15, 1944, from the head of the Central Economic and Administrative Office of the SS to the
Reichsführer
-SS, where the writer states that although he had been entrusted with management of these assets by the
Reichsführer
-SS, the banks would not deliver the funds and securities since it was not clear who had to order their release (Nuremberg Doc. NO- 5368).

36.
See the instruction of July 4, 1944, by the head of the Central Economic and Administrative Office of the SS (Pohl): “The chief presidents of financial management are responsible for the management of immovable and movable Jewish property in the Reich territory and the government of General Government in its own territory” (Nuremberg Doc. NO-3161).

37.
RGBl.
I, 479, with the first and second amending orders of August 5, 1933 (
RGBl.
I, 572), and September 26, 1933 (
RGBl.
I, 668). The law was applied frequently in conjunction with the Law on Seizure of Communist Assets of May 26, 1933 (
RGBl.
I, 293).

38.
Decrees of November 18, 1933 (
RGBl.
I, 1620), May 12, 1939 (
RGBl.
I, 911), and October 4, 1939 (
RGBl.
I, 1998).

39.
RGBl.
I, 480.

40.
RGBl.
I, 303; if necessary, objects seized could be transferred to the district and municipal authorities without charge (sec. 1, par. 2). Details are contained in the Reich Ministry of the Interior Decree on the Assets of Enemies of the Reich of April 15, 1942 (
MinbliV
, 687). The form issued with the Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law (ZS, file 247) contains the various grounds for seizure of assets, which are then checked off according to the individual case. It reads: “1. On the basis of the Law on Seizure of Communist Assets of May 26, 1933, sec. 1 [
RGBl.
I, 293], in conjunction with the Law on Seizure of the Assets of Enemies of the People and State of July 14, 1933 [
RGBl.
I, 479]; 2. Of the Decree on Seizure of the Assets of Enemies of the People and State in the
Land
Austria of November 18, 1938 [
RGBl.
I, 1620].”

41.
Directive by the chief of the Security Police and the SD, of July 16, 1943, quoted in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 511.

42.
Communication from the head of the Central Economic and Administrative Office of the SS to the director of the SS Headquarters Administration, Lublin, and the administration of Auschwitz Concentration Camp of September 26, 1942 (Nuremberg Doc. NO-724).

43.
See the Party Chancellery instruction in
Verfügungen
, 2:135 ff., according to which the assets of the Jewish cultural communities and the Reich Association of Jews were not in fact “to be regarded as Jewish assets” “but only as furthering the aims of the Reich.”

44.
More details in Walk,
Als Jude in Breslau
, 62 f., 77 f.

45.
Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) instruction of April 22, 1942 (Dept. IV B 4, b4, B no. 305/42), to the State Police Directorate, Berlin, according to which the assets of all Jews evacuated from the administrative district Stettin in 1940 were surrendered to the Reich within the terms of the Eleventh Decree (quoted in Fauck, “Vermögensbeschlagnahmen an jüdischem Eigentum,” 25). The situation was similar for the Jews from Baden and the Saar (26). The directives of winter 1942 by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) (Dept. IV B 4) on the Treatment of Assets of Jews to be Deported to the General Government took account of the new situation as brought about by the Eleventh Decree (quoted in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 518 ff.).

46.
RGBl.
I, 479.

47.
RSHA directive of March 2, 1942, Sign. PolS, IV A 5–192/42, quoted in Fauck, “Vermögensbeschlagnahmen an jüdischem Eigentum,” 25.

48.
Cf. the urgent memorandum of July 30, 1942, from the Foreign Office to the plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the minister of economics, the foreign minister, the minister of finance, the minister of justice, the forestry commissioner, and the Party Chancellery, which summarizes a discussion at the Foreign Office held the day before. The practical difficulty of working together with the authorities abroad made it impossible to lay hands on foreign Jewish assets that accrued to the Reich under the terms of the Eleventh Decree of November 25, 1941, to the Reich Citizenship Law. It had also been found, however, that when foreign Jews were evacuated from the Reich and the Annexed Eastern Territories, it was impossible to establish the value of the assets and secure them for the foreign state. The Foreign Office, in agreement with the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), thus proposed to negotiate with the governments concerned on the basis of the territorial principle, “in order not to endanger the continued solution of the Jewish question in Europe.”

49.
Third ordinance of February 21, 1939, relating to the Decree on the Registration of Jewish Property (
RGBl.
I, 282). Jewelry and all articles made of gold, platinum, silver, and pearls were to be handed in within fourteen days.

50.
RSHA decree of November 27, 1941, contained in a confidential information bulletin from the Party Chancellery, 1/13, of January 3, 1942, in
Verfügungen
, 2:135 ff., 137 ff.

51.
Göring as plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan instructed Heydrich to act accordingly on July 31, 1941 (ZS, G.J. no. 95/294; copy).

52.
Quoted in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 612. Radios had been taken away from Jews already at the beginning of the war.

53.
Letter of April 24, 1942, from the Nuremberg Gestapo to outstations, which contains instructions for the confiscation of the objects mentioned, in ibid.; instructions of January 12, 1942, from the Düsseldorf Gestapo regarding “action to seize wool and fur objects in the hands of Jews, as well as skis and ski boots for shipment to the Eastern front,” in ibid., 613. Reich minister of finance circular of August 31, 1942, to the chief presidents of financial affairs (Nuremberg doc. NG-5312), stating that objects seized under the RSHA decree of November 13, 1941, as equipment for the Gestapo should be used “in the newly acquired and occupied territories.”

54.
Made known in a confidential information bulletin from the Party Chancellery of January 3, 1942 (
Verfügungen
, 2:135 ff.); the decree was valid only in the territory of the Altreich; in the Annexed Eastern Territories all Jewish assets were confiscated and put under the control of the Main Trustee Office East.

55.
The form to be filled in on application is reproduced in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 527 f.

56.
Circular to the Jewish cultural associations in Germany, in
Verfügungen
, 2:140 ff., containing the text of the RSHA decree of January 27, 1941, with the following addition: “The prohibition order covers the disposal (sale, pawning, donation, management) of all movable assets [e.g., furniture, household goods, fittings], bank balances, and securities.” Authorization was given only “in particularly deserving cases” (137). Disposition of assets was forbidden with the exception of RM 150 per month from bank accounts and payment of taxes. The circular of November 13, 1941 (ordered by the RSHA decree of November 13, 1941), announcing the seizure of all typewriters, bicycles, cameras, binoculars, etc., belonging to Jews, was not affected.

57.
See Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 491 ff., 517 ff., and other references.

58.
Sec. 17 of the decree of December 3, 1938 (
RGBl.
I, 1709).

59.
See note 51 above.

60.
Instruction concerning the Surrender of Clothing. Instruction concerning the Surrender of Optical Appliances, etc. (
Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt
of June 9 1942, in Blau,
Das Ausnahmerecht für die Juden in Deutschland
[1965], no. 386). Items to be handed over included stoves and heaters, infrared lamps, electric blankets, saucepans, cooking rings, vacuum cleaners, hairdryers, irons, etc., phonographs and records, typewriters, mimeograph machines, bicycles and accessories, cameras, photo enlargers and projection apparatus, exposure meters, and binoculars; exceptions were made only for Jews of foreign nationality who were not citizens of an annexed and occupied area and Jews in “privileged mixed marriages.” This instruction is presumably a more concrete or rigorous follow-up to the RSHA decree of November 13, 1941 (in Adler,
Der verwaltete Mensch
, 612).

61.
Decree by the Reich minister of economics, published in the
Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt
of February 6, 1940 (BVerfGE 6, 132 ff, 190). According to Walk,
Als Jude in Breslau
, 78 f., Jews could obtain sewing material only to the value of 20 pfennig, and they received only 50 kg. of coal per month. Under the decree by the Reich minister for food and agriculture of June 12, 1942 (
Deutscher Rechtsanzeiger und Preuß. Staatsanzeiger
[1942], no. 43), Jews no longer received an egg-ration card; according to the decree of June 11, 1943, Jews received a ration card for tobacco only “if a clothing card was authorized” (no. 135). Since in principle they did not receive a clothing card, they were unable to obtain tobacco. See also the Reich minister of food’s decree of September 18, 1942 (Nuremberg doc. PS-1347; also in “Vertrauliche Informationen der Parteikanzlei 70/924” of October 23, 1942,
Verfügungen
, 2:147 ff.). According to this decree, Jews were no longer able to obtain meat or meat products after October 19, 1942. Priority distribution to the sick, infirm, pregnant and nursing mothers, and children no longer applied to Jews. Ration cards for Jews had to have the word
Jew
stamped on them. According to Walk,
Als Jude in Breslau
, Jews also no longer received any pulse, fish, biscuits, etc.

62.
Foreign food parcels were counted in full against the food ration. From 1941 the customs posts were instructed by the Reich Ministry of Finance decree of April 29, 1941 (
Verfügungen
, 2:140), to report to the food authorities each week all food parcels from abroad of which the “recipients were Jews” (known or suspected). Once the Gestapo was informed of foreign food parcels mailed to Jews, the parcels were intercepted and passed on to the food authorities to be counted against the food ration; they were then distributed at will to other recipients, such as the NSV, military hospitals, etc. Parcels containing rationed goods such as coffee, cocoa, or tea were confiscated in all cases. The only exceptions were Jewish war veterans with war injuries: parcels for them had to be passed by the Gestapo.