by The Destruction of the European Jews, Vol. 1-3 (Third Edition) Yale University Press (2003) (pdf)
the student bodies of German universities had been declining since the end of the
nineteenth century. Michael Stephen Steinberg, Sabres and Brown Shins (Chicago,
1977), p. 28, 187 n. 48.
25. German press, November 16, 1938. Mischlinge of the first degree were ejected
from the schools in 1942; Mischlinge of the second degree were permitted to continue
their schooling, provided their presence did not contribute to overcrowding. Die Juden-
frage (Verlrauliche Beiiage), March 1, 1943, pp. 17-19.
166
THE REICH-PROTEKTORAT AREA
Although the school segregation measures created a very serious
problem for the Jewish community, they provoked less discussion and
less controversy in the upper levels of the German bureaucracy than
the orders pertaining to Jewish traveling on trains. Propaganda Minister Goebbels came to the conference of November 12, 1938, well prepared with proposals for travel regulations. Here is an excerpt from the discussion:
Goebbels: It is still possible today for a Jew to share a compartment in
a sleeping car with a German. Therefore, we need a decree by the Reich
Ministry for Transport stating that separate compartments shall be available for Jews; in cases where compartments are filled up, Jews cannot claim a seat. They will be given a separate compartment only after all
Germans have secured seats. They will not mix with Germans, and if there
is no room, they will have to stand in the corridor.
GOring: In that case, I think it would make more sense to give them
separate compartments.
Goebbels: Not if the train is overcrowded!
GOring: Just a moment. There'll be only one Jewish coach.
Goebbels: Suppose, though, there aren't many Jews going on the
express train to Munich, suppose there are two Jews on the train and the
other compartments are overcrowded. These two Jews would then have a
compartment all for themselves. Therefore, I say, Jews may claim a seat
only after all Germans have secured a seat.
GOring: I'd give the Jews one coach or one compartment. And should
a case like you mention arise and the train be overcrowded, believe me,
we won’t need a law. We'll kick him out and he'll have to sit all alone in the
toilet all the way!
Goebbels: I don’t agree; I don’t believe in this. There ought to be a
More than a year passed before the Transport Minister issued a
directive on Jewish travel. “In the interest of the maintenance of order
in the passenger trains," Jews of German nationality and stateless Jews
were barred from the use of all sleepers and dining cars on all railway
lines within “Greater Germany." However, the directive did not introduce
separate
compartments,
an
arrangement
that
the
Transport
Minister considered impractical.” Not until July 1942 were Jews barred
from waiting rooms and restaurants in railway stations. This measure,
however, was ordered not by the Transport Ministry but by the Security Police.“ The TVansport Ministry did not concern itself with the compartment problem anymore. 26 27 28
26. Minutes of conference of November 12, 1938, PS-1816.
27. Transport Minister (DorpmOller) to Interior Minister, December 30, 1939, NG-
3995.
28. Die Judenfrage (Verirauliche Beilage). March 1, 1943, pp. 17-19.
167
CONCENTRATION
The school and railway ordinances were accompanied by many
other measures designed to alleviate “overcrowding,” to promote the
“convenience” of the German population, and to maintain the “public
order.” We have already noted the special shopping hours introduced
by the Food and Agriculture Ministry. At the insistence of Propaganda
Minister
Goebbels
and
Security
Police
Chief
Heydrich,
Jews
were
barred from resorts and beaches.” Hospitalized Jews were transferred
to Jewish institutions, and the services of Aryan barbershops were no
longer extended to Jews.®
The antimixing decrees constituted the first phase of the ghettoiza-
tion process. Most were drafted in the 1930s, and their aim was limited
to social separation of Jews and Germans. In the second phase, the
bureaucracy attempted a physical concentration by setting aside special Jewish housing accommodations. This type of ghettoization measure is always a very difficult administrative problem, because people have to change apartments.
Before any serious move was made in the housing field, Goring
brought up a very fundamental question in the conference of November 12, 1938: Should Jews be crowded into ghettos or only into houses?
Turning to Security Police Chief Heydrich, who was proposing all sorts
of movement restrictions and insignia for Jews, Goring said:
But my dear Heydrich, you won't be able to avoid the creation of
ghettos on a very large scale, in all cities. They will have to be created.’1
Heydrich replied very emphatically:
As for the question of ghettos, I would like to make my position clear
right away. From the point of view of the police, 1 don’t think a ghetto, in
the form of a completely segregated district where only Jews would live,
can be put up. We could not control a ghetto where Jews congregate amid
the whole Jewish people. It would remain a hideout for criminals and also
for epidemics and the like. We don’t want to let the Jews live in the same
house with the German population: but today the German population,
their blocks or houses, force the Jew to behave himself. The control of the
Jew through the watchful eye of the whole population is better than having
him by the thousands in a district where I cannot properly establish a
control over his daily life through uniformed agents.”
The “police point of view" is most interesting in two respects.
Heydrich looked upon the whole German population as a kind of auxiliary police force. They were to make sure that the Jew “behaved" 29 30 31 32
29. Minutes of conference of November 12, 1938, PS-1816.
30. Die Judenfrage (Verlrauliche Beilage), March 1, 1943, pp. 17-19.
31. Minutes of conference of November 12, 1938, PS-1816.
32. Ibid.
168
THE REICH-PROTEKTORAT AREA
himself. They were to watch all Jewish movements and to report anything that might be suspicious. Interesting also is Heydrich’s prediction of epidemics. Of course, epidemics are not necessary concomitants of
ghetto walls; but they do occur when housing deteriorates, when medical services are inadequate, and, above all, when the food supply is shut off. In the Polish ghettos Heydrich’s predictions came true and
epidemics did break out. Goring heeded Heydrich's advice and, on
December 28, 1939, he issued a directive that Jews be concentrated in
houses rather than in districts.19
Now that the moving was to start, one other question had to be
resolved: the problem of mixed marriages. In the Blood and Honor
Law the bureaucracy had prohibited the formation of new intermarriages, but that law did not affect existing intermarriages. Under the marriage law, intermarriages were subject to the same regulations as
other marriages: no divorce cou
ld be granted unless one of the parties
had done something wrong or unless the parties had been separated for
at least three years.
Only one provision affecting intermarriages had been written into
the marriage law of 1938. Under that provision the Aryan party to a
mixed marriage could obtain a divorce if he (or she) could convince the
court that after the introduction of the Nuremberg laws he had obtained such enlightenment about the Jewish question that he was now convinced that if he had only had such enlightenment before the intermarriage had occurred, he would never have entered into it. This conviction, of course, had to be proven to the satisfaction of the court.
Moreover, the Aryan party was given only until the end of 1939 to
institute a divorce proceeding on such a ground.14 Apparently, only a
few Germans took advantage of this cumbersome and potentially embarrassing procedure. In 1939 there were still about 30,000 intermarried couples in the Reich-Protektorat area: that is, almost one out of every ten Jews was married to a non-Jewish partner." The problem
now facing the bureaucracy was what to do with these 30,000 couples.
Should they too be moved into special Jewish houses?
The Goring directive of December 28,1938, solved this problem by
dividing the intermarried couples into two categories: “privileged” and
“not privileged.” The classification criteria are indicated in Table 6-2.
It should be noted that the decisive factor for the classification of 33 34 35
33. Enclosed in a letter from Bormann to Rosenberg, January 17, 1939, PS-69.
34. See comment by Dietrich Wilde and Dr. Krekau in "Auflösung von Mischehen
nach Par. 55 EheG.," Die Judenfrage (Vertrauliche Beilage), May 15, 1943, pp. 33-36.
35. Exact figures for the end of 1938 are not available, but on December 31, 1942,
the number of Jews in mixed marriages was still 27,744. Report by SS-Statistician
Korherr, April 19, 1943, NO-5193.
169
CONCENTRATION
T A B L E 6-2
CLASSIFICATION OF INTERMARRIAGES
Children Not
Raised as Jews
Children
(Mischlinge of
the First Degree)
Childless
Jewish wife-German
husband
Privileged
Not privileged
Privileged
Jewish husband-German
Privileged
Not privileged
Not privileged
note: Bormann to Rosenberg, January 17, 1939, PS-69.
all intermarried couples with children was the religious status of the
child. If the offspring was not raised in the Jewish religion, he was a
Mischling of the first degree. As such, he was liable for induction into
the armed forces or into the Labor Service. Goring did not want such
Mischlinge to be “exposed to Jewish agitation" in houses occupied by
Jews; hence he exempted all couples with such children. In the case of
childless couples, the Jewish wife of a German husband was considered
privileged,
possibly
because
the
household
belonged
to
the
German spouse. On the other hand, the German wife of a Jewish
husband was liable to be moved into a Jewish house. Goring hoped that
these German wives would divorce their husbands and “return” to the
German
community.*
Judging
from
partial
statistics,”
the
privileged
couples outnumbered the unprivileged ones nearly three to one. The
reason for this ratio is not hard to find: the large majority of mixed
couples did not raise their children in the Jewish religion.
It should be emphasized that the housing exemption granted to
couples
in
privileged
mixed
marriages
was
extended
with
few
modifications to wage and food regulations. Moreover, in 1941-44 the
Jews in mixed marriages, including those in unprivileged mixed marriages, were not subjected to deportation. This phenomenon was characteristic of the step-by-step destruction process. Once a group was taken out of the circle of victims for the purpose of one measure, it was
immune to subsequent measures as well. To put it another way, if the
privilege was upheld in the matter of changing apartments, it was also
upheld in the application of more drastic measures. We shall have
occasion to deal with this subject once more in a subsequent chapter,
for just as the party was dissatisfied with the exemption of Mischlinge 36 37
36. Bormann to Rosenberg, January 17, 1939, PS-69.
37. Korherr report, April 19, 1943, NO-5193.
170
THE REICH-PROTEKTORAT AREA
of the first degree, so the party men challenged the privilege of mixed
marriage which was in large measure an outgrowth of the Mischling
concept.
The actual implementation of the housing restrictions was a very
slow process. A great many Jewish families had to be evicted, but
eviction was no solution so long as these Jewish families had no place
to go. It was practicable only if the homeless family could be quartered
in another Jewish household or if there was a vacancy in a house
designated for Jewish occupancy. The first eviction regulation against
Jews is to be found in the decree of July 25, 1938,“ which allowed
German landlords to terminate leases for Jewish doctors' apartments.
The year 1938 was a period of very loose court interpretation of tenancy regulations and leases. During that year many Jews emigrated, and consequently there were vacancies. In a decision dated September
16, 1938, a Berlin court went so far as to rule that the tenancy laws did
not apply to Jews at all. Inasmuch as Jews were not members of the
people's
community
(Volksgemeinschaft),
they
could
not
be
members
of the housing community (Hausgemeinschaft).” This decision anticipated matters a bit, but in effect it was put into a decree dated April 30, 1939, and signed by Hitler, Gürtner, Krohn (deputy of the Labor Minister), Hess, and Frick.38 39 40 The decree provided that Jews could be evicted by a German landlord if the landlord furnished a certificate showing
that the tenant could live somewhere else. At the same time, the decree
stipulated that homeless Jewish families had to be accepted as tenants
by other Jews still in possession of their apartments.
Now the crowding of Jews into Judenhäuser could begin. Selecting
the houses and steering the Jews into them was the job of the local
housing authorities (Wohnungsämter). In larger cities the Wohnungs
ämter had special divisions for the movement of Jews (Judenumsiedlungsabteilungen). By 1941 the movement had evidently progressed far enough to entrust the remaining apartment allocations to the Jewish
community organization, which kept a close watch on vacancies or
space in the Judenhäuser. The Jewish bureaucrats worked under the
close supervision of the State Police (Gestapo).41
38. RGBl I, 1146.
39. Decision by Amtsgericht Berlin-Schöneberg, September 16, 1938, Juristische
1941), p. 93.
40. RGBl I. 864.
41. Circular note by Fachgruppe (Association) of Riinters, Administrators, and
Agents in Real Estate to Bezirksgruppe (Local Group) Vienna-Lower Austria, June 14,
1941, Occ E 6a-15. Reichsbaurat Walter Uttermöhle in Die Judenfrage (Vertrauliche
Beilage). September 1, 1941, pp. 63-64.
171
CONCENTRATION
The housing restrictions were not intended to be the only constraint on the Jews. Almost contemporaneously with the housing regulations.
the
bureaucracy
tightened
Jewish
movements
and
communications. Many of these regulations were issued by organs of
the police. On December 5, 1938, the newspapers published a provisional ordinance of the Reichsführer-SS Himmler depriving Jews of their drivers’ licenses/2 Although extremely few people were affected
by this announcement, it has considerable significance because of the
manner in which it was brought out. Himmler had not previously submitted his order through normal channels to a legal gazette, and he could cite no law or decree that authorized his measure. Yet he was to
be upheld by the Reichsgericht itself. From the sheer publication of the
ordinance and the subsequent silence of the Highest Reich Authorities,
the court assumed their consent. Hence it was valid and effective from
the day that it appeared.15
In September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of war, the local
police offices ordered the Jews off the streets after 8 p.m. The Reich
press chief instructed the newspapers to justify this restriction with the
explanation that “Jews had often taken advantage of the blackout to
molest Aryan women.”“ On November 28, 1939, Security Police Chief
Heydrich signed a decree in which he authorized the Regierungspräsidenten in Prussia, Bavaria, and the Sudeten area, the Mayor of Vienna,
the
Reichskommissar
in
the
Saar, and the competent
authorities
in
other
areas
to
impose
movement
restrictions
on
Jews,
whereby Jewish residents could be barred not only from appearing in
public at certain times but also from entering specified areas at any
time.15 The police president of Berlin thereupon declared certain areas
to be forbidden zones.“ The police president of Prague (Charvat) forbade Jews to change their address or to leave the city limits, except for purposes of emigration.1' On July 17, 1941, Charvat also forbade the