862.012/81

The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State

No. 1952

Sir: I have the honor to report that Reichsminister of the Interior Frick, in an interview published in the Berlin Nachtausgabe of April 27, briefly outlined some of the details of the forthcoming citizenship law which, if they are ultimately incorporated in that law, will undoubtedly make it unique of its kind, inasmuch as it may be inferred from his remarks that citizenship shall be denied all non-Aryans and furthermore may only be acquired after the taking of a solemn oath to the Nazi State.

Tracing the progress of the project for “Reichsreform” through its present stage, and indicating that the scheme will shortly be carried a step further through the promulgation of a uniform statute for all German officials, Minister Frick acknowledged that his Ministry was preparing the draft of a new citizenship law which would be based upon “Adolf Hitler’s state ideas.” The new law will require a “fundamental measuring-up” of all those who are to be German citizens, he said, and no longer shall citizenship depend alone upon birth or the payment of a certain sum of money as if it were membership in a club. Rather, the requirements governing the bestowal of citizenship shall be the Führer’s supreme right and the certificate to be given citizens of the future shall be the most precious document any German can possess. Only those declared citizens shall be eligible to hold office, enter the army or have the right to vote. The quality of citizen, said Dr. Frick, shall be conferred by a public ceremonial act and after the performance of a sacred oath to the Fuhrer and the German Reich; it shall be denied all enemies of the State.

Quoting a phrase from Hitler’s book, My Struggle, that “the German citizen shall be lord of the Reich,” Dr. Frick emphasized that [Page 396] persons should not be recognized as citizens merely because of the fortuitous circumstances of residence within the country’s frontiers, but must prove themselves worthy to be bearers of the “State idea.” Naturally conditions must be posed for the attainment of that status and one of the most essential of these will be “community of race” with the German people as a whole.

Dr. Frick closed the interview with a survey of the task to be done in the field of eugenics. The work should be positive, he said, and should aim not only at the protection of the German race from sick or inferior stock but at its improvement through making it possible for all sound families to have at least three or four children.

Dr. Frick’s statements substantiate the worst fears of the Jews, reported in the Embassy’s despatch No. 1893 of April 1, 1935, that they would probably ultimately be deprived of their citizenship. What he has to say about the requirement of an oath is also of interest and if this is embodied in the law, it would be a curious matter if all future “plebiscites” did not show a 100 per cent affirmative vote, inasmuch as a negative attitude would presumably entail a breach of the oath. Dr. Frick’s wishes on the subject of citizenship are so extreme that it does not seem possible that they would not meet with some opposition from some of the more Right wing members of the Cabinet were it not for the probability that they represent the wishes and ideas of the Führer himself. If they are applied to disqualify not only Jews, but also national minorities living in the Reich under treaty guarantee, they may well lead to international complications.

Respectfully yours,

William E. Dodd