862.00 P.R./191
Extract From Political Report of the Ambassador in Germany (Dodd)80
2. Definition of the “Public Offices” which Jews May Not Hold. On December 23 a second supplementary ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law of September 15 was issued (see Embassy’s despatch No. 2322 of September 19, 1935,81 and despatch No. 2474 of November 18, 193582) defining those positions which are to be understood as “public offices” from which Jews (the so-called “full-blooded” and “the quarter Jews” who had escaped earlier retirement because they were former “front-fighters”) were to be dismissed by December 31, 1935. “Officials” in the sense of the law are stated to be persons “directly or indirectly” employed in an office of the Reich, of a province or a commune, or of a public corporation; teachers in the public schools; honorary, as well as State professors, in a university, and Privatdozenten, or licensed instructors in the technical high schools.
Jewish notaries, whose retirement was forced early in October ostensibly on the ground that they were public officials, are now legally designated as such and are consequently formally deprived of their occupation. The law fails to mention the position of stock broker [Page 193] from which Jews were also suspended on the ground that this was a “public office” (see Embassy’s despatch No. 2499 of November 27, 193583), but possibly retroactive justification for this and other steps of a similar character is to be found in the sweeping provision in the ordinance that in addition to the positions specifically cited, a person may be considered to be a public official who has “authoritative or dignified (hoheitliche) duties to fulfill.” In a commentary written for the Deutsches Recht, Dr. Stuckart of the Ministry of the Interior interprets this provision as disqualifying Jews from being commercial adjudicators, jurymen and bankruptcy receivers.
Certain mitigations are provided for, the first being that if a dismissed Jewish “front fighter” official has not been in service long enough to be eventually entitled to a pension (which, it will be recalled, is to begin after he has reached the normal retirement age when the full pay granted him as compensation for his forced dismissal is to cease), he may, if “worthy and in need,” be granted a stipend by the Minister of the Interior. The second favor shown is that Jewish officials who find themselves in reduced circumstances as a result of their dismissal may terminate leases on their business properties and residences by March 31, 1936. The same right is given to Aryan employees of the retired Jewish notaries.
In a concluding section, the ordinance prohibits Jews from being head doctors in a public hospital or institution, as well as being inspector for a public sickness insurance office. Jews must abandon such positions by March 31, 1936, despite any contracts they may hold. Jewish hospitals of a public character are exempted from the prohibition.
On January 13 an order was issued relaxing the requirement that members of the Labor Front must be of “pure Aryan blood,” stipulating instead that any person a Reichsburger or citizen in the sense of the Nuremberg law may join, thus entitling to membership the so-called “quarter” and “half” Jews. This regulation results from the provision in the first supplementary ordinance to the Nuremberg racial legislation to the effect that all criteria of “Aryanship” more rigorous than those envisaged in the laws themselves were to fall by the end of last year if not specifically renewed. No comprehensive survey of fields now open to Jewish “cross-breeds” has yet been published and the situation appears still somewhat confused as evidenced by the fact that while these persons as Reich citizens are presumably entitled to become government officials, Minister of the Interior Frick has stated publicly that such a career shall not be open to them.
- Transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in Germany in his despatch No. 2597, January 15, 1936; received January 24.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. ii, p. 405.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩