Office of the Historian

862.00 P.R./249

Political Report of the Ambassador in Germany (Wilson)45

undated
[Extract]

1. Exclusion of Jews from Certain Trades and from Access to Health Resorts. An amendment to the Trade Ordinance (Gewerbeordnung) [Page 387] promulgated as a Reich law in Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, No. 107, of July 8, forbids Jews or Jewish firms from activity in the following occupations:

(1)
House watchman’s service.
(2)
Detective work, involving in particular the provision of information concerning the financial and personal affairs of private individuals.
(3)
Sale or purchase of real estate in a professional capacity.
(4)
Activity as real estate or mortgage brokers, as well as house or real estate administrators.
(5)
Marriage brokers, except in the case of marriages between Jews.
(6)
Guides service.

For the present the law will not apply in Austria. The following different time limits, at the conclusion of which Jews must have left the trades specified, have been determined upon: one month for categories 5 and 6 listed above; three months for categories 1 and 2; until the end of the current year for categories 3 and 4. In addition to the above mentioned restrictions, Jews must leave the itinerant trades by September 30 of this year, or in exceptional cases approved by the Reich Minister of Economics, by September 30 of next year. Infractions of the law may be punished by imprisonment up to six months, plus a fine.

In accordance with an order issued by the Minister of the Interior, which was summarized in the German press of July 9, the central government will not itself regulate the visit of Jews to bathing or health resorts but will leave the matter rather to the authorities of the respective resorts. These authorities may forbid Jews access (as most of them appear to have already done) to bathing beaches, Kurhäuser, sun baths, et cetera. It is pointed out that Jewish visitors can be made to indicate their race at the time they fill out the usual registration forms for the police and that they then can be provided with special “Kur” cards marked with a distinctive color, such as yellow. Jews who abuse the apparently scant privileges accorded them may have their cards withdrawn. In the ordinance the term “auswärtige”, or non-local, Jews is used, which may mean that the restrictions will be applied against foreign Jews as well.

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  1. Transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in Germany in his despatch No. 246, July 16; received July 26.↩