Office of the Historian

862.4016/1784

The Consul at Berlin (Hodgdon) to the Secretary of State

[Extract]
No. 2255
Berlin, August 31, 1938.
[Received September 9.]

Sir: In compliance with the Department’s telegram of August 26, 7 p.m., paragraph 2, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of the Circular Order of the Reich Minister of Finance,51 dated April 19, 1938, entitled “Regulations for Measures of Equity in the Field of the Real Estate Tax (Richtlinien fuer Billigkeitsmassnahmen auf dem Gebiet der Grundsteuer), published in the Reichsteuerblatt of April 20, 1938 (pages 409–418). Article 4 of Section I provides that tax remissions (reductions) are not to be granted on real estate belonging to Jews. A translation thereof reads as follows:

“No Equitable Remission for Jewish Real Estate

  • “(1) An equitable remission is not to be granted for taxable property which belongs to Jews. Who is a Jew is defined in Art. 5 of the First Decree under the Reich Citizenship Law, dated November 14, 1935 (Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, page 1333).
  • “(2) under what circumstances real estate owned by two or more persons or by a juridical person is to be regarded as belonging to Jews will be specially regulated.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respectfully yours,

A. Dana Hodgdon
  1. Not reprinted.↩