851.4016/9: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Germany (Morris)
2972. Paris reports that the press of October 2 carried an ordinance signed by “The Head of the Military Administration in France for the Commander in Chief of the (German) Army” dated September 27 which requires, among other things, the registration of Jews and the posting on Jewish enterprises of signs indicating the Jewish character of the enterprise.
Unless you perceive compelling reason to the contrary, you are requested to address the following note to the Foreign Office:
“Under instructions of my Government, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that my Government’s attention has been called to an ordinance dated September 27, 1940 and signed by the Head of the Military Administration in France for the Commander in Chief of the Army, which, among other things, requires the registration of Jews and the posting on Jewish enterprises of signs indicating the Jewish character of the enterprise. No provision appears to have been made in this ordinance to exempt from its application American citizens who are Jews.
“My Government is confident that steps will be taken promptly to insure that American citizens will be exempted from the application of the ordinance in question as well as for any other ordinances which may be directed against persons in occupied territory on grounds of race, color or creed.
“It is a fundamental American principle, fundamental in the American tradition, fundamental in the Constitution of the United States, that there shall be no discrimination between American citizens on racial or religious grounds. An ordinance which would have the effect of arbitrarily dividing Americans into special classes, subjecting them to differential treatment and exposing one group to indignities, possible injuries and material loss must necessarily be resented by the American people as a whole and by their Government. Uniformly in its relations with foreign nations the American Government has declined emphatically the right of these nations to apply on their part such discrimination as between American citizens. Uniformly, moreover, my Government has avoided discrimination in its treatment of the Nationals of foreign countries residing in the United States, including Germans.
“The American Government believes, therefore, that upon further consideration the German Military Administration in France will not [Page 569] wish to subject American citizens to provisions of the nature of those embodied in the ordinance in question and that measures to exempt American citizens from the ordinance will be taken urgently, particularly in view of the fact that my Government has received confirmed reports to the effect that persons wearing distinguishing arm bands already have committed acts of vandalism against and destroyed the property of persons singled out in these ordinances in the occupied regions of France.[”]