Special instructions are momentarily expected governing the withdrawal of German citizenship from East European Jews who became citizens between 1919 and 1931, in order that none of those to be affected may escape with their legal citizenship.
An official announcement issued today states that of the 130,000 who were naturalized in Prussia during 1919-1931, 12,500 were Eastern Jews and the rest Aryans of German descent.
The meaning of the phrase “front soldier” is more rigidly defined by the Ministry of the Interior in order to affect the exclusion of more Jews who are holding their official positions in the government of the Reich than might be affected by a less rigid definition.
Thus, a front soldier is not one who merely served in the army, even in fighting detachments, but, according to the definition issued today by the Ministry, one who participated in trench fighting, or took part in the actual storming of fortifications, and especially if he has wounds to prove he was a front fighter.
“It is not sufficient,” says the office definition, “when one has served in the army in war time, without actually coming face to face with the enemy.”
It is pointed out that according to this definition President Von Hindenburg was not a “front” fighter and, therefore, were he a Jew, he could not hold an official post—even though he was Field Marshal.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
