Reich Arrests Jews Unable to Obey Expulsion Orders

Hundreds of Jews were today facing imprisonment in concentration camps for the second and third time as police launched a systematic roundup of German and stateless Jews unable to obey expulsion orders or considered to have made insufficient efforts to emigrate.

The drive began yesterday afternoon and is likely to continue for several days. Arrests already reported in Berlin include stateless and foreign Jews who in the past were given varying periods in which to leave the Reich but have been unable to obtain visas. Others include stateless Jews who have not been given residence permits and German Jews given emigration passports which they have not yet used.

Estimates of the number of Jews “illegally” in the Reich vary from several hundred to several thousand. large numbers, including thousands recently released from concentration camps, have been given expulsion orders with grace periods ranging from weeks to months. In many cases the police have granted extensions when satisfied of concrete emigration opportunities materializing.

The expulsion pressure is directed particularly against those who have been released from concentration camps, Jews completing their retraining courses which prepare them for emigration, and the stateless. Many of the latter two classifications have already spent one or more sentences under “emigration arrest.”

“Aryanized” enterprises cannot continue under their former Jewish names, the Nazi Gauleiter (district leader) of Halle-Mersburg has decreed in banning the use of the former Jewish name, even as “predecessor.” The ban hits a practice, common throughout the Reich, whereby “Aryan” buyers have capitalized on the good-will built up by the former Jewish owners. In Berlin, Large recently-“Aryanized” shops, such as Gruenfeld’s and Rosenhain’s, still display the old Jewish names. An exception is Wertheim’s Department Store, whose name was recently changed to Awag after being in “Aryan” hands for several years.