A decision handed down by the Berlin Labor Court has upheld a Jewish complainant.
Last October the plaintiff, a Hungarian Jew, was given notice of dismissal by a printing firm which had employed him for twenty years. His employers said it was necessary to terminate his connection with the company because almost all its work came from official quarters.
Consequently, he was advised, the services of a “non-Aryan” could not be used. In addition to this factor, the Nazi cell in the firm demanded that none but members of the German Labor Front should be employed.
The court ruled that the “Aryan” legislation does not apply to the concern, since it is a private enterprise. The decision stated that the dismissal caused a hardship which could not receive approval.
The complainant was formerly a member of the Labor Front but was compelled to leave because he was a Jew.
Even if the authorities who give work to the firm had expressed a wish that he be dismissed, the court’s ruling continued, his discharge would have been wrong. The concern would have had to call attention to a recent decree by Dr. Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior, prohibiting extension of the “Aryan” legislation to “fields that are not intended to be affected.”
“The Court has found no ground for the dismissal of the complainant,” the decision read. “For twenty years he carried out the work of the firm to its complete satisfaction.”
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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.
