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Nazi Decrees Block Czech Jews’ Bank Accounts, Tighten Trade Control

February 23, 1940
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Baron Konstantin von Neurath, Reich Protector for Bohemia-Moravia, has issued decrees blocking all Jewish bank and credit holdings and placing Jewish commercial and agricultural enterprises under Government control, it was learned today.

The decree regarding Jews’ finances, issued with the approval of the Finance Minister, is published in Baron von Neurath’s official gazette and Der Neue Tag, official Nazi organ in Prague, copies of which have just reached here. The decree provides:

(1) From date of publication of the decree, no payments of money may be made to Jews, Jewish firms or organizations. All such payments must be deposited in blocked accounts in banks designated for this purpose by the Finance Ministry.

(2) The foregoing measure does not apply to Jewish enterprises directed by “Aryan” managements appointed by the Reich Protector.

(3) Each Jew, no matter how many blocked accounts he may have–whether checking, savings or other kinds of accounts–may draw for himself and his family no more than 1,500 kronen weekly, “until the appearance of stricter regulations.”

(4) Jews are forbidden to rent safes without special permission of the Finance Minister.

(5) All banks and credit institutions are ordered to ascertain which if any of their safe deposit boxes are held by Jews after March 15 and submit a list of these holders to the Finance Ministry.

(6) No Jew may withdraw anything from his safety deposit box without permission of the Finance Ministry.

(7) No Jew may transfer any of his valuable papers such as stocks, bonds and mortgages.

(8) Rent due to the Jews and any sums due for leasing Jewish property must not be paid to the Jews but deposited in their blocked accounts in special banks.

The measures to restrict Jews in the economic field are also published in Der Neue Tag. All of them have already gone into effect. They are as follows:

Jews and Jewish enterprises are forbidden to acquire real estate or to rent real estate; Jews and Jewish firms are forbidden to participate in economic enterprises and in share holding corporations; Jews are prohibited from acquiring commercial enterprises from others or opening new enterprises; Jews holding agricultural land must report it to the authorities; the authorities are entitled to appoint “trustees” to manage Jewish holdings or commercial firms.

Meanwhile, Economics Dictator Herman Goering’s Essener National Zeitung reports that during the last six months the Nazis have “liquidated,” in Berlin alone, approximately 2,500 Jewish artisan shops and that “the process of liquidation is being continued.” Artisanship represents virtually the only field in which Jews in the Reich are still permitted to engage.

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