Radical elimination of Jews from the entire economic life of occupied France has been hailed in the German press as one of the most important achievements in German efforts to reorganize European economy according to Nazi principles.
Publishing details of the decree by the military governor of the occupied territory, which went into effect May 20, the Hamburger Fremdenblatt asserts that the decree was welcomed by the French population as the “anti-Jewish activities of the Vichy commissariat were considered slow and ineffective.”
The text of the decree, which was first published in the military governor’s official gazette, specifies the following occupations from which Jews are barred: wholesale and retail trade, restaurants, hotel keeping, insurance, shipping, storage, travel agencies, banking, money exchange, money lending, debt collecting, publishing, administration of houses and landed property and any activities as agents and commission workers.
The decree defines “Jews” in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws–persons with at least three grandparents of pure Jewish blood, persons with grandparent who belonged to the Jewish religious community and persons with two Jewish grandparents who attend synagogue or have married Jews.
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