Austria’s Nazi regime today placed obstacles in the way of foreign Jews seeking to leave the country, and barred Jews from the benefits of a moratorium on creditors’ auctions.
Scores of Jewish visitors and businessmen found it necessary to get special permission to leave the country. The measure, apparently enforced only for a week, requires submission of applications for special visas to the Police Passport Office, from where the are forwarded to the Gestapo (German Secret Police) for review.
The procedure involves a minimum delay of three days. In “suspicious cases,” the police are requiring a sworn affidavit that the applicant is an “Aryan.” A similar decree enforced a month ago covering all foreigners was rescinded after British protests.
The French Consul-General here is refusing to grant transit visas to travellers, forcing them to sail via hamburg or Italian ports.
Jews will not benefit from a ministerial order directing courts to postpone auctions of debtors’ goods until June 30. The decree provides that exceptions are to be granted only when the creditor shows extreme need of payment, and such exceptions will not be granted to Jews.
Dorotheum’s, leading Vienna pawnbrokers, announced that Jews are barred from private auctions of unclaimed merchandise.
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