New repressive anti-Jewish measures, not only in Austria but throughout the Reich, were foreshadowed today in a joint interview given by Dr. Hans Frank, Nazi Commissar for Justice, and Dr. Franz Hueber, Minister of Justice for Austria.
“The race question stands in the foreground of our forthcoming legislation,” Dr. Hueber told the Vienna edition of Chancellor Hitler’s Voelkischer Beobachter. “The question presents no great problem in the provinces of Austria, but in Vienna it is an extraordinarily pressing one.”
Dr. Frank added: “Also in old Germany the race question must once more be vigorously thrust into the foreground.”
The Reich decree reducing Jewish communities to the status of private organizations, depriving them of the right to levy taxes, was received with concern by leaders of the Vienna Jewish Community, since next year’s estimated expenditure already exceeds income by 500,000 schillings. The growing distress among Vienna’s Jews requires extension of relief work, which is impossible by voluntary contributions without taxation.
Nazi police, it was learned today, have arrested General Emil von Sommer, monarchist leader of the Jewish War Veterans Legion, who on March 24 shamed storm troopers into retiring by appearing in full general’s uniform and medals for enforced street cleaning work. His arrest was not considered surprising in view of the Nazis’ particular keenness to put monarchists “in places of safety.”
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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.
