New Restrictions on Jews Piled Up by Nazis

New restrictions against Germany’s Jews were piled up today by local and national authorities in various parts of the country.

Jewish cultural activities, which have been curbed with increasing frequency of late, again bore the brunt of the renewed anti-Semitic drive. The Gestapo (political police) banned a group of lectures on biblical themes arranged by the Jewish Culture League. Also prohibited were meetings on Goethe and Dostoievsky, scheduled by other Jewish organizations.

The Gestapo at the same time ordered the Jewish Automobile Club to pledge prospective members to counteract anti-German propaganda and promote German export trade when traveling abroad. (The club, a “ghetto” organization, was formed when Jewish motorists were ousted from the general automobile clubs.)

The drive to oust Jews from trade resulted in the sale of Simon Brothers’ textile firm here to “Aryan” interests.

From Kircheim and Weilheim, it was reported the municipalities decided to prohibit Jewish cattle dealers from participating in local cattle markets.

In Gennershein, the 110-year-old synagogue was sold to “Aryans” because the Jewish community was unable to support it after the emigration of wealthier members. After the sale, a service was held by a local Jewish leader who referred to the Jewish situation in Germany in the early nineteenth century and today.

From Munich it was reported that one of the leading insurance experts in Germany, a Jew named Dr. Wetheimer, was forced by Nazi pressure to resign his position as managing director of the Bavarian Mutual Insurance Bank, although the bank had fought to retain his services.

Demands that both Jews and gypsies be denied the right to acquire land in Germany were published in Nazi newspapers. At the same time the Frankfurter Zeitung reported that special laws would soon be issued prohibiting gypsies from engaging in commerce and restricting their residence to suburbs of large cities, from which they would not be allowed to move without special permits.

Impotence is not an acceptable defense for a Jew who is charged with “soiling the Aryan race” by relations with an “Aryan” woman, a Nazi court ruled here today, the Havas News Agency reported.

This latest decision was handed down in sentencing a Jew who was found guilty despite the fact that he pleaded not guilty on grounds of impotence.

Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick soon will issue a decree forbidding government employes to associate with Jews or buy from Jewish tradesmen, it was learned, according to Havas.