With their teeth sharpened to meet "special conditions," the Nuremberg racial laws adopted by the Reichstag in September, 1935, were today extended to cover the province of Austria. It is estimated that the long-expected extension of the legislation will affect nearly a half million persons, automatically depriving thousands of their present status of German citizen.
As altered exclusively for Austria, the Nuremberg laws:
1–Postpone certain limited pension rights granted in the Old Reich to dismissed civil servants who are war veterans;
2– Provide for more stringent pre-marriage investigation to assure "purity of blood;"
3– Provide for easier annulment of inter-marriages.
Under the German laws, dismissed Jewish employes of the Government who were front-fighters are pensioned off with a sum equal to their salaries at the time of dismissal. The Austrian version withholds the application of this paragraph indefinitely, substituting a general statement that special regulations will be issued.
Under the law regarding investigation before marriage all Austrian couples must first obtain a special permit from the local mayor attesting to the "purity of blood" of both parties.
The annulment proceedings are technically changed to enable complaints to be registered with equal facility by husband or wife.
Application of the section forbidding "Aryan" women under the age of 45 to work as servants for Jews is postponed to august 1.
Because extension of the laws to Austria had been long expected, the news created little excitement here.
The Nuremberg Laws were adopted by the Reichstag meeting in Nuremberg on Sept. 15, 1935, after hearing a message from Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The original laws provide: (1) Only persons of German blood may be citizens of the Reich, automatically excluding Jews; (2) Jews may not marry or conduct "other forms of sexual relations" with German citizens of "Aryan blood" on pain of minimum imprisonment of one year, and such marriages, if performed, are invalid; (3) Jews are prohibited from displaying the swastika flag, which is made the official flag of Germany, but are permitted to display the blue-white Jewish flag under special Government protection; (4) Jews are forbidden to employ "Aryan" women under 45 years of age.
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