Reich Bars Jewish Retailers from Selling, Curbs Doles for Jews

Two new burdens have been added to the already staggering load forced upon Jewish economy by recent decrees. The Interior Ministry has officially forbidden Jewish retailers to sell wares to the public pending “Aryanization” or liquidation. The Finance and Labor ministries jointly decreed a ban on Jews benefiting from public welfare funds. There is no question but that the first decree is partly motivated by anxiety to oust the Jews from trade in connection with the present Christmas rush.

The official announcement of the welfare decree, which has not yet been published in detail, states that the decree mentions the possibility of public welfare funds being made available for emigration. This decree apparently leaves penniless a large number of Jews who had been receiving the Government dole in lieu of interest on war loans and other bonds wiped out by inflation. In all instances where Jews need help the decree specifies that they must first turn to Jewish organizations, but it seems that in stringently restricted cases where organizations do not help sufficiently, the Jews are to receive assistance from public funds, this apparently applying only to the comparatively small number receiving doles from municipalities.

Dr. Otto Hirsch and Dr. Arthur Lilienthal, respectively chairman and director of the Reichsverband der Juden in Deutschland, were among 50 Jews released from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp Friday. They were among II prominent Jewish leaders seized in the wave of arrests following the murder by a young Polish Jew of a German Embassy official in Paris early this month. Their release was believed to presage resumption of the Reichsverb and activities, banned for the past two weeks.