The Reich Ministry of Economics today issued an order instructing local authorities throughout Germany to refrain from molesting Jewish firms until publication of details of the Nuremberg laws “which will include certain new regulations regarding the Jewish position in economics.”
The order follows closely on a bold demand voiced in an article in the Frankfurter Zeitung, one of the few remaining papers in Germany not thoroughly Nazified, that the Government hasten clarification of the Jews’ status in commerce.
The present policy of terrorizing Jews by individual action into selling their property and keeping them in a constant state of uncertainty about the future is not only affecting the Jews but is paralyzing many branches of industry and harming the entire German economic system, the Frankfurter Zeitung declares.
When the Jewish economic status is regulated by law, the paper believes, the panic selling of today may diminish since it will be quite clear that the process of eliminating Jews from commerce will be a long-lasting one.
Relating how the Jews of provincial cities are being forced out of business by local authorities through all forms of terroristic methods solely because the law regulating their economic status has not yet been promulgated, the paper warns that the forcing of Jews to sell their holdings, even if regulated by law, will lead to insolvency and an increase in German debts abroad.
The Frankfurter Zeitung points out that the method of permitting Jews to take their money out of Germany in the form of “sperrmarks, which they do only at a great loss, actually results in considerably enlarging Germany’s debts abroad.
The paper warns that by eliminating Jews from commerce the German Government must remain aware of the fact that a large proportion of the country’s export and import trade will be lost “for a long time.”
Referring to the larger industries, the paper emphasizes that some, like the textile and clothing, will definitely suffer since they were built up by Jews.
In concluding, the paper sounds a warning note that the entire German economic system will be exposed to danger should the projected law actually lead to the speedy elimination of Jews from commerce. Its warning is based on the belief that the larger enterprises owned by Jews will be acquired only by “Aryans” possessing large capital, thus concentrating the industries in the hands of a few “Aryan” capitalists. This, the Frankfurter Zeitung points out, is not in the interests of the country or the Nazi Government.
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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.
