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U.S. Jews Treated Like Those of Reich, Berlin Says in Statement on Protest

May 16, 1938
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The German News Agency flatly reasserted the right to discriminate against Jews, whatever their citizenship, in a statement on the United States protest against application to American citizens of the decree ordering registration of property held in the Reich by German and foreign Jews.

The statement said:

“The United States transmitted to the Reich on May 9 a note protesting against application to American Nationals of the decree relating to the census of Israelite property. The document alleges that Germany by issuing the order injured and violated the clauses of the Germano-American Consular, Commercial and Friendship Treaty of Dec. 8, 1923.

“This charge is without foundation. In the article in question of the Germano-American Treaty, Germany and the United States bound themselves in principle to treat their (respective) citizens on the same basis as their (own) nationals regarding exercise of trade.

“The prescriptions in the decree do not treat foreign Jews worse than German Jews. The viewpoint of the American note, according to which the Germano-American treaty would not allow racial discrimination between different groups of citizens of the other contracting party, has no foundation in the treaty’s text.

“This American conception would finally lead to a strange result, in which it would be forbidden to make any distinctions whatsoever as to sex, age and professional preparation or aptitudes in the treatment imposed on citizens of the other contracting party.”

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