From an official Nazi declaration limiting the percentage of Jewish students to be admitted to Germany’s higher institutions of learning:
“No self-respecting country can allow its higher activities to be carried on by persons of alien stock to the extent that Germany has hitherto allowed. Germany owes it to herself, her history and her future to fashion her existence out of her own power and entrust it only to men of her own blood.
“The admittance to the liberal professions of a disproportionate number of persons of alien stock might be interpreted as evidencing their racial superiority—a notion that must be categorically rebuffed. Moreover, in view of economic limitations, it is natural that our own kin must have preference.
“Since it is too much to hope that those of alien stock would exercise voluntary self-restraint and stay away from the higher schools and universities, there is nothing left for the government but to decree that they be admitted only in strictly limited numbers. This is necessary also in order that the German schools and German universities may be preserved as German.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
