Nazis’ Promise in Upper Silesia Broken

and attorneys prevented from practicing their professions by Nazi decree have been reinstated theoretically even though they are actually deprived of means to earn their livelihood, Jewish judges in Upper Silesia have not even been formally restored to their former posts, the Guardian reports.

Of eight Jewish judges in the city of Beuthen in the plebiscite area, seven remain out of court, the investigation disclosed. Most of them receive their salaries but are not given cases for trial in accordance with the Nazi slogan displayed on the walls of the courts throughout Upper Silesia, “Only Germans shall judge in Germany.”

When one of the Jewish Judges protested against this method of depriving him of employment, the Guardian reports, he was told that he was suspected of Marxism. As a result, other Jewish judges, assessors and others now know enough to refrain from complaining lest they be made the victims of trumped-up charges.

The regulations issued by the medical association of the insurance companies against the employment of Jewish doctors are operative also in Upper Silesia, the Manchester Guardian reports, and consequently the readmission of Jewish doctors legally has meant little to them actually.

These same conditions apply also to the Jewish attorneys who have been readmitted to practice, since Germans are not allowed to employ Jewish attorneys. When one liberal-minded German in Hindenburg briefed a Jewish lawyer, he was-in-formed the following day by the municipal bank that his credit was stopped and that he had but three days to pay an overdraft.

Nazis make a habit of visiting Germans retaining Jewish lawyers and under threats of violence, force them to withdraw their cases, the Guardian charges. As a result of the discriminations against them, well-known veteran Jewish attorneys with long years of reputable practice, are forced to make a living by preparing briefs for young, inexperienced Nazi lawyers who have succeeded to their practices. A Jewish lawyer appearing in court, says the Guardian, is prohibited from addressing a German lawyer as “colleague.”