The possibility that Jews may be brought into the Nazi labor draft system was seen today in Field Marshal Hermann Goering’s decree for conscription of labor which extends the legal basis for labor service to all German nationals and “Reichsangehoerige” (wards of the State).
Significantly, the decree uses the word “Staatsangehoerige,” which is contradictory to the present labor service law which specifically excludes Jews, still nationals although not citizens.
Whether the decree has any connection with the recent wholesale arrests of Jews, many of whom have been interned in concentration camps, is not yet definitely known. Jewish circles hope that if the decree meant to include Jews it will serve as a regularizing and humanizing influence, contrary to the present procedure which is carried out summarily and arbitrarily, creating terror among German Jewry.
The decree, providing universal conscription for short-term labor service on “nationally urgent tasks,” goes into effect July I and applies equally to all classes of workers and employers. Although its exact purpose is still unknown, reports that the edict is a “war measure” are denied.
It was revealed today that during disorders Tuesday evening in Pankow, Berlin suburb, a crowd of 100 youngsters entered a Jewish orphan home and smashed pictures and flower vases. The director of the home hid his charges in the cellar. Afterwards the youths smashed the windows in a Jewish training school in the same town.
These developments, together with the situation in north Berlin where signs posted on “Aryan” shops by shops by storm troopers ban sale of food and medicine to Jews, are particularly illuminating in view of the Voelkischer Beobachter’s editorial reiterating that only legal methods should be employed against Jews.
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.
