Naziracial Laws Used in Blacklisting Jews in Soviet Germany

The American Jewish Committee today received a cabled report from its representatives in Germany stating that 912 Jewish families and 1,098 families of mixed marriages have been put on a blacklist in the Soviet zone of Germany under an order issued by a special department of the East German State Security Ministry “to put under control” persons who “were regarded as non-Aryans and of mixed parentage. “

Included in this order, the A.J.C. report said, is a directive to East German authorities to use the Nazi racial laws to determine who is or is not a “non-Aryan.” The order was issued on January 3rd and the “black list census” was completed within two weeks after the issuance of the order, the cable to the American Jewish Committee said.

Even before the completion of the “black list census, ” the A.J.C. information declared, 114 men, 134 women and 86 children under the age of 18, were imprisoned. These persons were arrested between December 3 and January 3 on verbal orders of the Minister of State Security and were imprisoned in concentration camps at Sallborn near Badberka, Weimar district; at Kunersdorf near Furstenwalde, Frankfort-on-Oder district; and at Silenz on Island Rugen.

DISMISSAL OF PERSONS OF MIXED PARENTAGE ORDERED

“Our information is that the order for East Germany was prepared by the Department of State Security Ministry in cooperation with the Central Secretariat of the SED–Socialist Unity Party–the Communist Party of East Germany, the cable said. “The order consists of 11 sections. The first section provides that all persons regarded as non-Aryan and of mixed parentage must be discharged from all jobs unless there is an agreement to the contrary between the Ministry of Interior and the State Security Ministry.

“The other sections of the order call for a check of all persons for ‘ideological sabotage’ and of those regarded as actually or potentially hostile to the regime. All these persons must be confined to isolated quarters (placed in concentration camps) together with their families and their property confiscated. No appeal can be made from this decree, ” the instructions emphasized.

Jacob Blaustein, president of the A.J.C., declared: “The revival of the bestial Nazi racial laws is further calculated to appeal mainly to the neo-Nazis and neofascists in Europe in an attempt to have these bigots join the Communist hate America campaign. The fact is Moscow is using its new hate campaign strictly as a matter of political expediency. The Kremlin sees the United States of America as the major obstacle in its drive for world domination. By wooing the neo-fascist and neo-Nazi elements with anti-Semitism and bigotry the Kremlin hopes to mobilize these groups for their hate-America campaign with the objective of splitting any coalition of Western democracies.”