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22
Nov. 45
with the killing of a German embassy official in
Paris. Unlike the boycott action in April 1933, when care was taken to
avoid extensive violence, an allegedly spontaneous pogrom was staged and
carried out all over Germany. The legislative measures which followed
were discussed and approved in their final form at a meeting on 12
November 1938 under the chairmanship of the Defendant Göring, with
the participation of the Defendants Frick and Funk and others. I refer
to Document 1816-PS, which will appear in the document book. The meeting
was called following Hitler's orders "requesting that the Jewish
question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or the
other." The participants agreed on measures to be taken for the
elimination of the Jew from German economy. The laws issued in this
period were signed mostly by the Defendant Göring in his capacity
as Deputy of the Four Year Plan, and were thus strictly connected with
the consolidation of control of the German economy and preparation for
aggressive war. These laws obliged all German Jews to pay a collective
fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks; barred the Jews from trades and crafts;
limited movement of Jews to certain localities and hours; limited the
time for the sale or liquidation of Jewish enterprises; forced Jews to
deposit shares and securities held by them; forbade the sale or
acquisition of gold or precious stones by a Jew; granted landlords the
right to give notice to Jewish tenants before legal expiration of the
leases; and forced all Jews over 6 years of age to wear the Star of
David.
In the final period of the anti-Jewish crusade of the
Nazi conspirators within Germany, very few legislative measures were
passed. The Jews were just delivered to the SS, Gestapo, and the various
extermination staffs. The last law dealing with Jews in Germany put them
entirely outside the law and ordered the confiscation by the State of
the property of dead Jews. This law was a weak reflection of a factual
situation already in existence. As Dr. Stuckart, assistant to the
Defendant Prick, stated at the time:
"The
aim of the racial legislation may be regarded as already achieved and
consequently the racial legislation as essentially closed. It led to
the temporary solution of the Jewish problem and at the same time
essentially prepared for the final solution. Many regulations will
lose their practical importance as Germany approaches the achievement
of the final goal on the Jewish problem." Hitler,
on January 30, 1939, in a speech before the Reichstag, made the
following prophesy:
"The
result (of a war) will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in
Europe."
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