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| relation with the Reich and the Party agencies. Third, at that time
the Party policy with respect to the employment of non-Aryans was being
intensified, and this was having its effect on foreign branches of German
firms. One must especially point out the consequences in Austria. We will come
back to them later. Finally, the situation in Czechoslovakia in May 1938 must
also be considered. I may perhaps explain the four points. As a result of the
political tension between Germany and Czechoslovakia, the Czech Government
— I believe it was in 1936 or the beginning of 1937 — passed a
so-called State Defense Law. The law was obviously directed against Germany.
According to this law, certain enterprises in Czechoslovakia could be declared
war essential. I believe they were then called "M" [mobilization] enterprises.
That was the term used in the law. TEFA was declared such an "M" enterprise.
For such enterprises, there were very important restrictions on general
business and personnel. That affected especially foreigners; in our case,
Germans. The danger to TEFA through this law was so great that in 1937 — I
believe it was 1937 — we were obliged at a cartel meeting to ask the
Prager Verein to intercede with the Prague government to help us — or
rather the TEFA — and this was done, and conditions were somewhat
alleviated. But the whole organization of TEFA was, so to speak, sitting on a
barrel of gunpowder. This was the occasion for a certain nervousness in TEFA.
There was something else too. Not only did the Czech authorities consider TEFA
as under suspicion, but also the German Party officers did, because TEFA or
Farben kept old employees who fell under the so-called Nuernberg Laws,* and
because the TEFA, as a corporation under Czech law, had to be careful and
observe the laws of the country. Because the management of TEFA had only one
desire, which was to conduct its business and be left in peace, it was
considered in Party circles, as the expression was: a liberalistic oasis and
politically unreliable. It went so far that the German Consul-General in
Reichenberg in 1937, when a complaint was filed by a Sudeten German, sent a
letter to the Frankfurt Gauleiter with his official seal and told the Gauleiter
in writing that all these accusations were correct. The former Sudeten German
representative in the Czechoslovakian Parliament, a Professor Jung, who wrote
to the Frankfurt Gauleiter about the same |
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| * * * * * * * * * * |
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* Reference is made to that
part of the Nuernberg Laws (German laws approved at the Party Rally in
Nuernberg in 1935) which prohibited marriage of Jews and non-Jews, withdrew
citizenship from Jews, and prohibited any female non-Jew under 45 from working
in a Jewish home.
1600 |
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