January 4, 1938 Application of Anti-Semitic Laws Intensified

http://archive.jta.org/article/1938/01/04/2840750/application-of-antisemitic-laws-intensified
A WALL OF NO ESCAPE BUILT AROUND THE JEWS

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 3 (JTA) –


The suffering of German Jewry, caught in the vise of the nazi anti-Jewish program, has grown worse lately owing to the increasing intensity with which its captors are turning the screw, according to a survey of the situation by a J.T.A. Special correspondent.



There have been no new laws and regulations affecting the Jews of the Reich during the last three months. Nor have there been any spectacular anti-Jewish activities, for the anti-Jewish work has gone under cover, unreported in the press and conducted under guise of the legal forms provided by the anti-Jewish legislation enacted in the past.



What has been and is happening in Germany today is the intensified application of every anti-Jewish measure provided by nazi legislation and decree to a point unequalled in the previous history of the regime and to an extent permitting no single Jew to escape. What is happening to the Jews in Germany today effectively disposes of any belief that the Nazis, after realizing the major part of their policy with regard to the Jews, would permit some stabilization of the Jewish question.

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THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CREATION OF THE STATELESS JEW

PLIGHT OF 30,000 STATELESS JEWS HOPELESS


Lately, the estimated 30,000 "stateless" Jews in the Reich have been receiving the attention of the police. The usual procedure is to notify the stateless Jew that his labor permit has been cancelled and that his residential permit has also expired and he must leave the country within fourteen days.



As no European country today admits stateless persons, the stateless Jew has, in most cases, only two alternatives -- the concentration camp in Germany for failure to obey the deportation order, or jail in a neighboring country for entering it illegally.



The German-Jewish emigration organizations are able to do little in these cases. Emigration possibilities today are very slight and exist only for qualified individuals. The organizations in Berlin are now receiving as many as 200 requests a day for advice and assistance in emigration work.



It is in the industrial and commercial fields that the Nazis are meeting with their greatest success and are securing the "Aryanization" of one firm after another. These activities are now being concentrated in the textile fields with the large Jewish-owned houses as the principal targets.



The Jews are being rapidly forced out of industry by the withholding of raw materials (or foreign exchange to purchase them), and from trade by the refusal to supply finished products to Jewish agents and retailers. A vigorous campaign is being conducted among dealers not to buy from Jewish manufacturers. Anti-Jewish propaganda activities are especially noticeable in the export branches of industry.



It is significant to note that the loudest demands for action on the Jewish question are being voiced by the Schwarze Korps, the mouthpiece of the S.S. guards and the secret police; for it is the secret police who are chiefly responsible for the increased pressure felt by the Jews today.



One of the chief goals has been the isolation of German Jewry by depriving it of contacts with the non-Jewish world in Germany and with the Jews abroad. German Jews, with some exceptions, are no longer given passports, unless to emigrate. Those receiving passports, find them valid for only six months.



German-Jewish organizations are not permitted to receive visits from representatives of foreign Jewish organizations without permission of the Gestapo. German-Jewish newspapers may not even accept subscriptions from non-Jews without special permission from the authorities in each case. An increasing interest in the activities of Jewish organizations, particularly those engaged in emigration work, is being shown by the police, who do not hesitate to attempt to dictate policies.
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HELPLESS AGAINST POLICE PRESSURE


The Jews have been able to hold out against these tactics to a certain extent, not only in the textile but in other industrial and commercial fields, but they are helpless to oppose police pressure to sell out and emigrate. This police pressure, now being applied to an increasing degree, is having a marked effect in liquidating the Jewish position.



Today there is only one large department store left in Berlin in Jewish hands. It is rumored that it will be pulled down for municipal purposes early this year. A Jewish owner of a large shop in Berlin was ordered to install separate cloak rooms for his "Aryan" and Jewish employes. He himself cannot take any action against nazi employees in his own shipping department who wrap leaflets urging the boycott of Jews with purchases made in his own shop.



In general, the policy is to make things as difficult as possible for the Jewish manufacturer or merchant until -- in the words of a nazi official to a Jewish businessman -- he realizes that "there is no future for the Jew in Germany." There is no great reluctance to use persuasive methods to bring about this understanding, particularly in the provinces, with the result that the Jewish businessman takes the best offer he can get and clears out.



One result of this has been a further weakening of the Jewish communal structure, the financial basis of which weakens steadily as increasing numbers of members of the Jewish community become financially unproductive and unable to maintain their share of the communal burdens. What these are may be seen from the fact that one in five of the Jewish population in the cities is dependent on the community while in the smaller towns the proportion is larger.

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MIDDLE-AGED NOW SEEK TO EMIGRATE


Another result has been the development of a new emigration problem. A large class of middle-aged people, with a small amount of capital, is now seeking to emigrate. Most of them have no vocational experience except. Commercial activities and are of an age where they cannot easily master new vocations or languages. The great majority of them are also beyond the age which countries of immigration consider suitable.



Existence of this class, which continues to grow daily, provides another contradiction to the Nazi dictum: "Young Jews, overseas; old Jews, Weissensee (the Jewish cemetery)."



Jewish emigration from the Reich now proceeds by the estimated average of about 1,500 a month under steadily mounting difficulties. The German Jews considered from the viewpoint of age and training as most suitable for immigration, have already gone from the Reich and it becomes increasingly difficult to place those remaining. The number of German Jewish girls emigrating has not been in proportion to men and efforts are now being made to further the emigration of young women.



In spite of the fact that women emigrants find it easier to get employment abroad than men, there has been some reluctance on the part of the Jewish girls to emigrate, chiefly because they prefer to remain with their families as long as it is economically possible for the families to remain together. Once they leave Germany, they know that they may return to the country only under special circumstances and with special permission of the police. In many cases, emigration means separation for life and this they naturally prefer to delay as long as possible.
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http://archive.jta.org/article/1946/05/28/2745244/nazi-youth-leader-charged-at-nuremberg-trial-with-deporting-50000-jews-to-death-camps
May 28, 1946
Nuremberg, May. 27 (JTA) –

Nazi Youth Leader Charged at Nuremberg Trial with Deporting 50,000 Jews to Death Camps


U.S. Prosecutor Thomas Dodd today confronted Baldur von Schirach, former gauleiter of Vienna and one-time Nazi youth leader, with documents proving that he had arranged for the deportation of 50,000 Jews to extermination camps in Poland. Dodd submitted to the International Military Tribunal the minutes of a meeting of Hitler, Hane Frank, then gauleiter of Poland, and Schirach, at which Schirach asked Frank to accept 50,000 Viennese Jews.



Schirach denied that he knew what had happened to the deportees, stating that he believed the older people were sent to Theresienstadt, while the younger ones were sent to Poland. Dodd interrupted, declaring: "You know that the Jews were taken to Riga and Minsk and annihilated."



Dodd quoted from 55 reports submitted to Schirach in 1942 by Reinhard Heydrich, who was at the time deputy chief of the Gestapo, giving full details of the massacre of he deported Jews. The prosecutor remarked that "your memory is very bad today," when the former youth leader said that he could not remember having seen the reports.



The Russian prosecutor following Dodd, submitted excerpts from an affidavit by Ida Wassotom, a Jewish resident of Lemberg, relating how members of the Hitler youth groups, which Schirach directed, had participated in the murder of hundreds of Jews in that city. Uniformed youths, armed with knives and pistols, she said, reamed the streets, breaking into homes to search for hidden Jews and killing Jewish men and women on the streets.

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http://archive.jta.org/article/1946/07/22/2745874/ss-leader-who-commanded-ghetto-hanged-in-czechoslovakia-for-crimes-against-jews
July 22, 1946


S.s. Leader Who Commanded Ghetto Hanged in Czechoslovakia for Crimes Against Jews
Prague, Jul. 21 (JTA) –


An Austrian S.S. leader named Knollmayer, who was vice-commander of the concentration camp at Sered, was hanged today following his conviction by a People's Court at Bratislava. Knollmayer, 24, achieved notoriety in 1944 when he shot and killed the rabbi of Piestany and other Jews.



Meanwhile, the long-drawn-out trial of Anton Vasek, Slovak puppet official, is nearing an end, with the prosecution demanding the death penalty and the defense pleading for clemency on the grounds that not all the Jews in Slovakia were killed.
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http://archive.jta.org/article/1944/02/08/2863008/200-gestapo-men-killed-by-jews-during-battle-in-polish-extermination-camp
February 8, 1944


200 Gestapo Men Killed by Jews During Battle in Polish “extermination Camp”
LONDON, Feb. 7 (JTA) –


More than 200 Gestapo agents and Ukrainian guards in the "Jewish extermination camp" of Sobibor, in occupied Poland, were killed during a revolt of the Jewish internees organized with the aid of the underground movement, the Polish Government-in-Exile reported today.



The revolt, which is the second largest Jewish uprising against the Nazis, surpassed only by the "Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto," started in the so-called "penal huts" of the camp where Jews are tortured for various alleged offences. Jewish prisoners attacked the huts and released the tortured Jews who joined them in disarming the guards, and in resisting the Gestapo units which rushed to the scene to crush the revolt. Aided by armed members of the underground movement who came to their assistance, the Jewish prisoners succeeded in killing many of their tormentors. Many of the Jews were also killed in the battle.



The Polish Government's report states that the Gestapo "liquidation" of the remnants of the Jewish population in various Polish towns continues. Five hundred Jews were recently executed in Przemysl and a large number were killed in Rseszow, the report declares, adding that the "Jewish" labor camps in Trawniki and Poniatowka have been completely "liquidated" by the Germans.



Citation - Click to see see this article's citation



"200 Gestapo Men Killed by Jews During Battle in Polish “extermination Camp”." Jewish Telegraphic Agency 8 Feb 1944.

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http://archive.jta.org/article/1944/08/17/2864684/germans-raze-all-traces-of-the-jewish-extermination-camps-before-leaving-poland
August 17, 1944


Germans Raze All Traces of the “jewish Extermination Camps” Before Leaving Poland
MOSCOW, Aug. 16 (JTA) –


Correspondents of the Moscow press now visiting the liberated area in Poland today reported from Lublin that the Germans have razed to the ground all buildings in the extermination camp of Treblinka, including the gas chambers where tens of thousands of Jews were suffocated to death. The Moscow papers, however, assert that there are people who survived the massacres in Treblinka and who testify in details as to the mass-murder which the Germans carried out systematically on Jews brought from all parts of occupied Europe.



Similar steps to remove all traces of their crimes have been taken by the Germans in the Sobibor, Trawniki, Poniatow and Majdanek. All these places are now in the hands of the Red Army, but it is not easy to find the exact location of the "death factories."



An investigation made by Soviet officials in the Lublin district established that in the Trawniki concentration camp the Germans had established a special section for Jews who were caught fleeing from the Warsaw ghetto after the anti-Nazi revolt there. The torture of the Jews in this section of the camp was especially brutal, neighboring peasants testified.



Citation - Click to see see this article's citation



"Germans Raze All Traces of the “jewish Extermination Camps” Before Leaving Poland." Jewish Telegraphic Agency 17 Aug 1944.
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http://archive.jta.org/article/1945/06/24/2867482/german-plan-to-kill-all-jews-in-theresienstadt-thwarted-by-rapid-advance-of-red-army
June 24, 1945


German Plan to Kill All Jews in Theresienstadt Thwarted by Rapid Advance of Red Army
London, Jun. 22 (JTA) –


A German plan to kill all Jews in Theresidenstadt in special "gas chambers" was foiled almost at the last minute, the London Times reports today in a letter from Theresienstadt.



The letter reveals that "bathing establishments" for gassing the interned Jews had already been prepared, but the doors for these chambers were returned three times because they did not fit, In the meantime, Russian troops reached Theresisnstedt.



The letter confirms earlier reports with regard to the number of Jews who passed through Theresienstedt, and estimates that during the years 1942-43 an average of 150 Jews died there each day. Only Rabbi Leo Neuhaus and four Jewish women remained alive from the first transport of 1,197 Jews brought to Theresienstedt from Frankfurtan- Main, the letter reported.



(Rabbi Ralph Nehaus, who is rabbi of Congregation Chab Shalom in New York, told the JTA that he last heard from his father over four years ago and did not know were he was or whe ther he was alive. The younger Rabbi Neuhaus came to the United States in 1941.)



Eva Bart, an official of the Joint Distribution Committee in Warsaw, is among the Jews liberated in Western Germany, Dr. Emanuel Szerer, Polish-Jewish leader reported today. She lived in the Warsaw ghetto until its "liquidation" by the Germans and passed through the notorious camps of Oswiecim, Majdanek and Ravensbruck.



Citation - Click to see see this article's citation
"German Plan to Kill All Jews in Theresienstadt Thwarted by Rapid Advance of Red Army." Jewish Telegraphic Agency 24 Jun 1945
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http://archive.jta.org/article/1945/06/03/2867290/antisemitism-widespread-in-liberated-czechoslovakia-surviving-jews-not-wanted
June 3, 1945


Anti-semitism Wide-spread in Liberated Czechoslovakia; Surviving Jews Not Wanted

Frague, Jun. 1 (JTA) –


Jews returning to Czechoslovakia are not being welcomed home with open arms and, in Slovakia particularly, have encountered a great deal of hostility. Dr. Inrich Resenberg, deputy chief of the repatriation department of the Crechoslovak Government, disclosed today.



Dr. Rosenberg told a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent that while some terns have welcomed Jews returning from Theresienstadt as martyriz the more typical reaction has been one of surprise that any Jews were still alive, and discomfit at the thought that they will want their jobs and property back.



He estimated that only about 15,000 of the country's 350,000 Jews survive, and Eest of these, he said, desire to emigrate to Palestine as a result of the increased anti-Semitism here. According to Stefan Engel, former secretary-general of the Prague Jewish community under the occupation, who is now a member of the committee to liquidats the Nazi commissariat for Jewish affairs, the Communist newspaper here has been the only one thus far to advocate returning jobs to Jews.



The situation in Prague is complicated by the fact that it has become a center for Jewish survivors from Germany and Poland seeking remnants of their families. Nearly 10,000 have wandered in from slave camps hoping to pick up news of their kin. The presence of German Jews is already being used by anti-Semites, who are attacking them as German nationals. Some were arrested, but have since been released.



The government, itself, is very friendly to the Jews, recognizing the zealous service rendered by many during the period of exile. Returning Czech Jews, like re turning political prisoners, are being housed in the apartments of Nazis or collaborators, but, naturally, this does not apply to non-Czechs, such as Poles, Germans and Eungarians. These latter require clothes and other forms of assistance.

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Jew vs. Gentile in the Eyes of the Torah, Part II

http://sn111w.snt111.mail.live.com/default.aspx#!/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=1367002664!n=1848540384&fid=1&fav=1&mid=3870e9b3-a04b-11e1-91e6-00237de4a774&fv=1

Jew vs. Gentile in the Eyes of the Torah, Part II






Chapter 1, Mishna 18(b)



"Rabbi Shimon ben (son of) Gamliel said: On three things does the world endure: justice, truth and peace, as the verse states, 'Truth and judgments of peace judge in your gates' (Zechariah 8:16)."



Last week we discussed the difference between this mishna and Chapter 1 Mishna 2. As we saw, this mishna is not discussing the purpose and ultimate goals G-d had in mind in creating the world. Rather, it discusses the prerequisites necessary to allow the world to "endure" -- to function smoothly without disintegrating into anarchy. Individuals as well as nations must abide by the dictates of truth, peace and justice in order that societies function and civilizations flourish. With this prerequisite in place, when a spirit of peace and tolerance reigns among men, man will be able to devote himself to more profound religious devotion and spiritual growth. If, however, the world deteriorates into chaos and lawlessness, man will be forced to expend all his energies on his basic survival and making ends meet, and he will have neither time nor composure to focus on matters more lofty.



We then noted that the obligation to create functional societies was not placed on Israel alone but on all mankind. G-d did not entrust the world to Israel alone; He gave it to all of man. And He asked us all to take care of it -- environmentally for starters, as Adam was commanded to both "work" and "protect" the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15) (neither of which we're doing very well today). But even more significantly, G-d instructed man in the Seven Noahide Laws in order that man create just societies -- receptive to the concepts of morality, fair play, and religious commitment. Man was instructed not to become religious ascetics -- the Seven Laws include only the real basics (murder, adultery, theft, etc.) -- but to cultivate within himself and within society a basic appreciation for G-dly values. And by so doing, not only would the societies of man become reflections of the truth of G-d, but they would become places conducive to more serious spiritual and character dev elopment -- the type Israel would then introduce to the world.

The above was a brief synopsis of our discussion last week. We thus observed that G-d both entrusted the nations of the world with stewardship of the planet and gave them their own set of mitzvos (commandments) towards that end. (And as we also pointed out, not only were certain mitzvos made binding upon them, but they were promised a share in the World to Come for their proper observance.) That being said, I'd like to point out a significant difference -- perhaps the key difference -- between the Noahide Laws and the mitzvos placed upon Israel. It is based on a lecture heard from my teacher, R. Yochanan Zweig (www.talmudicu.edu).




The Midrash (Sifri Deut. 343:2) states as follows: G-d, before offering the Torah to Israel, offered it first to all the nations of the world. The encounter with each nation went roughly as follows: Nation: "What does it say?" G-d: "Thou shalt not kill." Nation: "What?! No wars?! No duels?! No Monday night football?! Nothing doing!" G-d approached the next nation. Nation: "What does it say?" G-d: "Thou shalt not steal." Nation: "What?! Full disclosure to the IRS?! Accurate insurance claims?! No "trial license" software?! Forget it!" -- and too responded in the negative. Finally, G-d offered the Torah to Israel. We asked no questions, responded "We will do and we will hear" (Exodus 24:7), and became G-d's chosen nation.



The message, evidently, is that the other nations of the world had allowed certain negative tendencies and practices to become too ingrained in their natures. They could no longer aspire to the true ideals of the Torah and instead were left to wallow in their immorality. Israel, however, was ready and willing to rise to the challenge.



There is, however, a glaring difficulty with this passage. Murder and robbery are two of the Seven Noahide Laws! These nations were *already* commanded not to kill and steal! If so, why did these laws scare them off from Torah acceptance? Perhaps they didn't like them to begin with, but accepting or rejecting the Torah would in no way alter the fact. If so, how could these laws have been their reason for refusing the Torah?



Even beyond this, there is no such thing as a civilized society which openly condones murder and robbery -- except ones literally in the process of self-destruction? Could these nations really have intended to reject such basic and rational laws -- clearly necessary for the function of any society?

R. Zweig explained that there is a fundamental difference between the Noahide injunctions not to kill and steal and the Jewish ones. When G-d told the nations of the world not to kill, it meant to refrain from the *act* of killing. As we have seen, the purpose of the Seven Laws is primarily in order that society not self-destruct. No society can exist in a state of lawlessness. We will learn later, "Pray for the welfare of the government for if not for its fear, a man would swallow his fellow live" (3:2 www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter3-2.html) -- a fairly accurate description of what occurs during a blackout. For even the most violent-prone among us appreciate that man must refrain from overt acts of violence in order to maintain any semblance of law and order.




Israel, however, was not merely commanded to refrain from the acts of killing and stealing. The Torah asks of us infinitely more: that we grow into people who appreciate that such acts are inherently evil. The purpose of the mitzvos is not only to control our behavior. It is to enlighten us, to instruct us in G-d's value system. We are to become people who relate to G-d's values -- and who thereby relate to G-d Himself. We must grow to appreciate the beauty of the mitzvos to the extent that we do not *want* to behave otherwise. And when we reach this level -- of not wanting to sin -- our souls and bodies unite in wholehearted service of G-d.



This might be considered the single defining principle of Jewish law. And its application is found practically everywhere. On its crudest level, "thou shalt not kill" refers to physically taking another life. But G-d in truth had far more in mind. "Thou shalt not kill" is a value statement: human life is important. Man is sacred and fashioned in the image of G-d. And if a human being is valuable, his feelings, his well-being, and his quality of life are important as well. The Talmud tells us that one should sacrifice his own life rather than publicly embarrass his fellow (Sotah 10b) -- just as one must sacrifice his own life rather than kill another.



Likewise, not only are we forbidden to steal, but we may not disturb our fellow's sleep -- "stealing" his relaxation time, nor invade and "steal" his privacy. (The Talmud forbids such acts as adding a window to your house which offers you a view of your neighbor's backyard (without explicit permission) -- even to open a second window when a first already exists.)

And this in fact is the story behind every mitzvah in the Torah. The Vilna Gaon (18th Century leader of Lithuanian Jewry) wrote that the entire purpose of the commandments is so that we improve our characters. The Talmud expresses it likewise: "G-d wants our hearts" (Sanhedrin 106b). The deeds themselves the Torah instructs us are finite, but the levels of growth and appreciation we must strive towards are unbounded.




And this, according to the Talmud, was what the nations of the world were not ready to accept. To be sure, such a relationship with G-d had hardly been denied them. They too can and should aspire to grow to appreciate G-d's laws and build a relationship with Him. Let me in fact reiterate this so I'm not misunderstood. Isaiah (42:6) writes that Israel is to be a light and example to the nations. We live the relationship with G-d that He truly wants with all His children. As I often write, what Israel has been commanded in, the nations are told to aspire to. Our relationship is special, but it is not exclusive. It is an opening and invitation to all mankind.



Even so, it is important to appreciate the crucial difference between 7 laws and 613. It is hardly a matter of more of the same. The 613 Commandments introduce an entirely new level of closeness to G-d. We are not only to restrain our actions, as all men must. We must grow to appreciate that sinful behavior is inherently wrong. We must not want to kill, steal or commit adultery. And this was not commanded on the nations of the world. Yet it is the special challenge which G-d has challenged -- and favored -- the Children of Israel.