New Orders From The Secretary: Pentagon asks military to start identifying Jewish troops

Sieg Heil!

In their 25-point party program published in 1920, Nazi Party members
publicly declared their intention to segregate Jews from �Aryan� society
and to abrogate their political, legal, and civil rights.

Nazi leaders began to make good on their pledge to persecute German Jews
soon after their assumption of power. During the first six years of
Hitler's dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews
felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted
all aspects of their public and private lives. Many of these were national
laws that had been issued by the German administration and affected all
Jews. But state, regional, and municipal officials, acting on their own
initiatives, also issued many exclusionary decrees in their own
communities. Thus, hundreds of individuals in all levels of government
throughout the country were involved in the persecution of Jews as they
conceived, discussed, drafted, adopted, enforced, and supported anti-Jewish
legislation. No corner of Germany was left untouched.

The first major law to curtail the rights of Jewish citizens was the Law
for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933,
which excluded Jews and the �politically unreliable� from civil service.
The new law was the German authorities' first formulation of the so-called
Aryan Paragraph, a regulation used to exclude Jews (and often, by
extension, other �non-Aryans�) from organizations, professions, and other
aspects of public life. This would become the foundation of the Nuremberg
Race Laws of 1935, which defined Jews not by religious belief but by
ancestral lineage and which formalized their segregation from the so-called
Aryan population.

In April 1933, German law restricted the number of Jewish students at
German schools and universities. In the same month, further legislation
sharply curtailed �Jewish activity� in the medical and legal professions.
Subsequent decrees restricted reimbursement of Jewish doctors from public
(state) health insurance funds. The city of Berlin forbade Jewish lawyers
and notaries to work on legal matters, the mayor of Munich forbade Jewish
doctors from treating non-Jewish patients, and the Bavarian interior
ministry denied admission of Jewish students to medical school.

At the national level, the Nazi government revoked the licenses of Jewish
tax consultants, imposed a 1.5 percent quota on the admission of �non-
Aryans� to public schools and universities, fired Jewish civilian workers
from the army, and in early 1934, forbade Jewish actors to perform on the
stage or screen. Local governments also issued regulations that affected
other spheres of Jewish life: in Saxony, Jews could no longer slaughter
animals according to ritual purity requirements, effectively preventing
them from obeying Jewish dietary laws.

Government agencies at all levels aimed to exclude Jews from the economic
sphere of Germany by preventing them from earning a living. Jews were
required to register their domestic and foreign property and assets, a
prelude to the gradual expropriation of their material wealth by the state.
Likewise, German authorities intended to �Aryanize� all Jewish-owned
businesses, a process involving the dismissal of Jewish workers and
managers as well as the transfer of companies and enterprises to non-Jewish
Germans, who bought them at prices officially fixed well below market
value. By the spring of 1939, such efforts had succeeded in transferring
most Jewish-owned businesses in Germany into �Aryan� hands.

The Nuremberg Race Laws formed the cornerstone of Nazi racial policy. Their
introduction in September 1935 heralded a new wave of antisemitic
legislation that brought about immediate and concrete segregation. German
court judges could not cite legal commentaries or opinions written by
Jewish authors, Jewish officers were expelled from the army, and Jewish
university students were not allowed to sit for doctoral exams.

In 1937 and 1938, German authorities again stepped up legislative
persecution of German Jews. They set out to impoverish Jews and remove them
from the German economy by requiring them to register their property and
preventing them from earning a living. The Nazis forbade Jewish doctors to
treat non-Jews and they revoked the licenses of Jewish lawyers. In August
1938, German authorities decreed that by January 1, 1939, Jewish men and
women bearing first names of �non-Jewish� origin had to add �Israel� and
�Sara,� respectively, to their given names. All Jews were obliged to carry
identity cards that indicated their Jewish heritage, and, in the autumn of
1938, all Jewish passports were stamped with an identifying letter �J.�

Following the Kristallnacht pogrom

(commonly known as �The Night of Broken Glass�) on November 9-10, 1938,
Nazi legislation barred Jews from all public schools and universities, as
well as from cinemas, theaters, and sports facilities. In many cities, Jews
were forbidden to enter designated �Aryan� zones. The government required
Jews to identify themselves in ways that would permanently separate them
from the rest of the population. As the Nazi leaders quickened preparations
for their European war of conquest, the antisemitic legislation they
enacted in Germany and Austria paved the way for more radical persecution
of Jews.

The following list shows 29 of the more than 400 legal restrictions imposed
upon Jews and other groups during the first six years of the Nazi regime.
1933

March 31
Decree of the Berlin City Commissioner for Health suspends Jewish doctors
from the city's social welfare services.

April 7
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service removes Jews
from government service.

April 7
The Law on the Admission to the Legal Profession forbids the admission of
Jews to the bar.

April 25
The Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limits the number
of Jewish students in public schools.

July 14
The Denaturalization Law revokes the citizenship of naturalized Jews and
�undesirables.�

October 4
The Law on Editors bans Jews from editorial posts.
1935

May 21
The Army Law expels Jewish officers from the army.

September 15
The Nuremberg Race Laws exclude German Jews from Reich citizenship and
prohibit them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of
�German or German-related blood.�
1936

January 11
The Executive Order on the Reich Tax Law forbids Jews to serve as tax
consultants.

April 3
The Reich Veterinarians Law expels Jews from the profession.

October 15
The Reich Ministry of Education bans Jewish teachers from public schools.
1937

April 9
The Mayor of Berlin orders public schools not to admit Jewish children
until further notice.
1938

January 5
The Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names forbids Jews from
changing their names.

February 5
The Law on the Profession of Auctioneer excludes Jews from the profession.

March 18
The Gun Law bans Jewish gun merchants.

April 22
The Decree against the Camouflage of Jewish Firms forbids changing the
names of Jewish-owned businesses.

April 26
The Order for the Disclosure of Jewish Assets requires Jews to report all
property in excess of 5,000 Reichsmarks.

July 11
The Reich Ministry of the Interior bans Jews from health spas.

August 17
The Executive Order on the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal
Names requires Jews bearing first names of �non-Jewish� origin to adopt an
additional name: �Israel� for men and �Sara� for women.

October 3
The Decree on the Confiscation of Jewish Property regulates the transfer of
assets from Jews to non-Jews in Germany.

October 5
The Reich Ministry of the Interior invalidates all German passports held by
Jews. Jews must surrender their old passports, which will become valid only
after the letter �J� has been stamped on them.

November 12
The Decree on the Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life closes all
Jewish-owned businesses.

November 15
The Reich Ministry of Education expels all Jewish children from public
schools.

November 28
The Reich Ministry of the Interior restricts the freedom of movement of
Jews.

November 29
The Reich Ministry of the Interior forbids Jews to keep carrier pigeons.

December 14
The Executive Order on the Law on the Organization of National Work cancels
all state contracts held with Jewish-owned firms.

December 21
The Law on Midwives bans all Jews from the profession.
1939

February 21
The Decree concerning the Surrender of Precious Metals and Stones in Jewish
Ownership requires Jews to turn in gold, silver, diamonds, and other
valuables to the state without compensation.

August 1
The President of the German Lottery forbids the sale of lottery tickets to
Jews.