Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Dilemmas and Responses (42 page)

§ 3

1. All Jewish Subjects of the State as well as stateless Jews resident in the area of the Reich, or who normally live there, belong to the
   Reichsvereinigung
   .
   
2. In a mixed marriage the Jewish spouse is a member only if
   
   1. the husband is the Jewish spouse and there are no progeny from the marriage, or
      
   2. if the progeny are considered Jews.
      
3. Jews of foreign nationality and those maintaining a mixed marriage, who are not already members under section 2), may join the
   Reichsvereinigung
   voluntarily.
   

§ 4

The
Reichsvereinigung
is subject to the supervision of the Reich Minister of the Interior; its statutes require his approval.

§ 5

1. The Reich Minister of the Interior may disband Jewish Associations, organizations, and Institutions or order them to be incorporated in the Reichsvereinigung.
   
2. In the event of disbandment the rules of Civil Law will ap-ply . . . After the liquidation has been completed the funds of the disbanded Jewish organizations will be transferred to the Reichsvereinigung.
   
3. In the event of incorporation the property of the Jewish organizations concerned will be transferred to the
   Reichsvereinigung
   . There will be no liquidation in this case. The
   Reichsvereinigung
   will be fully liable with its entire property for the obligations of the incorporated organizations.
   
4. The Reich Minister of the Interior may revoke or amend statutes and decisions of Jewish Associations, organizations, and Institutions, where they contain regulations not in accordance with the above orders on the disposal of funds . . .
   

Article II

Jewish School System

§ 6

1. The
   Reichsvereinigung
   is obligated to provide schooling for Jews.
   
2. To this end the
   Reichsvereinigung
   will establish the required num-ber of primary schools and maintain them. In addition it may maintain intermediate and high schools, as well as professional and technical schools and other schools or courses intended to assist the emigration of the Jews.
   
3. The
   Reichsvereinigung
   is responsible for the training and higher training of teachers at the schools which it maintains.
   
4. The schools maintained by the
   Reichsvereinigung
   are considered to be private schools.
   

§ 7

Jews may attend only the schools maintained by the
Reichsvereinigung
. They are obligated to attend these schools in accordance with the general regulations on compulsory education.

§ 8

1. existing public and private Jewish schools and . . . other Jewish educational establishments will be disbanded if the
   Reichsvereinigung
   fails to incorporate them by a date to be set by the Reich Minister for Science, education and Popular Instruction.
   
2. The property of the Jews which had been used for Jewish educational establishments is to be ceded on request to the
   Reichsvereinigung
   in return for suitable compensation . . .
   

§ 9

Teachers at Jewish schools who have Civil Service status will be retired as of June 30, 1939. They are obligated to accept employment at a Jew-ish school offered to them by the
Reichsvereinigung
. . .

§ 10

The Regulations made in Reich and
Länder
Law concerning the education of Jews, in particular the admission of Jews to schools, the establishment and maintenance of public Jewish schools, as well as the provision of public funds for the purpose of instruction in the Jewish Religion are revoked.

§ 11

The Jewish school system is subject to the supervision of the Reich Minister for Science, education and Popular Instruction.

Article III

Jewish Social Welfare

§ 12

The
Reichsvereinigung
as the body responsible for Jewish independent welfare is obligated . . . to assist adequately Jews in need in accordance with its means, so that Public welfare is not called upon. It is required to provide institutions intended solely for the use of Jews who are in need of institutional care.

Article IV

Final General Regulations

§ 13

No compensation will be provided for disadvantages occasioned by this regulation.

§ 14

1. The Reich Minister of the Interior will promulgate the Provisions required to carry out this Regulation.
   
2. where the Jewish School System is concerned the Provisions will be made by the Reich Minister for Science, education and Popular Instruction in coordination with the Reich Minister of the Interior . . .
   

Berlin, 4 July 1939

Reich Minister of the Interior—Frick Deputy to the Führer—R. Hess Reich Minister for Science, Education and Popular Instruction—Rust Reich Minister for Church Affairs—Kerrl

*The Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany) was in fact established in February 1939 to replace the defunct Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Representation of Jews in Germany). However, the law formally granting the Reichsvereinigung official state recognition was not promulgated until July of that year.

Source
: Yitzhak Arad, Israel Gutman, and Abraham Margaliot, eds.,
Documents on the Holocaust
, 8
^th
ed. (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem, 1999), 139–143.

C
ontr Ibutors

Avraham Barkai
was born in Berlin and emigrated from Germany to Palestine/Israel in 1938. He is a Research Fellow at the Leo Baeck Institute and at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. His scholarly books include
From Boycott to Annihilation: The Economic Struggle of German Jews 1933–1943
(1989);
Nazi Economics, Ideology, Theory, and Policy
(1990);
Branching Out: German-Jewish Immigration to the United States, 1820–1914
(1994); (with Paul Mendes Flohr)
Renewal and Destruction 1918–1945
. Vol. IV:
German-Jewish History in Modern Times
, ed. Michael A. Meyer and Michael Brenner (1998); and
“Wehr Dich!” Der Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens 1893–1938
(2002).

Michael Brenner
is Professor of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich and International Vice President of the Leo Baeck Institute. Among his books are
A Short History of the Jews
(2010);
Prophets of the Past: Interpreters of Jewish History
(2010);
Zionism: A Concise History
(2002);
The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany
(1996); and,
After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany
(1995).

Marion Kaplan
is the Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at New York University. Among her many authored books are
Domini-can Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosúa, 1940
–
1945
(2008);
Jewish Daily Life in Germany, 1618–1945
(2005);
Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany
(1998); and,
The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family and Identity in Imperial Germany
(1991). She is also the editor or co-editor of several important volumes, including (with Renate Bridenthal and Atina Grossmann)
When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany
(1984).

Konrad Kwiet
is emeritus professor of German Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He was formerly chief historian of the
Australian war crimes commission, as well as a visiting professor and research fellow in Amsterdam, oxford, washington, DC, Heidelberg, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, and Berlin. He has published widely on Modern German and Jewish History, especially the Third Reich, AntiSemitism, and the Holocaust. He is currently Adjunct Professor in Jew-ish Studies and Roth Lecturer in Holocaust Studies at the University of Sydney, and resident historian of the Sydney Jewish Museum.

Jürgen Matthäus
is research director at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, washington, DC. He is co-author (with Mark Roseman) of
Jewish Responses to Persecution,
Vol. I: 1933–1938 (2010). He is co-editor (with konrad kwiet) of
Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust
(2005), and (with klaus-Michael Mallmann and J. Böhler) of
Einsatzgruppen in Polen. Darstellung und Dokumentation
(2008).

Beate Meyer
is senior researcher at the Institute for the History of Ger-man Jews in Hamburg. She is the author of
Jüdische Mischlinge. Rassenpolitik und Verfolgungserfahrung 1933–1945
(1999), and co-editor with Hermann Simon of
Juden in Berlin 1938 bis 1945
(2000) [english edition:
Jews in Nazi Berlin
(2009)], and with Birthe kundrus of
Die Deportation der Juden aus Deutschland. Pläne-Praxis-Reaktionen, 1938 1945
(2004). She is currently doing research on “The Reichsvereinigung der Juden—a German ‘Jewish Council’?”

Francis R. Nicosia
is the Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. He is the author of
Zionism and AntiSemitism in Nazi Germany
(2008), and
The Third Reich and the Palestine Question
(1985, 2000), and co-author (with Donald Niewyk) of the
Columbia Guide to the Holocaust
(2000). He is also co-editor (with Jonathan Huener) of three books on medicine
,
business and industry, and the arts in Nazi Germany (2002, 2004, 2006), and (with Lawrence Stokes) of a book on the resistance against Hitler in Nazi Germany (1990).

David Scrase
is Professor of German and the founding director of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont (1993–2006). He is the author of
Wilhelm Lehmann. A Critical Biography
(1984), and
Understanding Johannes Bobrowski
(1995). He has edited and contributed to several books on the Holocaust and on German literature, and has translated from German multiple texts.

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