Beginning today the Jews are no longer citizens of Germany.
Today, in accordance with the new laws adopted last night by the servile Reichstag after a message from Reichsfuehrer Hitler, the 500,000 Jews become deprived of political rights.
They are deprived of the right to display the German flag, but are permitted to display the blue-white Jewish flag under special government protection.
The new laws also forbid Jews to employ “Aryan” women under forty-five years of age as domestic servants and to intermarry with persons in the “Aryan” category.
Violation of the laws will bring a minimum punishment of one year in prison.
On the question of intermarriage, the Nazi regime attempts to regulate the lives of even those German citizens who reside abroad or who may go abroad expressly for the purpose of marrying “non-Aryan.” The new laws expressly forbid German citizens in the “Aryan” category to be married abroad to Jews and declare such marriages, if performed, invalid.
The law on intermarriage also expressly forbids “other forms of sexual relations” between Jews and German citizens of “Aryan” blood.
The provisions which regulate the employment by Jews of female “Aryan” servants will become effective January 15, 1936. The remainder of the laws go into effect today.
The law automatically excluding Jew from citizenship specifies that only those who are of German blood can be German citizens. In introducing the laws, General Goering in his capacity of president of the Reichstag, emphasized that they are “basic and fundamental.”
Expatiating on the Nazi viewpoint of racial purity, Goering declared that it was “God who created racial differences.”
“We can reach internal freedom only through purity of race. Our girls must be protected by law against the Jewish race,” Goering declared.
In addition a law was unanimously adopted proclaiming the swastika the official flag of the Reich. “No Jew is now permitted to wave this holy banner,” Goering stated.
He also spoke of the verdict of Magistrate Brodsky of New York who freed five anti-Nazis in the Bremen riot. “This impertinent Jew in his hatred towards us cannot insult us,” he said. “I only regret that the American nation is compelled to witness this desecration of our flag.
Before General Goering read the text of the three laws embodying the anti-Jewish legislation, Reichsfuehrer Hitler had fulfilled expectations by delivering a vicious attack against the Jews.
After assailing Moscow and the Communists, Hitler assailed the Jews as the chief power behind the Communist International and its “machinations.” He gave this as one of the reasons for the new laws.
He gave as another reason the anti-German boycott being pressed throughout the world, for which he also placed sole blame upon the Jews.
In addition, he cited the “provocative acts” by the Jews in Germany against the German people. “Demonstrations have already taken place against this insolent behavior of Jews,” he declared. “That is why legal measures are necessary to regulate the Jewish problem.”
Hitler made it clear that the Jewish position in Germany not only will not improve but will definitely become worse if the boycott is continued or if the Jews are dissatisfied with the anti-Jewish laws adopted by the Reichstag.
The greater part of his speech was devoted to “Jewish provocations” and a protest against alleged discrimination against Germans in Memel.
Dwelling on Magistrate Brodsky’s decision, Hitler characterized the verdict as “the best proof of the correctness of the Nazis in adopting Laws eliminating the possibility that remarks such as Brodsky’s may be made in Germany.”
“Simultaneously with the activities of people such as Brodsky there is renewed the boycott agitation and even in Germany the Jews seem to believe the time has come when they can display opposition to the German people.
“Provocations by Jews,” Hitler continued, “are reported on all sides and thus the impression is created that these provocations are nothing but planned action on the part of the Jews in Germany.
“The culminating point of this action was the demonstration the Jews made in Berlin before the cinema on the Kurfuerstendamm. It is understandable that this type of provocative action must lead to individual acts by enraged masses.
“In order to prevent these individual acts from assuming great proportions we have nothing else to do than regulate the Jewish situation in a lawful way.
“The German nation will attempt once and forever to give a secular solution to the Jewish problem which would make possible the creation of relations with Jews which Germans could still stand for. Should this attempt be unsuccessful, then revision of the entire Jewish problem will be made,” Hitler warned.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
