Decree, 4 December 1940, 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1564, signed by Dr. Landfried acting for Funk.
Funk had important responsibilities, not only in the formulation of anti-Jewish policy and in the drafting of anti-Jewish legislation, but also in the administration of the conspirators’ anti-Jewish measures. Funk was the person to whom appeals were made concerning action taken by subordinate officials in the administration of the anti-Jewish economic program. In fact, he was the paramount authority in this field; his decisions were final and conclusive. For example, he had the final voice in the administrative hierarchy set up for deciding whether an enterprise was a Jewish enterprise within the meaning of the decree requiring the registration of such enterprises (Decree of 14 June 1938, section 9, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 628; see also decree of 3 December 1938, section 19, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1711; decree, 14 November 1940, 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1520).
Nazi publications have recognized the significant contribution made by Funk to the anti-Jewish program. Thus Hans Quecke, an official of the German Ministry of Economics, in describing the work of the Ministry during Funk’s incumbency, stated:
“A task of special political significance and economic importance arose as an absolute necessity out of the National Socialist conception of state and economy, namely, the eradication of Jewish influence from the economy. In this connection, a wealth of legislative and administrative work, though temporary, was created for the Ministry. The steps of the work were as follows: definitions of the term ‘Jewish enterprise’, registration of Jewish property, securing the ‘deployment’ of such property in accordance with the interests of the German economy, exclusion of Jewish employees from executive positions, and, finally, re-examination of steps taken in the de-Judaization of enterprises with a view to ordering payments to the Reich for the unjust profits secured in the process of de-Judaization. That task can now be considered as practically completed in the field of the industrial economy.” (Building of the Third Reich (Das Dritte Reich in Aufbau) Vol. 5, pp. 318-319 (1941)).
Moreover, Funk himself, in the course of administering this program, emphasized the importance of his new role. For example, on 6 February 1939, he issued a circular in connection with the administration of the decree of 3 December 1938 which, as indicated, he himself signed. In that circular, which was published in the Ministerial Gazette of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior (“Ministerialblatt des Reichs—und Preussischen Ministeriums des Innern”), for 1939, No. 7, p. 265, Funk stressed (at p. 265) “the great political and economic importance” of the anti-Jewish program and stated with respect to the broad powers conferred by the decree of 3 December 1938, that:
“* * * The extent and speed with which they [the powers] will be utilized, is dependent upon my orders, to be given under the general direction of Goering.”
In the same circular (at p. 265) Funk also emphasized the importance of the laws for de-Judaization, stating:
“The execution of the laws for the economic de-Judaization will, for a time, impose extraordinary burdens upon the administrative organization. However, it is expected that the officers charged with the execution, in view of the great political and economic importance of the tasks assigned to them, will bend all their efforts to assure a most rapid, efficient, and in every way faultless execution of the de-Judaization.”
Funk, in an interrogation dated 22 October 1945, admitted and deplored his responsibility for the economic persecution of the Jews:
“Q. All the decrees excluding the Jews from industry were yours, were they not?