The first organized act was the boycott of Jewish enterprises on 1 April 1933. The Defendant Streicher, in a signed statement, admits that he was in charge of this program only for one day. We, of course, reserve the right to show additional evidence with respect to that fact. The Nazi conspirators then embarked upon a legislative program which was gradual and which dates from 7 April 1933 until September 1935. During this period a series of laws was passed removing the Jews from civil service, from the professions and from the schools and military service.
It was clear, however, that the Nazi conspirators had a far more ambitious program for the Jewish problem and only put off its realization for reasons of expediency. After the usual propaganda barrage, in which the speeches and writings of the Defendant Streicher were most prominent, the Nazi conspirators initiated the second period of anti-Jewish legislation, namely, from 15 September 1935 to September 1938. In this period the infamous Nuremberg Laws were passed, depriving the Jews of their rights as citizens, forbidding them to marry Aryans, and eliminating them from additional professions. In the autumn of 1938 the Nazi conspirators began to put into effect a program of complete elimination of the Jews from German life. The measures taken were partly presented as a retaliation against world Jewry in connection with the killing of a German embassy official in Paris. Unlike the boycott action in April 1933, when care was taken to avoid extensive violence, an allegedly spontaneous pogrom was staged and carried out all over Germany. The legislative measures which followed were discussed and approved in their final form at a meeting on 12 November 1938 under the chairmanship of the Defendant Göring, with the participation of the Defendants Frick and Funk and others. I refer to Document 1816-PS, which will appear in the document book. The meeting was called following Hitler’s orders “requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or the other.” The participants agreed on measures to be taken for the elimination of the Jew from German economy. The laws issued in this period were signed mostly by the Defendant Göring in his capacity as Deputy of the Four Year Plan, and were thus strictly connected with the consolidation of control of the German economy and preparation for aggressive war. These laws obliged all German Jews to pay a collective fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks; barred the Jews from trades and crafts; limited movement of Jews to certain localities and hours; limited the time for the sale or liquidation of Jewish enterprises; forced Jews to deposit shares and securities held by them; forbade the sale or acquisition of gold or precious stones by a Jew; granted landlords the right to give notice to Jewish tenants before legal expiration of the leases; and forced all Jews over 6 years of age to wear the Star of David.
In the final period of the anti-Jewish crusade of the Nazi conspirators within Germany, very few legislative measures were passed. The Jews were just delivered to the SS, Gestapo, and the various extermination staffs. The last law dealing with Jews in Germany put them entirely outside the law and ordered the confiscation by the State of the property of dead Jews. This law was a weak reflection of a factual situation already in existence. As Dr. Stuckart, assistant to the Defendant Frick, stated, at the time:
“The aim of the racial legislation may be regarded as already achieved and consequently the racial legislation as essentially closed. It led to the temporary solution of the Jewish problem and at the same time essentially prepared for the final solution. Many regulations will lose their practical importance as Germany approaches the achievement of the final goal on the Jewish problem.”
Hitler, on January 30, 1939, in a speech before the Reichstag, made the following prophesy: “The result (of a war) will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”
I will leave to others in this case the task of presenting to the Court the evidence as to how well that prophesy was fulfilled.
I would now offer to the Court the document book which contains the laws referred to, with respect to the persecution of the Jews, and the brief outlining that subject.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn until 10 o’clock tomorrow morning.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 23 November 1945 at 1000 hours.]