The defendant is guilty of a number of cases of illicit dealings. His activities began when he, as the chief heir of his father, ostensibly renounced his inheritance in favor of his sister who was a foreigner with the intention of depriving the German foreign currency control of the entire domestic and foreign fortune; simultaneously he made an agreement with his sister that everything should remain as it was. From their holdings in a firm in Holland which, as a subterfuge, were transferred to a dummy, the Jew and his fiancee received about 100,000 Dutch guilders in 5 years, which were not offered to the Reich Bank. He also disposed of the proceeds from various houses without a permit. As for the Dutch firm, which was practically his own, he deceived the Reich Bank for several years by pretending that he had nothing to do with it, and that moreover it was in the red and unable to repay a loan. In doing so he cheated the German authorities by producing forged balance sheets. Finally, after the Aryanization of his firm, he tried to persuade the new owners, former employees of his, through reduction of his claim by 80,000 RM, to bring 40,000 RM across the border to Holland without a permit. When his property was registered as “Jewish property” the defendant concealed considerable assets. He defended himself mainly by asserting that all these offenses were only the continuation of his father’s violations of foreign currency regulations and that he was under the influence of his sister.
“For the reason given by the defendant” the district court did not find it a grave offense in the sense of article 42 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation of 4 February 1935, nor of article 69 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation of 12 December 1938. It sentenced the defendant to a total of 2 years’ imprisonment, making allowance for the pretrial detention and to a fine of 9000 RM.
The verdict, in the accompanying opinion, discusses first of all facts that might be extenuating and mentions that the defendant had not previously been convicted; he had acted under a certain coercion, owing both to his father’s doings and to his sister’s obstinacy. One offense by necessity led to the next. Through his confession he had considerably facilitated clearing up the facts. On the other hand, the long duration of his offenses, his fraudulent conduct toward the German authorities, and the requests he made of his former employees were cited as demanding a heavier punishment.
Opinion of the Reich Minister of Justice
The court applies the same criteria for imposing punishment as it would if it were dealing with a German fellow citizen as defendant. This cannot be sanctioned. The Jew is the enemy of the German people, who has plotted, stirred up, and prolonged this war. In doing so, he has brought unspeakable misery upon our people. Not only is he of different but of inferior race. Justice, which must not measure different matters by the same standard, demands that just this racial aspect must be considered in the meting out of punishment. Here, where a profiteering transaction typical of the defendant as Jew and to the disadvantage of the German people had to be judged, the verdict in awarding the punishment must take into consideration in the first place that the defendant had deprived the German people for years of considerable assets. He had, as innumerable members of his race have done before him, ruthlessly and for deliberate selfish reasons violated the most vital German interests by profiteering and fraud. He has abused Germany’s hospitality, which had enabled him and his father to pile up a huge fortune, and finally has not hesitated to instigate German men who depended on him economically to serious violations of foreign currency regulations, violations which endangered their very existence. From these general points of view of the German people the question had to be clarified whether this was a particularly serious case; it did not suffice here to rely solely on the rather unconvincing statements of the defendant himself, who could not have been under coercion for 4 years, but acted in his own interests and on his own initiative. This typical Jewish parasitical attitude required the most severe judgment and heaviest punishment. The reflections of the Jew and his family, in this respect, are of very minor importance.
5. CONCEALMENT OF THE REQUIRED DESIGNATION AS JEW
Verdict of a Local Court of 24 April 1942
A Jewish proprietress of a boarding house had failed to apply for the addition of the surname Sara in the official telephone directory 1940 and 1941. The local court sentenced her to a fine of 30 RM, or an alternative of 10 days’ imprisonment. In the opinion it says: According to the ruling of the local court, Jewesses are obliged to add the name Sara to their names in the telephone directory. Therefore, the Jewess is to be fined. The reason for the mild sentence was the fact that sometimes individual judges had not ruled in conformity with the local court.
Opinion of the Reich Minister of Justice
The verdict contains no grounds for the sentence. The reference to a ruling of the district court does not free the judge from offering an opinion of its own; on the contrary, it rather gives the impression as if the judge had half-heartedly and reluctantly submitted to the authority of the district court. The verdict should give the essence of the grounds in a short and concise form. Here the essence is the following: when she registers in the official telephone directory, the defendant enters into general legal and commercial life as the proprietress of a boarding house. The registration in the telephone directory is in the nature of the subscriber’s visiting card for telephonic business relations. Application for change of name is therefore absolutely necessary in order to avoid mystification.