1. The defendant Katzenberger is fully Jewish and a German national; he is a member of the Jewish religious community.
As far as his descent is concerned, extracts from the birth registers of the Jewish community at Massbach show that the defendant was born on 25 November 1873 as the son of Louis David Katzenberger, merchant, and his wife Helene née Adelberg. The defendant’s father, born on 30 June 1838 at Massbach, was, according to an extract from the Jewish registers at Thundorf, the legitimate son of David Katzenberger, weaver, and his wife Karoline Lippig. The defendants’ mother Lena Adelberg, born on 14 June 1847 at Aschbach, was, according to extracts from the birth register of the Jewish religious community of Aschbach, the legitimate daughter of Lehmann Adelberg, merchant and his wife, Lea. According to the Thundorf register, the defendant’s parents were married on 3 December 1867 by the district rabbi in Schweinfurt. The defendant’s grandparents on his father’s side were married, according to extracts from the Thundorf register, on 3 April 1832; those on his mother’s side were married, according to an extract from the register of marriages of the Jewish religious community of Aschbach, on 14 August 1836.
The extracts from the register of marriages of the Jewish religious community at Aschbach show, concerning the marriage of the maternal grandparents, that Bela-Lea Seemann, born at Aschbach in 1809, was a member of the Jewish religious community. Otherwise the documents mentioned give no further information so far as confessional affiliations are concerned that parents or grandparents were of Jewish faith.
The defendant himself has stated that he is certain that all four grandparents were members of the Jewish faith. His grandmothers he knew when they were alive; both grandfathers were buried in Jewish cemeteries. Both his parents belonged to the Jewish religious community, as he does himself.
The court sees no reason to doubt the correctness of these statements, which are fully corroborated by the available extracts from exclusively Jewish registers. Should it be true that all four grandparents belonged to the Jewish faith, the grandparents would be regarded as fully Jewish according to the regulation to facilitate the producing of evidence in section 5, paragraph 1 together with section 2, paragraph 2, page 2 of the ordinance to the Reich Civil Code of 14 November 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, page 1333. The defendant therefore is fully Jewish in the sense of the Law for the Protection of German Blood.[357] His own admissions show that he himself shared that view.
The defendant Katzenberger came to Nuernberg in 1912. Together with his brothers, David and Max, he ran a shoe shop until November 1938. The defendant married in 1906, and there are two children, ages 30 and 34.
Up to 1938 the defendant and his brothers, David and Max, owned the property of 19 Spittlertorgraben in Nuernberg. There were offices and storerooms in the rear building, whereas the main building facing the street was an apartment house with several apartments.
The codefendant Irene Seiler arrived in 1932 to take a flat in 19 Spittlertorgraben, and the defendant Katzenberger has been acquainted with her since that date.
2. Irene Seiler, née Scheffler, is a German citizen of German blood.
Her descent is proved by documents relating to all four grandparents. She herself, her parents, and all her grandparents belong to the Protestant Lutheran faith. This finding of the religious background is based on available birth and marriage certificates of the Scheffler family which were made part of the trial. As far as descent is concerned therefore, there can be no doubt about Irene Seiler, née Scheffler, being of German blood.