"Paradise for Blackmailers"

The sexual and political but not the economic status of Jews in the Fatherland was settled by Adolf Hitler last week to the best of his ability with decrees applying in detail the broad "Nurnberg Laws" (TIME, Sept. 23). So eager is the Realmleader to get every last Jew out of the government bureaucracy as quickly and easily as possible that Jews still holding State jobs last week will be pensioned off at full salary until the age at which they would normally have to retire, after which they will receive the normal pension to the end of their lives.

Japanese, Chinese and other Asiatic objections to the Nazi term "Aryan" caused Herr Hitler to order it formally dropped last week. Hereafter the State will refer to 1) Germans (synonymous with citizens), 2) Part-Jews, and 3) Jews. Part-Jews will be classified according to the percentage of their Jewish blood, computed from how many of their grandparents were Jews.

Extra-marital relations are made punishable if one party is a 50% Jew or more and the other is of German or "similar blood." Not only entitled but compelled to marry pure Germans are 25% Jews who are rated as Germans. Scathingly London's Times commented that these laws make Germany a "paradise for black-mailers." Even before it went into effect British Jew Rudolph Selz had been arrested for "racial defilement" of a German woman and non-Jew Edmond Thomas is in jail for consorting with a Jewess.

Angriest Jew in all Berlin last week was His Excellency the Soviet Ambassador Jacques Suritz. Under the decrees neither his nor any other "Jewish family" in Germany may keep a non-Jewish maid less than 45 years old unless she was in their service before the Nurnberg Laws were passed, in which case she must be not less than 35. A family of Jewesses only is not a "Jewish family" and may keep whatever maids they like, but one Jew in the house is considered to imperil the German maid's morals and the decree becomes operative. Jews may keep German manservants but this the State discourages without forbidding.

Politically the new decrees place Jews & Jewesses in the same category, lumping them with German criminals and imbeciles beyond the pale of citizenship, franchise and eligibility for State office. Complicated fractional categories for fixing the exact status of part-Jews as to political rights and marriage make the decrees a maze but a great pair of scissors is provided to cut all Gordian knots. Realmleader Adolf Hitler has overruling power in all respects. As a one-man Jew's Supreme Court he can dispense such exceptional favors as permitting Soviet Ambassador Suritz to keep an apple-cheeked, 16-year-old scullery maid. Unprintable were the explosions of wrath in the Corps Diplomatique and consular services of foreign powers throughout Germany, but up to this week no Ambassador or Minister had been instructed to protest.

Conditions under which Jews may or may not work in Germany under the Nurnberg Laws will be laid down later by the Realmleader in fresh decrees. Thus far all indigent Jews on the Nazi dole are compelled to do strictly "manual work," were to be seen street-making in the Capital last week, jibed and jeered at by passing Germans.

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