Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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1938 that after 30 November 1938 they could no longer practise law. 85 Bruno
Neuhaus’s racial status was still under scrutiny at this time, and on 26 October
1938 it had still not been determined if he had been classified racially as a Jew. 86
Even if Jews in the legal professional possessed exemptions, their continued
livelihoods were all too often destroyed. This was due to the diligence of the
district and regional governmental authorities, combined with the efforts of the
Bund Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Juristen in Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt. By
the time the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, the vast majority of private
practitioners of law had disappeared professionally. The few who remained in
practice had an exclusively Jewish clientele. For this reason it can be assumed that
a large number of solicitors in private practice simply went out of business in the
early years of the Nazi regime, owing to the lack of demand and loss of non-
Jewish custom. Between 1935 and the enactment of the Fünfte Verordnung zum
Reichsbürgergesetz on 27 September 1938 the numbers of solicitors remained
constant until those few remaining in practice were disbarred in September 1938.
In 1933 Magdeburg possessed approximately fifty Jewish physicians, 87
ranging from general practitioners to dentists to medical specialists. Medical
practitioners were also seriously affected when the Berufsbeamtengesetz was
enacted in 1933. A number probably would have been entitled to exemptions due
to war service. However, should they have been fortunate enough to possess these,
they would have encountered further difficulties at the district level in Magdeburg.
85 Correspondence from Der Oberlandesgerichtspräsident, Naumburg (Saale)
concerning the Fünfte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz of 27 September 1938, 24
October 1938, Bestand Jur.-012, ASGM, op. cit., pp.154–161.
86 Correspondence from Der Präsident der Rechtsanwaltkammer Naumburg a. d. S. to
the Oberlandesgerichtspräsidenten zu Naumburg (Saale) concerning the Fünfte
Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz of 27 September 1938, 26 October 1938, ibid.,
p. 162.
87 Landesverband Jüdischer Gemeinden Sachsen-Anhalt, ed., op. cit., p. 188.