Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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reason were to be taken into custody. 41 Their office was so efficient that it had
already dispatched a memorandum on 10 December indicating the imminent
arrival in Magdeburg of the Jewish expatriate, Lothar Kaminski from Ra’anana,
Palestine. 42 As the years progressed, so too, did the intensity of antisemitic
policies which regulated every aspect of the lives of the Jewish population. This
pattern continued and compounded their segregation and social exclusion. The
situation involving the issue of antisemitic signage in the city typifies this.
Obviously, the form the campaign had taken had become so vulgar in its
application that the local Nazi hierarchy began questioning the effectiveness of
their techniques. The Winter Relief Program of 1936–1937 and the removal of the
Jews from the consciousness of the public eye is aptly exemplified in the cited
example.
This campaign of policy bombardment continued. In December 1936 all
Jewish organisations were forbidden from meeting. This occurred nationally
owing to the perception that the foreign press was receiving negative reports from
Jewish organisations in Germany. The Gestapo was convinced that these reports
were emanating from ‘Jewish-political’ organisations. 43 As Jewish political
groups no longer existed, the assertion must be made that if anything had been
reported from German-Jewish sources, then in all likelihood it would have come
from Zionist sources and in the case of Magdeburg, numerous Zionist
organisations and groups existed. This action later became a pattern of public
41 Rundschreiben Nr. 610/36; Betr.: Einreise ausgebürgerter Personen in das
Reichsgebiet, 14. Dezember 1936, Bestand Z.-Dok.001, Signatur Nr. 054, ASGM, p.
206.
42 Rundschreiben Nr. 604/36, 10. Dezember 1936, ibid., p. 210.
43 Betrifft: Verbot jüdischer Versammlungen und Veranstaltungen, 21. Dezember
1936, Bestand Rep. C 20 I. I b, Signatur Nr. 119, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 315.