Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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small number of professionals were still permitted to offer their services to an
exclusively Jewish clientele. Jewish children were compelled to attend segregated
schools and all Jews were removed from the welfare system. Valuables were also
progressively confiscated. Jewish policy henceforth would come under the control
of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Finally, on 4 July 1939, the Nazis closed down the
Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland and replaced it with the
Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland. 141 The main task of the
Reichsvereinigung was to convey orders. It also maintained social welfare and
educational programs from privately raised finance and organised emigration. The
Jewish community was reduced to utter compliance.
In the period between the Reichskristallnacht and the outbreak of World War
Two legislation against the Jewish community intensified and Jewish life
continued under increasingly hostile conditions. From 28 November 1938 Jews
were banned from certain areas and a curfew was imposed, all at the discretion of
the local police authorities in Magdeburg. Jews who breached this ordinance were
fined RM 150 or subjected to imprisonment for up to six weeks. 142 On the same
day Jews were forbidden from having permits for the possession of or sale of
explosives. As far as the government was concerned, Jews had proven their
‘enemy’ status by the assassination in Paris. Consequently, allowing them to
possess such materials was deemed a serious threat to public safety. 143 In
141 Raul Hilberg has described the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland as the
model for the Judenräte, the Jewish Councils, of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. See
Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (revised and expanded edition)
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
142 Polizeiverordnung über das Auftreten der Juden in der Öffentlichkeit, 28.
November 1938, Bestand Rep. C 20 I. I b, Signatur Nr. 119, LHASA MD, op. cit., p.
389.
143 Betrifft: Sprengstoff-Erlaubnisscheine/Juden, 28. November 1938, Bestand Rep. C
34, Signatur Nr. 130, LHASA MD, p. 149.