"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (34 page)

Taken as a whole, authorization (at least according to reports by Party representatives) was granted only sparingly,
⁸¹
the better to forge ahead with the disfranchisement of Jews and persons of equivalent status. Thus the Party exerted strong pressures to limit the number of authorizations applied for as far as possible, since otherwise the suspicion might easily arise that the applicant was “a stooge of the Jews” and “politically unreliable.”

Evidence for political unreliability was already seen in the fact that the attorney was not even a member of the National Socialist Public Welfare Organization (NSV) or that he “pressed particularly actively for Jewish mandates.”
⁸²
Such mandates were authorized from case to case only and on two conditions: that representation of “non-German” clients (in court) be “in the German interest” and that the proposing attorney be considered politically reliable. Since all matters concerning Jews were automatically of political interest, a “German interest” was assumed in all cases in which the authorities were involved, for example, those involving fiscal affairs, foreign currency, or eugenic health matters and all other cases that had “political relevance” or in which the state was interested “for other reasons” (mainly economic).
⁸³
Permission for mandates in lawsuits relating to (racial) origin was accorded to German attorneys only if the claim had some chance of success.
⁸⁴
A German interest
was to be denied
in all cases in which exclusively Jewish interests were at stake, for example, in marital affairs, transfers of guardianships for Jewish wards, and so forth.
⁸⁵
“Political reliability” was especially insisted upon.
⁸⁶
Permission for such mandates was flatly denied to any attorneys regarded as having Jewish blood (
Mischlinge
) or who had “Jewish kinsmen.” Attorneys who did not give in were quite openly threatened by Party functionaries with “personal troubles.”
⁸⁷
If an attorney was not regarded as being in tune with “the basis of the National Socialist ideology,” not only was he refused permission for mandates in Jewish matters, but he was also threatened with the withdrawal of his general professional permit, a threat that was frequently put into practice on the initiative of the Party’s regional office (
Gauleitung
).
⁸⁸
The same happened when a licensed attorney who took the case of a Jewish client did not follow the instructions of the Party in the case or did not fulfill his obligation “to act primarily as a trustee for the German
Volksgemeinschaft
.”
⁸⁹
Barring of the attorney was undertaken either by Party disciplinary measures (if he was a member of the Party) and/or by social honor or disciplinary measures aimed at excluding him from the (state licensed) Reich Chamber of Attorneys (a corporate body with compulsory membership for all attorneys of the Reich). But exclusion from the profession of attorney did not satisfy the demands of the Party: those who were in particular disfavor were denounced to the Gestapo and taken into “protective custody.”
⁹⁰
The state authorities were obliged to consider the lack of a permit for Jewish mandates ex officio, because they “could not disregard the political decision of the Party office responsible for the case.”
⁹¹

b. Physicians and Related Professions

In parallel with the exclusion of Jewish attorneys, measures were also taken to exclude Jews from other liberal professions requiring a state permit. By the Decree on the Admission of Physicians to Health Insurance Activity of April 22, 1933,
⁹²
non-Aryan physicians were removed from the panels of the health insurance institutions and no new admissions of non-Aryans were permitted. The same prohibition applied to Jewish dentists.
⁹³
Analogous to the regulations concerning Jewish state officials, attorneys, and patent attorneys, exceptions were made for veterans of World War I, but such exceptional admissions were granted only on condition of at least one year’s service after admittance to the health insurance schemes. Similarly, the
general
rules for the admission of physicians were amended in such a way that they abolished individual rights. The legal right to admission to the health insurance schemes for physicians, dentists, and dental technicians had already been suspended since November 1933, first for cities with over a million inhabitants; after May 1934 these rights were suspended for physicians in general, and after 1935 for dentists and dental technicians in general.
⁹⁴
A new clause stated that admission was to be granted only if the applicant and his spouse were of Aryan descent.
⁹⁵
Again, exceptions were made for “war veterans.”
⁹⁶

Whereas the exclusion of Jewish physicians from the health insurance schemes put paid to the main source of income for many of them, the new rules for the implementation of the Reich Citizenship Law completely deprived them of a living. Here again events began in the public service. The new rules canceled de jure the contracts of all Jewish physicians in leading positions at public hospitals and hospitals of the welfare institutions as well as the contracts of all Jewish physicians serving the social welfare system (
Vertrauensärzte
), effective March 31, 1936 (sec. 6 of the Second Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of December 21, 1935).
⁹⁷
Here again the decree of December 21, 1935, was not a new constitutive measure but rather the legalization of previously existing (unlawful) practices, since Jewish physicians in those hospitals had already been dismissed before 1935 despite having valid contracts.
⁹⁸

The legal starting point for these dismissals was the question whether non-Aryan status was an adequate reason for dismissal without notice under the terms of section 626 of the Civil Code. This question could not, however, be settled in a uniform way; it was handled differently from case to case. The Reich Labor Supreme Court did not give a definitive answer to this question but in its decision, admittedly after 1935, pointed out that the contracts of the Jewish physicians in leading positions, who were not civil servants but employees under civil law and who were obliged to resign on March 31, 1936 (sec. 6, par. 1, of the Second Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of December 21, 1935, in association with sec. 4, par. 1, of the First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 14, 1935), had expired
automatically
, so that the
contractual
basis for pension claims was also annulled.
⁹⁹
In the literature jurists argued that for “public corporations Jewish descent [might] always be a major argument for dismissal.”
¹⁰⁰

Further anti-Jewish regulations followed rapidly upon the decree of December 21, 1935. The exceptional admission to the health insurance schemes of Jewish physicians who were war veterans was definitively reversed in 1937; only Jewish physicians who were married to Aryan spouses were exempt from this regulation. Similar rules held for dentists and dental technicians.
¹⁰¹
Further, Jewish physicians always stood under the threat of having their license revoked by
individual
administrative act, because the
general
terms of the physician’s code concerning the revocation of admissions were always interpreted more harshly in such cases.

More important were the Fourth and the Eighth Decrees to the Reich Citizenship Law, dated July 25, 1938, and January 17, 1939, respectively,
¹⁰²
under the terms of which the licenses of all Jewish physicians, dentists, dental technicians, and veterinarians (including war veterans) for the medical treatment of Aryan patients expired definitively on September 30, 1938, and January 31, 1939, respectively, regardless of whether they were employees or had their own practice. These regulations abolished all claims for pensions (thus violating the most important principle of law,
pacta sunt servanda
). As with the regulations for Jewish attorneys, only those Jewish physicians who were war veterans could be granted a subsidy by the Reich Chamber of Physicians (a corporate body with compulsory membership for all physicians of the Reich) and then only if they were “in need and worthy.” This subsidy could, however, be withdrawn at any time.
¹⁰³
Jewish physicians whose approval had expired were “entitled” to give notice to vacate their rented homes and practices as of September 30, 1938. Similarly, the landlord could give notice to vacate for the same date, without right of objection on the part of the Jewish tenant (sec. 7 of the Fourth Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law).

So, like Jewish attorneys, Jewish physicians were thus pushed back to the small circle of family members and private Jewish patients,
¹⁰⁴
but even here remaining dependent on the permission of the Reich minister of the interior, revocable at any time (secs. 2 and 3, par. 2, of the Fourth Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law). Jews were forbidden to use the title
physician
: if they practiced with special permission, they had to call themselves
medics
(
Krankenbehandler
), and the training of such medics was permitted only in Jewish medical training centers.
¹⁰⁵
Further, the medical insurance coverage of Jewish patients was restricted by the fact that the Jewish medics were party to such coverage only with special permission of the Reich Panel Doctors’ Association (
kassenärztliche Vereinigung
) (decree of October 6, 1938).
¹⁰⁶
A year later, Jewish medics and “dental orderlies” (Jewish dentists) were granted membership in the health insurance system only with the special permission of the Reich minister of labor (decree of September 19, 1939),
¹⁰⁷
so that Jewish physicians and dentists were subject to numerous reservations before they could practice. If—as was regularly the case—permission was denied, the only means of survival for Jewish physicians with a special permit was the medical care of private Jewish patients, whose number was constantly diminishing on account of emigration and economic restrictions after 1938. We must thus conclude that from the start Jewish physicians were gradually “strangled” economically by increasing restrictions, whether by way of legislation, arbitrary internal administrative regulations, or arbitrary individual administration acts.

A great blow had already been dealt in 1936 when, contrary to the existing law, internal administrative directives effectively excluded Jewish physicians from the medical care of patients in the public service.

A directive issued in the fall of 1936 by the Reich and Prussian minister of the interior in the name of all Reich ministers declared that the costs for the medical attendance of public servants by Jewish physicians and dentists would not be refunded or covered by emergency subsidies or by public welfare institutions (with few exceptions, e.g., when a Jewish physician had to be consulted in the event of danger to life). (Lawyers’ consultation costs were treated in the same way.) Likewise, attestations by these physicians were no longer accepted by the public service subsidy offices (
Beihilfe
),
¹⁰⁸
which generally refunded 50 percent of the costs of medical care.

A rigorous racial distinction was, of course, also practiced with respect to new permits. The new Reich Physicians Law of December 13, 1935 (sec. 3), and the new Reich Veterinary Law of April 3, 1936,
¹⁰⁹
stated that non-Aryan physicians or veterinary surgeons and those married to non-Aryans would not be licensed (except when they were classed as state officials under the Professional Civil Service Code of April 7, 1933) if the percentage of the non-German physicians in relation to the total number of physicians was greater than the percentage of Jews in the German population (again exceptions were made only for World War I veterans). This was a very sophisticated method of considerably reducing the number of Jewish physicians, since the percentage of Jewish physicians in Germany was traditionally relatively high, whereas the percentage of Jews in the population was very low.

In the years 1938–39 the above-mentioned Fourth and Eighth Decrees to the Reich Citizenship Law of July 25, 1938, and January 17, 1939, definitely put an end to the licensing of all Jewish physicians, dentists, and veterinarians,
without exception
.
¹¹⁰

In a similar manner, the activity of Jewish pharmacists was reduced, with the difference that the process of restrictions occurred at a slower pace. It began in 1934 with a change in the examination regulations, by which Jewish pharmacists would no longer be admitted to the professional examinations (this effectively prevented them from working).
¹¹¹
From 1936 on, severe economic restrictions were imposed: Jewish pharmacists were forced to lease their businesses to German pharmacists but were forbidden to rent pharmacies owned by Germans.
¹¹²
Existing licenses of Jewish pharmacists remained valid until the end of 1938 but generally expired on January 31, 1939, with the Eighth Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of January 17, 1939.
¹¹³
Applicants for new licenses had to submit a certificate of Aryan descent,
¹¹⁴
with the consequence, of course, that Jewish applicants were excluded even more severely than in other professions. In addition to Jews in the “legal” sense,
Mischlinge
of the first degree (those of half-Jewish descent, according to a classification in the Reich Citizenship Law) were also refused licenses.
Mischlinge
of the second degree (of quarter-Jewish descent) were accepted only on decision of the Reich minister of the interior with the consent of the office of the deputy of the Führer.
¹¹⁵
Thus, the influence of the Party on racial policy in the professional field was ensured.