The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945 (37 page)

Jews who had a criminal record and were promiscuous were in particular danger in Nazi Germany. Two unrelated cases of persons unknown to one another ran a similar course. Both Friedrich Schleier, a Jewish butcher (born 1889), and Samuel Braunthal, a Jewish baker from Wurzburg (born 1888), had been in trouble with the law before 1933. Most of the charges had to do with shady business practices of various kinds, but Schleier had been found guilty, in 1924, of sexually assaulting a crippled young woman, and had been sent to prison for three years. He was also said to offer abortions, another serious matter. In early 1936 both men were separately reported to the Gestapo. Schleier was accused of going about Kleinlangheim trying to entice women to sleep with him; the charges against Braunthal were likewise vague, with no names or dates even mentioned, save that the Gestapo asked about his sexual partners before 1933. While there is no evidence of 'race defilement' after 1933, what Schleier and Braunthal had done before the 'seizure of power' sealed their fate. Both were initially placed in 'preventative arrest' (Vorbeugungshaft); Braunthal was eventually released and emigrated to the United States, but Schleier was sent to Buchenwald, where he died on 25 April 1940."
Such cases illustrate how the Gestapo used the race laws to deal with persons it wanted to get rid of because of their criminal and promiscuous pasts.

Jewish medical doctors were vulnerable, especially if suspected of offering abortions. Dr Max Bloom (born 1894) was a specialist in women's diseases in Wurzburg, and in February 1937 was denounced on two serious charges. One was that he provided abortions, but although fifty-two former patients were questioned, nothing conclusive turned up. The other charge, of having an illicit relationship with his ex-secretary, Maria Friedrich, seemed to have some basis. Bloom had wanted to marry her, and in early 1935 had obtained the necessary papers. As she said in her testimony, however, 'further political developments in Germany led to the disappearance of hope for a steady relationship'. From July 1935, when Friedrich left for Munich, until she was interrogated in 1937 she had not seen, written, or spoken to Dr Bloom. Here was a case that showed some initial non-conformity with the spirit of the times, but even before the relations were declared illegal (in September 19 3 5 ) the pressure to comply had grown irresistible."

Homosexuality was among the most serious morals charges that could be laid in Nazi Germany, and from the outset the regime made it clear that there was going to be a campaign to stop it. The Gestapo was deeply involved in the effort, and as the Wurzburg case-files make clear, it went to great lengths
to enforce the policy. Within the SS itself, Himmler took decisive steps to combat homosexuality, including expulsion of homosexuals from the organization (by 1937), and frequently banishment to a concentration camp, where they would be 'shot while attempting to escape'.'"

Already by the autumn of 1934, the Gestapo throughout Germany was requesting that local outposts record and forward to Berlin the names of previously convicted, as well as suspected, homosexuals. That kind of procedure, as Bleuel remarks, 'paved the way for denunciation and arbitrary arrest'.''
Given the official sensitivity, it is not surprising that numerous homosexuals were discovered, and from Lower Franconia they were shipped off to Dachau. The Gestapo concluded from a case in mid-summer 1935 of a Party member with this 'disposition' that the man 'consciously worked against the interests of the Party ... [and] damaged its image' and the National Socialist state. He not only represented a 'continuing danger for the Party movement in particular, but also for public security and order in general'
. 52 Eugen Kogon suggested that the Gestapo took advantage of the looseness of the 'crime' of being homosexual. It 'readily had recourse to the charge of homosexuality if it was unable to find any other pretext for proceeding against Catholic priests or irksome critics. The mere suspicion was sufficient.'53

The Gestapo was particularly anxious to crack down on Jews who were accused of being homosexual. One of the cases which came to trial in Wiirzburg concerned a Jewish wine-merchant, Dr Leopold Isaak Obermayer (born 1892), accused not merely of being a homosexual but also of being a paedophile. Educated and cultivated, with Swiss and German citizenship, Obermayer was not impressed by the Nazi take-over; he had taken the precaution of depositing pictures of his homosexual friends, some of them naked, in his bank for safe keeping. In October 1934, upon learning that his mail was being opened, he appealed to the Police President of Wbrzburg, an old school colleague, and subsequently to the new Gestapo chief in Wiirzburg, Josef Gerum, a man who was not only a fanatical Nazi, but was especially zealous in his battle against homosexuality. Gerum had Obermayer arrested for spying and spreading malicious rumours, and there was a suggestion, never really taken seriously, that he may have had contact with illegal Communist circles. When a search turned up the photographs he kept in his safe-deposit box, he was branded an 'enemy of the people' (Volksschddling). These pictures would have led to a death sentence had Obermayer not possessed Swiss nationality, but, even so, by early January 1935 he was sent to Dachau.

Gerum used the findings against Obermayer in his promotion of antiSemitic and anti-homosexual sentiment in the district, and the local press welcomed the opportunity to publicize the information which he provided. The Gestapo, or at least Gerum, hoped that charges of treason would lead to the death penalty for Obermayer, and probably the confiscation of his business and wealth. The complication remained his Swiss nationality, and in September 1935, under pressure from Munich to press charges or release the prisoner-who was still in Dachau-Gerum had Obermayer charged and brought back to a local gaol. Gerum's determined harassment continued, and though Obermayer managed time after time to escape the inevitable by using all kinds of ploys-such as appealing to the Minister of justice-on 13 December 1936 the court sentenced him to ten years. Transferred to Mauthausen, Obermayer eventually died in late February 1943.'' This was not the only Jewish homosexual persecuted to death by the Gestapo in Wurzburg, and there were similar, less public, cases throughout the country." The slightest hint of moral turpitude involving Jews of any age was followed up.''

'' StA W: Gestapo 8873. See the account in Frohlich, 76ff., and the press reports in Schultheis. 686-96. See also n. 102 below.

StA W: Gestapo 12037.

5e Ibid. 8855 (a case from Thailheim, 12 July 1939).

4. DIRTY METHODS

The secret police frequently resorted to intimidation, extortion, and blackmail to force hapless victims to sign 'confessions'. Some officials acted with such brutality that some people saw no way out but to sign. There were Gestapo officers who deliberately used demeaning language and the familiar or contemptuous du, even with older Jewish women."

5 7 See e.g. Deutschkron, i i i f.

For the most part the dirty methods and torture remain unmentioned in Gestapo files, but in one case suicide is registered. On 22 March 1936 a local SA leader in Wurzburg noticed that Samual Novak, an older Jewish man (aged 61) from Sommerhausen, near Ochsenfurt, was escorting the much younger Augusta Hauser (27 years old) in a Wurzburg restaurant, the Englischer Garten. Both were taken into custody and marched by the SA troop to Gestapo headquarters. Hauser, a married woman, had once been a housemaid in Wurzburg, and had been acquainted with Novak as far back as 1929. In January 1934 they met again, and soon commenced a sexual relationship, which was continuing at the time of their detention. Under interrogation, she explained that she found the older man charming and interesting. Novak denied everything. There is evidence of pressure being brought on them both, and, perhaps seeing the hopelessness of the situation, especially after Hauser had confessed, Novak hanged himself in his cell on
the night _link_ of 25-6 March. The whole case ran its tragic course in just over 72 hours.5"

Police entrapment highlights another side of the modus operandi of the Gestapo, and casts additional doubt on Gordon's claims (discussed in Chapter 6) that all those accused of crimes such as 'race defilement' should be regarded as opponents of Nazi anti-Semitism. The larger Gestapo headquarters evidently included a special 'Rassenschande' branch within the Judenreferat. Although most Gestapo posts did not have the personnel to permit such specialization, all certainly had a section concerned with Jews. Evidence from Hamburg and Berlin suggests that where they existed the 'race defilement' subsections were under pressure to come up with a quota of cases, which some apparently decided to fill by entrapment. An ex-Berlin Gestapo man maintained that 'it was the duty of the Rassenschande Department to produce cases ... When the flood of denunciations ebbed-for after all, even private revenge has its fill-they had to invent other methods. A number of unfortunate girls was recruited for this task.' They lured unsuspecting Jews into compromising situations, then denounced them to the police 'or exploited the shameful situation for private blackmail'. The same official maintained that some local Nazis opened a 'minor reign of terror' by utilizing these race laws not only against the Jews, but against fellow citizens whose car, garden, or piece of jewellery they might covet; the laws might be used to repay an old insult, a social slight, or refused favour. While a person might avoid 'politics' with the greatest of care, 'he could always be caught on a technical charge of Rassenschande', a charge the informers sought to establish."

Another well-tried form of entrapment utilized by the Gestapo came into particular prominence after 1942, when in some parts of the country a decision was made to deal with elderly Jewish people (over 65) who had managed to escape deportation, as well as to begin rounding up others, such as the Jewish partners in mixed marriages, who had previously been exempted. The Gestapo began conducting house-searches, whose purpose was to find something that could count as an infraction of a regulation in order to justify an arrest. The names of non-Jews found in the address-book of a Jewish woman in a mixed marriage came to suffice as grounds for suspecting forbidden relations (Umgang); when all else failed they were not above planting evidence, a piece of an enemy propaganda leaflet, for example."'
To local Gestapo officers it was a foregone conclusion that every Jewish person brought to their attention was (or could be) linked with some
infringement of race regulations."
All Jews who were accused of a crime automatically became subject to the Gestapo instead of the criminal police, because their Jewishness gave the alleged crime, whatever it was, a racial and thus 'political' aspect
.62

The police used all kinds of laws, and not only those on race, to enforce racial policy. For example, when an opportunity arose it would pursue a Jewish citizen suspected of a non-racial crime, such as stealing, or of a 'political' crime, such as malicious gossip.`i3
That the Jews were to be singled out for special attention by the justice system in general is evident from the fact that from May 1935 the Reich Ministry of justice created the office of press specialist in each local and regional appeal court across Germany. This office was responsible for collecting proceedings of all kinds brought against Jews and seeing that these cases received suitable publicity, with the aim of 'educating the people'."
There was particular delight in publicizing a bonafide charge such as stealing or embezzlement, but even minor infractions of the Nuremberg Laws were jumped upon with alacrity and passed on to the press. On 7 December 1935 the Minister of the Interior made a special point in a letter to all local administrations that they were to have the press report on all criminal deeds ('strafbare Handlungen') involving Jews.`
5

The Gestapo's arbitrary and high-handed methods were grist to the rumour-mills which played their part in contributing to the social reinforcement of the terror apparatus. That the patently innocent could be charged, with almost complete legal impunity for the accuser, had to be widely known-indeed, was often publicized by the press specialist attached to the court. Apart from making it clear that citizens of 'Aryan' stock were free to bring such charges, the press publicity also fostered compliance with Nazi teachings, since those after a quiet life decided simply to avoid the race issue altogether, and eschew all contact with Jewish citizens."

5. POLICING THE SPOKEN WORD

A separate group of fifty-two case-files of the Wurzburg Gestapo deals with remarks by individuals concerning Nazi policies towards the Jews. Most, but not all, of these were made in public places such as restaurants, cafes, pubs, and so forth. These dossiers reveal grumblings and complaints from tongues loosened by alcohol, and some degree of disenchantment with the proceedings against the Jews. The zeal with which the delinquent statements were reported, almost gives the impression that there was one denouncer in the vicinity of every person who ventured anything vaguely resembling a criticism of anti-Semitic policies.

The Jewish community in Lower Franconia was widely dispersed and visible across the district; most communities of any size had at least a handful of Jewish people. As shown above, there was a never-ending public harassment, which peaked during the pogrom of 1938. Many Jews left, but a good many remained in their home towns until their emigration before 1940 or their deportation, beginning in the autumn of 1941. The regime made great efforts to publicize anti-Jewish policies, since it set out to break up established relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Obviously, people in small communities know when merchants are forced to sell out, when cattle-dealers are forbidden the right to sell stock, when Jewish doctors give up their practices, and so on. Apart from specific acts against people in the immediate vicinity, anti-Semitism was conveyed in countless other ways, such as through press, radio, and cinema propaganda.

Over the twelve-year history of Nazi Germany only fifty-two errant statements in regard to what was happening to the Jews could be discovered and reported in all of Lower Franconia."
Obviously, the way in which the Gestapo reacted to those who dared to say anything that might imply criticism of some aspect of the regime, let alone sympathy for the Jews, played a role in producing the silence. None the less, given the vigilance of the volunteer denouncers and attentiveness of the Gestapo, it would seem fair to conclude that the relative paucity of negative remarks aimed at the regime's antiSemitism is an indication of the extent to which citizens accommodated themselves to the official line and, to all intents and purposes, did not stand in the way of the persecution of the Jews. The few critical remarks picked up in the district of Lower Franconia, an area that was no hotbed of Nazism, suggest that the response elsewhere was probably even more muted.