Page 208 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The American Diplomats 195

sive theft, the Völkischer Beobachter claimed that “half of the big cities, even
half of Berlin, belongs to Jews of German or foreign nationality.” 127 six
weeks later, Gilbert informed the secretary of state that a new “ordinance”
issued by the government decreed that German lawyers who were mem-
bers of the National socialist Party were henceforth forbidden to represent
Jews or to give advice to Jewish firms, although some “exceptions might be
made for German lawyers to represent Jews with foreign passports.” 128
at about the same time, the government issued a decree ordering Ger-
man Jews to surrender “all objects of gold, platinum or silver . . . as well as
precious stones and pearls” in their possession to the authorities within two
weeks. the authorities promised to issue regulations on how the objects
would be evaluated and what “indemnity” would be paid to the owners.
a statute issued early in May ordered Jews to vacate apartments in build-
ings in which some aryans were also tenants. 129 a few weeks later, the gov-
ernment announced detailed regulations on the visits of Jews to “German
health and bathing resorts.” this is not a complete list of the restrictions
130
imposed on Jews after Kristallnacht and before the decision to exterminate
them, but they suffice to indicate the direction in which the Nazi govern-
ment was moving. Gilbert concluded in early december 1938 that the Nazis
had not exhausted their program of persecution. He wrote the following
prophetic words to the secretary of state: “With reference to recent decrees
affecting Jews in Germany which i have reported, i regret to state that it is
my painful impression that a series of still more drastic measures respecting
the status of Jews in this country may be forthcoming and that the general
trend is for the lot of Jews in Germany to grow progressively worse.” 131

washington’s response to its diplomats

Overall, in the years from 1930 to 1941, the dispatches composed by
american diplomats in Germany accurately depicted the political crisis that
tore apart the Weimar republic and the fundamental political change—ac-
tually a revolution—that the Nazis carried out within a matter of weeks.
they also described in impressive detail the barbaric methods employed by
the authorities in imposing their will on a nation of sixty million people. 132
the american diplomats dwelled particularly on the persecution of the
Jews, in part because they found the anti-semitic policies repugnant but
also because those policies seemed, even as early as the first months of the
Nazi regime, to epitomize the bestiality of Hitler’s rule. the existence in