Page 36 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 23

seventy concentration camps established in various localities. trade unions
were dissolved and absorbed by the Nazi labor Front. in mid-March the
government unleashed a press campaign against Jews in the legal and med-
ical professions, a predecessor to the decree of april 11, which stipulated
that except for veterans and their relatives, Jews were to be excluded from
the practice of the law. at about the same time, the various physicians’ as-
sociations were placed under Nazi control and Jews were removed from
all committees. soon thereafter, the government ordered hospitals not to
grant access to Jewish doctors. another decree, known as the law for the
reestablishment of the Professional Civil service, stipulated that all “non-
aryans”—defined as anyone with one non-aryan grandparent—were to
vacate their government positions immediately. the law exempted only
those who had entered the civil service before World War i, were veter-
ans of that war, or whose sons had died in the conflict. early in May, the
law was extended to non-aryan judges and teachers at gymnasiums (high
schools) and universities. it has been estimated that about two thousand
people with the academic training required for civil service employment
and seven hundred teachers at the secondary and university levels lost their
jobs. 18
the most dramatic and in some ways the most frightening anti-Jewish
action in the early period of Nazi rule was the boycott of april 1. the idea of
a boycott of Jewish businesses was not new. during the late 1920s a move-
ment had sprung up among right-wing circles that called for such action
for the specific purpose of eliminating Jewish businesses. then, immedi-
ately after the elections of March 5, 1933, in which the Nazis substantially
increased their reichstag representation, the campaign was revived, setting
april 1 as the date for the nationwide boycott. the ostensible reason for the
action was that Jews abroad were conducting an anti-German campaign by
accusing the new government of atrocities against them. Hitler himself de-
nounced the “atrocity campaign” and issued the following warning: “Jewry
must realize that a Jewish war against Germany would have a severe effect
on Jewry itself in Germany.”
Overall, the boycott was not a great success, although Nazis stationed
outside Jewish stores did their best to persuade Germans not to enter. the
Nazis generally obeyed orders to eschew violence and confined themselves
to parading with placards that featured the words “Germans, don’t buy
from Jews.” a sizable number of people throughout the country ignored
the appeals and did their shopping as usual. recognizing the limited popu-
larity of the boycott, the Nazis called it off during the night of april 1 with-