Chapter XVII: Section 3

The Reich Minister of War is charged with the duty of submitting immediately to the Reich Ministry, detailed laws on compulsory military duty.

Berlin, March 16, 1935

The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
ADOLF HITLER

The Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs
FREIHERR VON NEURATH

The Reich Minister of the Interior
FRICK

The Reich Minister of Finance
GRAF SCHWERIN VON KROSIGK

The Reich Minister of Economics
Acting: HJALMAR SCHACHT
President of the Board of Directors of the Reichsbank.

The Reich Minister of Labor
FRANZ SELDTE

The Reich Minister of Justice
DR. GUERTNER

The Reich Minister of Defense
VON BLOMBERG

The Reich Minister of Post and Traffic
FREIHERR VON TELTZ

The Reich Minister of Nutrition and Agriculture
R. WALTER DARRE

The Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
DR. GOEBBELS

The Reich Minister for Air
HERMANN GOERING

The Reich Minister of Science Education and Popular Culture
RUST

The Reich Minister without Portfolio
R. HESS

The Reich Minister without Portfolio
KERRL

The Reich Minister without Portfolio
Dr. HANS FRANK

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1659-PS

1938 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 303

Second order concerning plebiscite and election for the greater German
Reichstag of 24 March 1938

On the basis of par. 4 of the Second Decree regarding the Reichstag election law of 18 March 1938 (RGBl I, p. 258) the following is decreed in supplement to pars. 8 and 32 of the First Decree of 22 March 1938 for the people’s vote and for the election to the Greater German Reichstag:

Article 1

1. The ballot is printed as follows:

PEOPLE’S VOTE AND THE GREATER GERMAN REICHSTAG BALLOT

Do you agree with the accomplishment, on 13 March 1938, of the

REUNITING OF AUSTRIA WITH THE GERMAN REICH and do you vote for the list of our Fuehrer ADOLF HITLER?

YES NO

]

2. The ballot for the qualified voters with the exception of the Austrian qualified voters (par 8 of the First Decree) consists of white or yellow paper.

3. The ballot for the Austrian qualified voters (par. 32 section 1 of the First Decree) consists of green paper.

Article 2

1. The ballot for soldiers of the former Austrian Army (par 32 section 2 of the First Decree) is printed as follows:

PEOPLE’S VOTE ON THE 10 APRIL 1938 BALLOT

Do you agree, German Soldier, with the ratification on the 13 March 1938 of the

REUNITING OF AUSTRIA WITH THE GERMAN REICH?

YES NO ]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1660-PS

1938 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 631

Decree for the registration for the active service in Austria in the
year 1938 of 16 June 1938

I. The registration for the active service in the army for the year 1938 in the country of Austria will be conducted during the time from 16 August until 10 September 1938.

II. To be called for registration:

1. All those subject to duty, born in the year 1917, without regard to their physical fitness and regardless whether they were exempt from induction in spring of the year 1938;

2. All those volunteers of other years of birth who were considered “general service”;

3. All those subject to duty considered “general service” or “limited service” at the time of induction of the class of 1915 and 1916 who have registered with reserve commands and who have as yet not been trained;

4. The volunteers who have reported, or want to report, in June 1938, for induction into active service for the fall of 1938 (for the Luftwaffe also for the spring of 1939), without regard whether or not they have been physically examined.

III. Charged with this task are--

in the higher administrative echelons:

The Landeshauptmaenner (governors of provinces); in Vienna the
mayor,

in the district police echelons:

in the cities, the mayor, and the State police officer, as far as
they are on hand,

in Vienna the Chief of Police,

in the rural districts the district governors.

IV. This decree is based upon Article 37, Section 2 of the draft law dated 21 May 1935 (Reichsgesetzbl. I, page 609) and the decree of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor regarding the transfer (carrying over) of the institutional law according to the draft law dated 22 May 1935 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 615) and the decree on the introduction of the general draft in the country of Austria dated 15 June 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 631).

Berlin, 16 June 1938

The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces
Keitel

The Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1662-PS

1938 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 1580

Order eliminating Jews from German economic life of 12 November 1938

On the basis of the Decree of 18 October 1936 for the execution of the Four Year Plan (RGBl I, p. 887), the following is ordered:

Article 1

1. From January 1, 1938, operation of retail shops, mail order houses, independent exercise of handicrafts is forbidden to Jews. (Article 5 of the First Decree to Reich citizenship law [Reichsbuergergesetz] of 14 Nov 1935--RGBl I, 1933).

2. Moreover it is forbidden to Jews from the same date to offer goods or services in the markets of all kinds, fairs, or exhibitions or to advertise such or accept orders therefor.

3. Jewish shops operated in violation of this order will be closed by police. (Third Decree to Reich citizenship law of 14 June 1938-RGBl I, 627).

Article 2

1. No Jew can manage a firm according to the interpretation of the term “manager” under the law for national labor of 20 Jan 1934. (RGBl I, 45).

2. If a Jew is a leading employee in a business concern he may be dismissed with notice of six weeks. At expiration of this period all claims resulting from the employee’s contract, especially claims of compensation or pensions, become null.

Article 3

1. No Jew can be a member of a cooperative society.

2. Jewish members of cooperatives lose membership from 21 Dec 1938. No notice is necessary.

Article 4

Competent Reich Ministers are empowered to issue rules required by this decree. They may permit exceptions so far as this is necessary for transfer of Jewish firms into non-Jewish hands or for liquidation of Jewish concerns and in special cases in order to insure supplies.

Berlin, 12 November 1938

The Commissioner for the Four Year Plan
Goering
General Field Marshal

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1665-PS

1940 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 1270

Order concerning treatment of property of Nationals of the former
Polish State of 17 September 1940

On the basis of the Decree to Implement the Four Year Plan of 18 October 1936 (RGBl I, 887) in conjunction with the Decree for the Introduction of the Four Year Plan in the Eastern Territories of 30 October 1939 (RGBl I, 2125) the following is decreed for the area of the Greater German Reich, including annexed Eastern territories:

Article 1

1. Property of nationals of the former Polish State within the area of the Greater German Reich, including annexed Eastern territories, is subject to confiscation, administration by commissioner and sequestration in accordance with the following regulations.

2. This does not apply to the property of persons who have gained German citizenship in accordance with Article 6 of the edict of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor concerning organization and administration of Eastern territories, dated 8 October 1939 (RGBl I, 2042). The competent authority (Article 12) may permit additional exceptions.

3. Nationals of the former Free City of Danzig who are of Polish nationality are considered as nationals of the former Polish State.

Article 2

1. Confiscation will be applied in case of property belonging to:

_a._ Jews.

_b._ Persons who have fled or who have absented themselves for longer than temporary period.

2. Confiscation may be applied:

_a._ If the property is needed for the public good, especially for purposes of national defense or the strengthening of German folkdom.

_b._ If the owners or other persons entitled to it immigrated into the, then, area of the German Reich after 1 October 1918.

3. Confiscation may be limited to individual articles of property.

4. As a rule the following articles are to be exempted from confiscation:

_a._ Movable articles destined exclusively for personal use.

_b._ Cash, bank and savings bank deposits as well as stocks and bonds up to a total value of one thousand marks.

Article 3

Properties are stationary and movable objects (with all accessories), credits, shares, judgments, and interests of all sorts.

Article 4

1. With the sequestration the previous owners lose the rights of disposal of the sequestered properties. The competence of the general governor in accordance with the ordinance for public administration of farm and forestry industries and territories in the annexed Eastern areas of 12 Feb 1940 (RGBl I, 355) remains unaffected.

2. Whoever has sequestered property in his possession or custody, must administer it until further notice. Changes or disposal of the property or its profits are only to be permitted within the limits of regular business. All measures which go beyond this, especially the disposal of plots of land, must have the permission of the competent office (Article 12).

Article 5

1. The commissarial administration can be ordered for property which is subject to sequestration, insofar as ordinary administration demands it.

2. Orders by the commissarial administration serve as confiscation at the same time.

Article 6

1. The commissarial administrator is appointed by the competent office (Article 12). He will receive a written appointment. He can be recalled at any time.

2. In the direction of businesses, he must use the same caution which a regular businessman or administrator would and is responsible for all the damages which result through breach of duty. He must report to the competent office (Article 12) at all times all of the information requested by it and insofar as nothing else is determined he still must report it concerning his administrative activity monthly without further request.

3. The commissarial administrator can be held to the fulfillment of his obligations by the competent office--without prejudice to his criminal responsibility--by means of an automatic fine of up to 10,000 RM.

Article 7

1. The commissarial administrator is empowered to take all judicial and extrajudicial actions, which the administration of the property entails within the limits of ordinary business.

2. The administrator needs a special permission of the competent office (Article 12) prior to:

_a._ Selling or mortgaging lots.

_b._ Changing the subject or the legal form of an enterprise.

_c._ Doing legal business which results in the sale or winding-up of an enterprise or of a management or the sale of an administrated stock of goods or other property which is not divided.

_d._ Renting professional, agriculture and lumber enterprises and farm and timber lots over 10 hectars.

_e._ Undertaking other legal business whose settlement is made dependent upon previously established authority of the competent office (Article 12) by means of public announcement in the German Reichsanzeiger and the Prussian Staatsanzeiger.

3. Legal affairs which are undertaken without the authority required by Article 2 are not valid.

Article 8

1. The administrator will receive a remuneration for his activity which will be determined by the competent office.

2. The costs of the commissarial administration including the remuneration will be borne by the concern, property, or portion of property, administered.

Article 9

1. Sequestered property can be confiscated in favor of the Reich by the competent office if the public weal, particularly the defense of the Reich or the consolidation of the German nationality [Volkstums], requires it.

2. Before confiscation the sequestered property is to be determined according to more detailed directives of the competent office (Article 12).

The Reich is the security for the debts of the confiscated property up to the amount of the sale value of the confiscated property. Judgments against confiscated properties remain valid.

4. The disposal of confiscated property is granted the office which was competent for the confiscation (Article 12). In the case of disposal of agricultural property an accord will be reached between the Reich Commissar for the strengthening of German nationality and the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture.

5. The regulation of the type and extent of compensation which will be granted for property losses attendant upon the carrying out of this decree remains withheld. For measures of the competent agency (Article 12), on the basis of Articles 16 and 17, no compensation will be granted.

Article 10

1. A commissarial (provisional) administration can also be established over the property of legal persons, societies, clubs and other associations of individuals in which subjects of the former Polish State in the year 1939 still either had a preponderant capital interest or whose administration was decisively influenced by members of the former Polish State.

2. During the existence of the commissarial administration the authority of chief and of the other persons authorized for representation or administration will be dormant; the same thing for the powers of all other organs.

3. Only the shares and holdings of subjects of the former Polish State are subject to confiscation in this case.

Article 11

1. The sequestration or the regulation of the commissarial administration are upon request of the competent authority (Article 2) to be entered into the register of deeds or any other appropriate public register. The entry of the name of the commissarial administrator can also be demanded.

2. Insofar as the register of deeds or other appropriate public register becomes incorrect as a result of measures on the basis of this decree, it is upon request of the competent authority to be corrected. Article 1, section 3 to 5 of the second decree for the execution and completion of the law on the granting of compensation in case of confiscation or transferral of property of 18 March 1938 (RGBl I, 317) is to be applied appropriately.

Article 12

1. For measures and decisions on the basis of this decree the commissioner for the four year plan--chief-trusteeship East--is the competent authority; for agriculture including agricultural side-enterprises, the Reich Commissar for the strengthening of German nationality.

2. The competent authorities according to subparagraph (1) can delegate the exercise of their powers entirely or partially to other agencies. Complaints against their decisions will be directed to the competent authority according to Sect (1). The complaint will have no delaying effect. It is not permissible if more than one year has gone by since the issuance of the disputed decision.

Article 13

If anybody opposes the sequestration or the ruling of the commissarial administration with the assertion that he is a member of the German people, then the proceedings are to be suspended. The competent authority (Article 12) will entrust the decision concerning membership in the German people to the local governor [Regierungspraesident]. The person concerned also has the right of requesting that his nationality be determined. Complaint against the decision of the Regierungspraesident to the Reich Minister of the Interior is permissible. The decision on membership in the German people is binding, upon the proceedings of the competent authority (Article 12) on the basis of this decree.

Article 14

The regulations to be issued according to Article 2, 5 and 10 will be effected by a written order which is to be made known to person concerned. This personally making known may be substituted by a sign, poster, or public proclamation.

Article 15

1. Disposal of property and property rights of subjects of the former Polish State, who do not come under the regulations governing exceptions of Article 1, Section 2, need the approval of the competent authority (Article 12) to be valid. This is not true for the disposition of claims upon interest and other continuous earnings.

2. The competent authority decides whether approval according to