cree concerning occupation of auctioneers, 12 February 1938, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I p. 202. Moreover, on 14 June 1938, Funk signed a decree providing for the registration of "Jewish enterprises" (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 627). This decree was part of a system of economic persecution which obliterated Jewish ownership in all commercial, financial and industrial enterprises. In 1938, the death of von Rath in Paris was exploited by the Nazis as a pretext for intensifying the persecution of the Jews. Their new anti-Jewish policy called for the complete elimination of Jews from the economic life of Germany. Funk took a significant part in both the formulation and execution of this policy. Thus, he was present at the meeting of 12 November 1938, where, with Goering as the leading spirit, the basis for a more drastic policy against the Jews was established (1816-PS). Goering described the meeting as a decisive one, and demanded "that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved, one way or another." (1816-PS). Funk came to the meeting with a draft law which he had prepared, and which he submitted with the following explanation: "I have prepared a law elaborating that, effective 1 January 1939, Jews shall be prohibited to operate retail stores and wholesale establishments, as well as independent artisan shops. They shall further be prohibited from keeping employees or offering any ready products on the market. Wherever a Jewish shop is operated, the police shall shut it down. From 1 January 1939, a Jew can no longer be employed as an enterpriser, as stipulated in the law for the Organization of National Labor from 20 January 1934. If a Jew holds a leading position in an establishment without being the enterpriser, his contract may be declared void within 6 weeks by the enterpriser. With the expiration of the contract, all claims of the employee, including all claims to maintenance become obliterated. That is always very disagreeable and a great danger. A Jew cannot be a member of a corporation; Jewish members of corporations shall have to be retired by 31 December 1938. A special authorization is unnecessary. The competent Ministers of the Reich are being authorized to issue the provision necessary for the execution of this law." (1816-PS) The substance of Funk's draft law promptly found its way into the Reichsgesetzblatt. On 12 November 1938, Goering signed a decree entitled "For the Elimination of Jews from the German Economic Life" (1662-PS). An examination of the provisions of the decree will reveal how well it deserved its title. Thus, Jews were forbidden to operate retail stores or mail order houses, or to engage independently in any handicraft, to offer goods or services at markets, or to take orders therefor (Section I): or to be "leaders" of any industrial enterprise. That decree also provided that any Jew in an executive position of an industrial enterprise was subject to notice of dismissal (Section 2), and that Jews should be excluded from membership in cooperative organizations (Section 3). Funk was expressly authorized in Section 4 of the decree to issue the regulations necessary for implementing its provisions (1662–PS). Funk was also authorized to issue the regulations in connection with another anti-Jewish decree, also issued on 12 November 1938. This decree provided that all damage done to Jewish enterprises and apartments during the riots of 8, 9, and 10 November, was to be repaired by the Jewish owners out of their own pockets, and that claims by German Jews against insurance companies were to be confiscated in favor of the German Government (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1581). Soon after the passage of the decree of 12 November, Funk, in a speech which he delivered on the Jewish question, made it clear that the program of economic persecution was a part of the larger program of extermination and boasted of the fact that the new program insured the complete elimination of the Jews from the German economy. In the course of this speech, Funk stated: "The state and the economy constitute a unity. They must be directed according to the same principles. The best proof thereof has been rendered by the most recent development of the Jewish problem in Germany. One cannot exclude the Jews from the political life, but let them live and work in the economic sphere. The fact that the last violent explosion of the disgust of the German people, because of a criminal Jewish attack against the German people, took place at a time when we were standing just before the termination of the economic measures for the elimination of the Jews from the German economy-this fact is a result of the other fact that in the last years we had not handled this problem sufficiently early and consistently. In any event, the basis of a complete elimination of the Jews also from the economy had already been laid by the decrees of the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, General Field Marshal Goering, who was the first to undertake the solution of this problem. In the meantime, by means of Aryanization, performed under governmental supervision, the Jews had already been excluded completely from the stock exchanges and the banks and almost completely from the large businesses and all important industrial enterprises. According to estimates, of the net property of approximately 7 billion marks, determined pursuant to the decree for the registration of Jewish property, 2 billion marks have already been transferred into German possession." (3545-PS). On 3 December 1938, Funk again advanced the policy of economic extermination by signing a decree which carried out the promise of the more severe anti-Jewish policy implied in his above speech (1409-PS). This decree imposed additional and drastic economic disabilities upon Jews and subjected their property to confiscation and forced liquidation. It provided that: owners of Jewish enterprises could be ordered to sell or liquidate their enterprises (Section 1); trustees could be appointed for such enterprises, with the expenses of trusteeship borne by the owner of the enterprise (Section 2); Jews could be ordered to sell their property (real estate, etc.) (Section 6); Jews were prohibited from acquiring any real estate (Section 7); governmental consent was required for any disposition of real estate (Section 8); Jews were forced to deposit all stocks, mining shares, bonds, and other securities with specially designated banks, and accounts had to be marked "Jewish" (Section 11); Jews were forbidden to acquire, to give as security, or to sell objects made of gold, platinum, or silver, precious stones, or pearls, etc. (Section 14); and Jews could be required to make certain payments to the Reich before receiving the consent necessary for the transfer of their property (Section 15). (1409-PS). In addition, many other decrees aiming at the economic ruin of the Jews were promulgated over the signature of the Minister of Economics. For example: Decree, 23 November 1938, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 1642, signed by Brinkmann acting for Funk and containing detailed rules for the liquidation of Jewish retail stores, etc.; Decree, 14 December 1938, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 1902, also signed by Brinkmann acting for Funk, and providing detailed rules for the elimination of Jews from industrial enterprises; Decree, 8 May 1939, 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 895, signed by Dr. Landfried acting for Funk, excluding Jews from the occupation of travel agents; Decree, 4 May 1940, 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 730, also signed by Dr. Landfried acting for Funk, concerning registration of transfers of Jewish property; Decree, 14 November 1940, 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 1520, also signed by Dr. Landfried acting for Funk, establishing a procedure for setting aside financial arrangements which Jews, discharged from executive positions of industrial enterprises prior to 12 November 1938, had made with their companies. Extending certain of the above-described decrees to Austria, see, e.g.: Decree, 22 August 1942, 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 537, signed by von Hanneken, acting for Funk; Decree, 4 December 1940, 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 1564, signed by Dr. Landfried acting for Funk. Funk had important responsibilities, not only in the formulation of anti-Jewish policy and in the drafting of anti-Jewish legislation, but also in the administration of the conspirators' antiJewish measures. Funk was the person to whom appeals were made concerning action taken by subordinate officials in the administration of the anti-Jewish economic program. In fact, he was the paramount authority in this field; his decisions were final and conclusive. For example, he had the final voice in the administrative hierarchy set up for deciding whether an enterprise was a Jewish enterprise within the meaning of the decree requiring the registration of such enterprises (Decree of 14 June 1938, section 9, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 628; see also decree of 3 December 1938, section 19, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 1711; decree, 14 November 1940, 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1, p. 1520). Nazi publications have recognized the significant contribution made by Funk to the anti-Jewish program. Thus Hans Quecke, an official of the German Ministry of Economics, in describing the work of the Ministry during Funk's incumbency, stated: "A task of special political significance and economic importance arose as an absolute necessity out of the National Socialist conception of state and economy, namely, the eradication of Jewish influence from the economy. In this connection, a wealth of legislative and administrative work, though temporary, was created for the Ministry. The steps of the work were as follows: definitions of the term 'Jewish enterprise', registration of Jewish property, securing the 'deployment' of such property in accordance with the interests of the German economy, exclusion of Jewish employees from executive positions, and, finally, re-examination of steps taken in the de-Judaization of enterprises with a view to ordering payments to the Reich for the unjust profits secured in the process of de-Judaization. That task can now be considered as practically completed in the field of the industrial economy." (Building of the Third Reich (Das Dritte Reich in Aufbau) Vol. 5, pp. 318-319 (1941)). Moreover, Funk himself, in the course of administering this program, emphasized the importance of his new role. For example, on 6 February 1939, he issued a circular in connection with the administration of the decree of 3 December 1938 which, as indicated, he himself signed. In that circular, which was published in the Ministerial Gazette of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior ("Ministerialblatt des Reichs und Preussischen Ministeriums des Innern"), for 1939, No. 7, p. 265, Funk stressed (at p. 265) "the great political and economic importance" of the anti-Jewish program and stated with respect to the broad powers conferred by the decree of 3 December 1938, that: 66* * * The extent and speed with which they [the powers] will be utilized, is dependent upon my orders, to be given under the general direction of Goering." In the same circular (at p. 265) Funk also emphasized the importance of the laws for de-Judaization, stating: "The execution of the laws for the economic de-Judaization will, for a time, impose extraordinary burdens upon the administrative organization. However, it is expected that the officers charged with the execution, in view of the great political and economic importance of the tasks assigned to them, will bend all their efforts to assure a most rapid, efficient, and in every way faultless execution of the de-Judaization." Funk, in an interrogation dated 22 October 1945, admitted and deplored his responsibility for the economic persecution of the Jews: "Q. All the decrees excluding the Jews from industry were "A. |