Gildemeester campaign

The action Gildemeester was in spring 1938 in Vienna established organization, in addition to a forced expulsion of the Jewish population operational especially the organized expropriation of emigrants. The action was essentially open to non-believing, wealthy Jews who had to undertake to hand over their entire assets to a fiduciary administration that was taken over by a bank commissioned by the regime. The participants in the campaign had to pay 10% of their assets to the so-called Gildemeester Fund, from which travel costs for poorer Jews were paid. Another 5% of the assets were withheld as expenses for administrative expenses. In addition to the very high departure costs, those wishing to emigrate also had to pay for other expenses and taxes (e.g. the Jewish property tax , but not, like Reich Germans , for the Reich flight tax ), so that the participants only had 30% of their assets on average if they arrived in Palestine .

Altogether between 120 and 180 "cases", usually several people, took part in the Gildemeester campaign, who financed travel allowances for more than 4,000 Jews who were ready to emigrate through their fund payments.

history

The organization of Jewish emigration in the German Reich

The "Aktion Gildemeester" was preceded by the so-called Ha'avara Agreement , a trade agreement between the Reich Ministry of Economics and Jewish institutions and banks. The fact that more and more Jews emigrated to Palestine from 1933 onwards increasingly attracted foreign currency from Germany. In order to limit this transfer of wealth, the Ministry of Economic Affairs combined the transfer of wealth with the sale of German goods in Palestine. Essentially, the action was financed by Jews depositing money in blocked mark accounts and then receiving the money paid out in Palestine that was generated by selling German goods in Palestine. For this purpose, the “Palestine Treuhandstelle zur Beratung deutscher Juden G. mb H.” (Paltreu) was founded as a trust company in Berlin . The Ha'avara Agreement was signed in August 1933 and lasted until September 3, 1939.

A total of 139.6 million Reichsmarks were transferred and around 50,000 Jews emigrated through the agreement. However, this emigration was affordable only for Jews with the appropriate capital. Furthermore, a competent organization and foreign exchange approval of the Reichsbank was necessary. For emigration to other countries, an organization similar to that of Paltreu was created on May 24, 1937, the “General Treuhandstelle für die Jewish emigration G. mb H.” (Altreu). Here, emigrants with lower incomes were allotted currency quotas for a 50% exchange rate discount. On December 17, 1937, however, the Altreu process was separated from the goods transfer business. Wealthy emigrants now had to hand over their entire assets to the Altreu and then received foreign currency after a higher exchange rate discount, but separately from the export of goods. Altreu made the surplus money available in a fund to not wealthy Jewish emigrants.

Plans for Jewish emigration after the annexation of Austria

As early as the end of 1937, it was clear in the SD Department for Jews that the three systems of emigration were to be centralized and placed under “Aryan” management. The “ Anschluss ” of Austria in 1938 offered the best opportunity to achieve this , as none of the three procedures were initially available there. The emigration situation in the Altreich was, in contrast to the "Ostmark", quite good, so that Zionist organizations tried to extend the transfer of the existing emigration procedures to the territory of Austria. However, this was refused. Only the Altreu should be expanded according to the plans of the SD and extended to the territory of Austria. The aim was to use the tried and tested Ha'avara system and to eliminate any advantage for Jews, apart from emigration.

The withdrawal of "Jewish" property after the "Anschluss"

After the annexation of Austria, the “Judaism Department” of the Vienna Gestapo took over the security and control of Jewish property. A sub-division dealt with the exploration, seizure and confiscation of Jewish assets (accounts, insurance policies, works of art and jewelry). The “wild Aryanization ” that took place in the first few weeks was to be steered into controlled channels. To this end, on April 26, 1938, the “ Ordinance on the registration of property of Jews ” was published, for which purpose the property transaction office was created, which recorded the status of Jewish property as of April 27, 1938. Every Jew (according to the Nuremberg Race Laws ) and every person with a Jewish spouse had to declare their entire property if it was more than 5,000 RM. This included land, agricultural and forestry assets, businesses, capital assets and receivables, insurance, precious metals, jewelry and household effects (including works of art) as well as claims from active or terminated employment relationships. By the summer of 1938, around 50,000 reports had been received. At the end of November 1938 there were 135,750 declarations. In addition, the foreign exchange authority issued hundreds of ordinances that severely restricted the transport of assets. The most important of these was the Reich Flight Tax, which affected all persons with an annual income of over ATS 30,000 between 1931 and 1938 or assets of over RM 50,000 as of January 1, 1938, who moved their main residence outside of the German Reich. They had to pay 25% in taxes. In addition, there were the numerous provisional administrators of Jewish businesses who were entitled to all legal acts including a sale.

The foundation of the "Aktion Gildemeester"

The "Aktion Gildemeester" originated in the vicinity of the Viennese private bank Reitler & Co., whose partner Emil Reitler (1886-1949) and co-partner Moriz Kuffner (1854-1939). After house searches and confiscations of the two and other business partners, as well as arrests of business partners, the shareholders decided to liquidate the bank and leave Austria. The bank was therefore quietly liquidated on March 17th, with the neighboring small private bank Kathrein & Co as the liquidator. As the author of the memorial protocol for the closure of the Reitler-Bank, the law firm Dr. Heinrich Gallop in appearance. Around the same time, the Zuckermann family, who were related to Reitler, had their business assets liquidated by Gallop. Later on, the authorities involved Gallop in the transactions relating to the sale of the Kuffner brewery . By mid-March 1938, a small group of Jewish personalities, including the industrialist Arthur Kuffler, the lawyer Dr. Georg Breuer and Hermann Fürnberg turned to the Dutchman Frank van Gheel-Gildemeester , who had already led numerous relief operations in Austria and Germany in the interwar period . The Jewish delegation made suggestions to Gildemeester for an orderly emigration of Viennese Jews. Kuffler, equipped with numerous international contacts, became a representative of the relief operation. The "Gildemeester Emigration Office" was likely to have started its activities at the end of March 1938. According to several statements, Gildemeester did not carry the action, but only served as a straw man. Fürnberg in particular is likely to have organized the work at the beginning. Already in the first two days of the opening of the office, around 7,000 citizens willing to emigrate registered. Gildemeester then turned to the Gallop law firm with the offer of being able to obtain immigration visas for 10,000 Jewish citizens, a proposal that Gallop is said to have forwarded to Otto Eberhardt's office . Eberhardt, Thuringian State Councilor and NSDAP Gau economic advisor , had been charged with liquidating Jewish private banks.

In April or May, the Graz bank Krentschker was involved in the implementation of the campaign, which had already acted as a hub for promoting illegal National Socialists with German capital in the interwar period. In order to be able to handle the Gildemeester campaign, the bank applied for the establishment of a branch in Vienna, which was approved at the end of April 1938. On May 30, the bank was finally appointed fiduciary asset manager for Aktion Gildemeester by the state commissioner in the private sector at the Ministry of Economics and Labor. However, since the bank lacked the necessary staff, it was taken over by the Jewish bank and exchange house Langer & Co.

The beginning of the "Aktion Gildemeester"

The news of the approval of the expansion of the campaign to a larger group of recipients first reached a broader public on May 11, 1938. According to this, Reich Commissioner Josef Bürckel and the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde had agreed that 25,000 Jews should emigrate from Vienna every year. For this purpose, a fund was to be set up to be endowed by rich Jews, and from which Jews received special loans for emigration. Keppler, an authorized representative of Hermann Göring , had his confidante Eberhardt called to Vienna to monitor cases of Aryanization over 100,000 RM . The construction of the Gildemeester campaign becomes clear, for example, in the processing of the Aryanization of Moritz and Stephan Kuffner's property: They had to hand over their assets to a trustee in order to leave Austria. However, the solution reached was almost nullified by the arrest of the two by the Gestapo. However, it was finally achieved that the Gestapo could be won over to the Gildemeester fund construction. Many Jews already had exit papers and entry permits for the host countries. The missing travel money should come from the fund. The Kuffners finally joined the Gildemeester campaign and pledged to donate 10% of their assets to the fund. Another 10% should flow into an Aryanization fund, and 15% should be ceded to the Gestapo. These amounts did not include the Reich flight tax to be paid for the Kuffner families.

The handling of the "Aktion Gildemeester"

Admission to the Gildemeester campaign followed a certain scheme. Jewish citizens who wanted to emigrate first turned to the “Gildemeester-Hilfsbüro”, where the passport applicants were first referred to the Gallop office and later to the Rajakowitsch office . Before that, those wishing to leave the country had to agree to donate 10% of their assets to the emigration fund. The bank then entered the assets in an inventory list, which was much more detailed than that of the property transaction office. In addition to the assets, the financial needs up to and during the trip and any taxes had to be announced. After these statements and the credit check by the bank, the passport applicant, if the bank deemed the assets to be sufficient, was asked to sign, by which he handed over his assets to the bank in trust. Furthermore, the passport applicant undertook to transfer 10% of his assets to the Gildemeesterfonds. A further 5% was offset against administration and implementation costs. There were also any third-party expenses. Several months could pass from the initial application to admission to the fund, but ultimately the Gestapo decided on the respective admission. If the acceptance of a passport applicant was confirmed by the Gestapo, he was subsequently under their protection. The administration and utilization of the passport applicants' assets was the sole responsibility of the commissioned bank and its employees. All other tasks, such as the liberation of prisoners, passports, visas, preparation for emigration, etc., took care of the Gildemeester relief office.

However, participation in the Gildemeester campaign was only possible for Jews who were not members of the IKG . The “ Central Office for Jewish Emigration ” set up at the end of August 1938 finally passed “religious Jews” on to the IKG or the Palestine Office, and non-believing Jews to the “Aktion Gildemeester”. In the autumn of 1938, Adolf Eichmann finally joined forces in the processing of emigration opportunities under the authority of the central office in Vienna in the former villa of the Rothschild family . With the budget funds paid into the fund, in particular the “passport levy” , travel allowances were given to destitute “non-believing Jews”. In total, by January 1939, more than 4,000 emigrants should have received grants, an average of around 120 RM per capita. The Kindertransporte carried out at the turn of the year 1938/39 was partly paid for from the fund's assets, as was the flight to Shanghai by ship, which the Chinese consul in Vienna, Ho Feng Shan (Chinese 何鳳山 / 何凤山, 1901–1997) made possible because he Has issued numerous visas to China against the will of his superior.

In March 1939 the Gildemeester Fund was finally dissolved and transferred to the “Emigration Fund Vienna”.

literature

• Theodor Venus, Alexandra-Eileen Wenck: The confiscation of Jewish assets as part of the Gildemeester campaign. An empirical study on the organization, form and change of "Aryanization" and Jewish emigration in Austria 1938–1941. Oldenbourg, Vienna et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7029-0496-4 , ( Publications of the Austrian Historical Commission 20, 2), ( National Socialist Institutions of Property Removal 2).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to Theodor Venus, Alexandra-Eileen Wenck: The withdrawal of Jewish assets as part of the Gildemeester campaign, pp. 172–174, the number 4280 can be traced for the period up to January 1939; the authors believe that by the end of the campaign, a further 2100 people will likely be supported.
2. ↑ Michael Andreas Frischler: “Little Vienna” in Shanghai - on the trail of Melange and Wiener Schnitzel in the Paris of the East. A cultural and communication science consideration. Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 2009, digitized , pp. 49–49. Retrieved June 26, 2017.