Law on Confiscation of Communist Property
The law on the confiscation of communist property was a German Reich law of May 26, 1933. The law empowered the highest state authorities to confiscate property , property and rights of the Communist Party of Germany and its aid and substitute organizations permanently and without compensation.
Corresponding seizures and expropriations that had already taken place before this law was passed could be confirmed retrospectively in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Situation when the law was passed
The Communist Party of Germany was practically incapable of acting since the Reichstag Fire Ordinance of February 28, 1933. The 81 members of the Reichstag elected on March 5 in the 1933 Reichstag elections were taken into " protective custody " or had to go into hiding and were not present when the Enabling Act was passed on March 23.
Extension of the law
Corresponding provisions were contained in the law on the confiscation of property hostile to the people and the state of July 14, 1933. According to this, “things and rights of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and its auxiliary and substitute organizations as well as to things and rights that promote Marxist or others, according to determination of the Reich Minister of the Interior are used or intended for anti- popular and anti-subversive efforts, “also drafted.
Application to Jews
When German Jews began to be deported in October 1941 , all Jewish assets were confiscated through the tax offices for the benefit of the Reich . In order to maintain a formal legal pseudo legitimacy, the National Socialist administrative lawyers made use of the two laws passed in 1933, which were originally intended to confiscate the assets of the KPD and the SPD.
On the eve of their deportation to the east, German Jews were sent a formal document by a bailiff in the assembly camp. One such ruling stated:
"On the basis of § 1 of the law on the collection of communist property of May 26, 1933 ... in conjunction with the law on the collection of property hostile to the people and the state of July 14, 1933 [...] in conjunction with the decree of the Führer and Reich Chancellor on the realization of the confiscated property of enemies of the Reich of May 29, 1941 ( RGBl. 1941 I, 303) the entire property withdrawn from the Jewess XY ... "
This recourse made use of the assertion - originally minted on the communist party assets - that the assets to be confiscated were being used in an anti-subversive manner. In 1941, Jews were subject to general anti-people and anti-subversive efforts in order to be able to expropriate them. A similar argument is made in a decree of the Reich Main Security Office of March 2, 1942.
To simplify this cumbersome procedure with a document of service, on July 7, 1941, the Ministry of the Interior received Hitler's approval of the proposal that all Jews with permanent residence outside the borders of the Greater German Reich should be deprived of their citizenship and that their property should be forfeited by the state. The legal regulation took place on November 25, 1941 with the 11th ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act . In the case of deportations to Theresienstadt , however, a certificate of delivery from the bailiff was still required because the destination was within the Reich border. In addition, on the instructions of the Gestapo , those to be deported had to sign so-called home purchase contracts with the Reich Association of Jews in Germany , in which the victims were promised lifelong free accommodation, food and medical care.
Override
The law was "repealed by or as a result of the re-admission of the Communist Party of Germany by law of the zone commander in July 1945".
Evidence
- ↑ Printed as a document by Hans Günther Adler : The secret truth. Theresienstadt documents. Tübingen 1958, p. 61.
- ^ Fauck: Confiscation of Jewish property before the 11th DVO was passed on the Reich Citizenship Act. In: Expert opinion of the Institute for Contemporary History, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1966, p. 25.