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The Jews lose Freedom, the Germans Gain Jobs During the years of the Weimar Republic, when Germany had hoped to recover from the Economic
recessions left by World War I, the opposite happened. As mentioned elsewhere, Germany was
impoverished by the war, and to compound matters, many foreign governments and business owners,
in their own recessions and depressions, called in all short-term loans in Germany making them
immediately due. Unemployment was at an all time high when Hitler took office in 1933, and
the middle class and blue collar workers were the hardest hit. As soon as Hitler took office and shortly after consolidating power, the Nazi party began to enact legislation to restrict Jewish Civil Liberties, which resulted in them having little more than a 'guest' status in the country where they had held citizenship. Fewer and fewer job opportunities were open to Jews: in the early years, as early as 1933, Jews were forbidden from hold high offices in the German Government; soon Jews were removed from governing positions in the Arts and Education. By 1938, most Jewish College professors were removed from teaching offices and many pensions were suspended. After the enactment of the Civil Rights Laws of 1933, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 and the subsequent Race Laws, German Jews were not allowed to hold hardly any position in Germany. One of the laws which affected German Jewish employment, was the banning of Jews from public transportation, making it impossible to get to or keep work. Certain types of employment requiring licensure or registries were declared off-limits to the Jews: for example, Jewish doctors could not treat aryan patients, and the public performance of Music required registry and citizenship, which had been taken from the Jews. There were a few Jews that were still left in Germany after 1940-1: most of these were employed in the armaments industries, and had essential positions and training. Eventually even these Jewish citizens were deported and/or imprisoned. The Result? German unemployment almost became non-existent: there were not only plenty of jobs for all, but by the end of the War there were not enough workers: Germany had to go outside even their occupied territories to hire foreign workers to fill positions much needed for their war effort. Thus, as the Civil Liberties of Jews decreased dramatically through the enactment of unjust laws, German Employment went up, albeit artificially. This was one of the reasons that in the beginning, before the full extent of the "Final Solution" was known, many Germans felt that Hitler had brought Germany the promised prosperity. What Hitler had really done was imprison and kill a whole valuable segment of the workforce. |