The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

1933, approved the Enabling Act or the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and
the Empire” which granted Hitler dictatorial powers under the veneer of legality. The
Reich Chancellor was empowered to issue laws without the consent or participation of
the members of the Reichstag. 5 Subsequently, on July 14, 1933 the Government enacted
the “Law against the Establishment of Parties” which effectively made the National
Socialist Party the only legally sanctioned political party. 6
The adoption of dictatorial powers and the escalating hegemony of the Nazi Party
over the operations of the State and society led to the relentless implementation of
increasingly severe anti-Jewish and anti-non-Aryan policies. These acts were formulated
to disenfranchise and separate the Jews and non-Aryans from the heart and fabric of
German society and the economy. Random and orchestrated psychological terror,
physical violence, arrest and the ominous threat of the concentration camp became an
increasingly common modus operandi designed to create a fearful atmosphere in which
Jews would be forced to emigrate, providing a solution to the “Jewish Question” in
Germany. 7 However, by the fall of 1933 it was clear to many in the German Jewish
5 “Law to Remove the Distress of the People and the State” (The Enabling Act or Ermächtigungsgesetz),
reprinted in U.S. Department of State, Division of European Affairs, National Socialism. Basic Principles,
their Application by the Nazi Party’s Foreign Organizations and the Use of Germans Abroad for Nazi Aims
(Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1943), Appendix, Document 11, 217-18.
6 “Law against the Establishment of Parties” July 14, 1933 cited in Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey
Pridham, eds., Documents on Nazism, 1919-1945 (London: Cape Publishing, 1974), 200. Article I: The
National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) was the “only political party” and Article II: Anyone
who sought to continue an existing or create a new party faced a three year term of “penal servitude” unless
the offense mandated a “heavier penalty.”
7 Dachau was the first concentration camp officially established by the fledgling Nazi regime in March
1933 and was initially utilized primarily for Social Democrats, Communists, trade unionists and other
political prisoners. Gradually, Dachau and other concentration camps began to house additional groups
considered inimical to the Reich such as the Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and Jews. The use
of the camps as a weapon of terror against the Jewish population rapidly accelerated following the
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