the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

The Break up of Czechoslovakia and the Genesis
of the Transfer
requested. From July 1939, the property
of Jews allowed to emigrate was
concentrated in the Zentralstelle für
Jüdische Auswanderung (renamed in 1942
the Zentralamt für Regelung der
Judenfrage). In March 1940, the
Auswanderungsfond für Böhmen und
Mähren was set up to administer that
property. As its name indicated it was
intended to serve the Jewish emigration,
but the funds that flowed into it were
used first and foremost to support the
Germanisation of the Czech provinces.
Mass “Aryanisation” was ushered in by
the directive issued by Reichsprotektor
Konstantin von Neurath on June 21,
1939, that essentially defined Jews in
terms of the Nuremberg Laws, which
entered into force in the Protectorate on
July 4, 1939. As far as property relations
were concerned, the most important
provision of von Neurath’s measure was
the definition of a “Jewish firm”. In the
case of public commercial companies or
limited partnerships, it was sufficient for
one of the partners to be Jewish in order
for the company to be classified as
Jewish. Likewise in the case of limited
companies, it was enough for one
member of the board of management or
trustees to be Jewish. Also classified as
Jewish companies were those in which
there was over 25% Jewish capital. In
fact, a firm could be declared Jewish if it
was denounced as being “under decisive
Jewish influence”. Neurath’s measure
deprived the Jews of the right to dispose
freely of their own companies; they were
not allowed to sell or mortgage them,
and the same applied to shares and real
estate. The Reichsprotektor reserved the
right to impose administrators
(Treuhänder) on Jewish (or non-Jewish)
companies. Articles of value, such as
precious metals, art objects and art
collections exceeding 10,000 crowns in
value had to be reported to the offices of
provincial counsellors.
Treuhänder were imposed on all
Jewish companies by the end of 1939 or
the beginning of 1940. The German
occupation authorities gradually
increased pressure for them to be sold.
On January 26, 1940,
131
Chapter IV
the Reichsprotektor issued a decree
excluding all Jews from the economic life
of the Protectorate. From the following
February ordinance were published
which prohibited Jews from heading
companies in certain field of economic
activity and stating that such companies
would be wound up and in exceptional
cases “Aryanised”. Meanwhile measures
were quickly taken to identify the various
kinds of property still remaining in
During the war the Nazis saw to it that
the Czechs could “peacefully” get on with
working for the Reich.The question of
their extermination was to be
dealt with after the victory.
Jewish hands. On February 12, 1940, the
Reichsprotektor ordered Jewish
companies to make a declaration of the
level of their operating capital at home
and abroad and Jews were required
within one month to provide inventories
of land and shares and they owned and
details of any business participation. By
September 1940, shares to a value of
three-quarters of a million crowns had
been registered, not counting the shares
confiscated by the Gestapo. In February