The Jewish Expert in the Ministry of Interior ΓÇô Part 1
From the memoir of Bernhard Loesener, Jewish Expert in the Ministry of Interior.
Source : Bernhard Loesener , ΓÇ£ Als Rassenreferent im Ministerium des InnerenΓÇ¥ [Racial in the Ministry of Interior], Vierteljahresheftepert fuer Zeitgeschichte, 1961, No. 3 . p. 264-285.
[Dr. Bernhard Loesener, born 1890, studied law, participated in World War I as an officer, and entered the civil service after completing his studies in 1922. In April 1933 he was transferred to the Ministry of Interior. He was arrested in 1944 and accused of subversive activity. Loesener died in 1952.] ...Two years before the rise to power I was living in Glatz, Silesia. I joined the Nazi party because I mistakenly assumed that this was the only party that could save Germany from its terrible situation. I had no other reason for joining. I was a qualified, senior official, I had a family, the prospects for my promotion were excellent. I had no reason to hope for a raise or a better position by making a political gamble. No one at that time thought that later one would not be able to leave the party without risking one's life.... After the 30 January 1933, there was a large shortage of senior officials who were party members. At the end of April 1933 I was summoned by cable to Department Head Reinhardt, who was my superior at the Ministry of Finance. While in his waiting room I learned that he intended to make me his personal assistant. I did not want that job. I had always preferred work that involved active effort on important problems. I did not want to be an assistant who is tied to the schedule of his superior, especially when it involved an unstable man like Reinhardt. During my wait the adjutant, whose job I was to take, said that a request had been made to transfer my file to the Ministry of the Interior.... I told Reinhardt about this and he agreed to my appeal to at least find out why the Ministry of Interior was interested in my file. Department Head Pfundtner, whom I knew, told me that the Ministry of Interior is in urgent need of new officials. The increasing centralisation of the government enhanced the importance of the Ministry. He saw my name while looking for new people, and was glad to find that I was a party member. He intended to assign to me the office dealing with citizenship that was to take on new and important tasks. In addition I was to help him in his extensive correspondence. I was glad to have this opportunity and asked him to extricate me from Reinhardt. He did it immediately. The next day I started to work at the Ministry of Interior. (27 April 1933) The Nazis had been in power for three months and there were already many requests and demands for anti-Semitic measures. At the same time I found protests and cries for help from Jewish organisations. All were addressed to the Ministry of Interior or forwarded by other offices. As there was no office dealing with these matters, Pfundtner forwarded them to me along with a number of other correspondence, with a request to return to him drafts for short and evasive answers, so that he could clear his desk. I followed his orders for better or worse, and then Pfundtner who was swamped with requests and demands started forwarding to me anything that was problematic or burdensome. Among other things these were matters related to the Jewish problem. After a certain time I was already considered to be an expert on these matters, and all these things came to be under my responsibility, as well as my work on citizenship. There was nothing I could do about it, especially as I was one of the few party members at the Ministry in 1933 and as such, I couldn't refuse to deal with these matters. But opposition was already growing in me. Three weeks before I took on the job, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed, and I was stunned by the Aryan section of it. This section extended the reach of non-Aryans who suffered from the law to [people who were] one quarter Jews. It was nothing like what I had expected, and I began anticipating bad developments as they started right away, without any necessity, to take away the livelihood of thousands of loyal and hard working people. My task was to respond to letters of protest to whose content I totally agreed. I daily heard and read things on the Jewish question that were not publicised at all or dealt with carefully in the press. This increased my inner opposition. I realised that it was hopeless that a government agency or a single official could resist the policy against the Jews, i.e. full Jews. These matters were being energetically promoted by Hitler and the party.... Pfundtner was also against the incitement against the Jews, but as a member of the National German Party he was totally without influence. He knew it and avoided friction so as not to endanger his position. My other superiors were efficient civil servants and as such looked upon by the party with scorn. Their views on Jews were not relevant faced with the pressure from the party...
Until the Nuremberg Laws
The prominence of the government offices during Hitler's regime cannot be compared to earlier or later times. Hitler's contempt for government agencies, civil servants and especially lawyers was well known. Immediately following his rise to power he defamed the reputation of the government in his speeches, especially in one to the brown shirts that was enthusiastically received: "The Party commands the State." These words bore fruit. Government offices were simply to carry out the orders of the party.... Even Frick, in spite of his service to the party in the first years, suffered a lot from Hitler's remarks against him as a lawyer and a professional, which eventually made him leave everything and retire early.... My job was not to be responsible for Jewish matters. I was on the staff of Department I of the Reich Ministry of Interior. I was in charge of legislation in Jewish matters...There were advisors for Jewish matters in the ministries of Propaganda, Economy, Justice, Education and later on in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But first and foremost there were advisors for Jewish matters in the police, later the Security Police and the Reich Security Main Office, directed by Himmler and officially connected to the Ministry of Interior, but totally independent.... The Security Police conducted the fiercest persecution of the Jews and never thought of co-operating with the Ministry of Interior as they should have. The same was true about the Ministry of Propaganda, the Brown House and The Party Chancellery. The other offices, that is the old offices, worked according to the procedures and "shared" work with us. They sent proposals, invited us to meetings. Thus I could often express my reservations. My ability to influence my superiors consisted of gathering information, making proposals and suggesting alternatives. If I had brought up the suggestion to sharply increase the pressure on the Jews, it would have been accepted and I would have been highly appreciated.... It was clear from the start that the chances of changing anything concerning Jewish matters in the narrow sense, i.e. regarding full Jews, were slim. It would have been a tactical mistake to attempt something like this because it would eliminate any chance of accomplishing change. It was clear in which areas I could make a difference. Since the Aryan section of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 7 April 1933, the party intended to include half and quarter Jews among its victims and even started to examine the question of mixed marriages. This is where there was a possibility to act for the protection of these people who were in terrible danger of sharing the fate of the Jews. This activity runs through all my work at the Ministry of Interior from spring 1933 until I left in 1943.
