Requests for Exemption from the Nuremberg Laws (2)
From a letter by a Siegburg businessman to the Deputy Fuehrer, 17 October 1938
Source: H. Mommsen & S. Willems Herrschaftsalltag im Dritten Reich, (Duesseldorf 1988) p. 436-7.
…I am a 46 year old businessman, and I come from a purely Aryan family. Five members of our family served in the World War, some of us as officers. One of my brothers and my sister's husband died honourably on the battlefield. Two brothers came home from the war, one severely crippled and the other ailing. I myself was wounded several times in battle and am an invalid… I have been married for twelve years and have three children. My wife is an orphan – both of her parents are deceased. She comes from a Jewish family that settled in Germany centuries ago, but belongs to the Catholic faith, as do our children and I…. Considering what I have sacrificed for the nation…I dare say, without being unduly arrogant, that I do not deserve: To be forbidden to hoist the [national] flag To have my children excluded from the Jungfolk (Nazi Youth Movement)… To have to declare my assets as Jewish assets… And many additional restrictions…
