Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Judgment/Judgment-023 Last-Modified: 1999/05/27 The Jewish Badge 82. To facilitate the activities of isolating the Jews and their concentration for deportation, they were obliged to wear the Jewish Badge. On 21 August 194,1 Rademacher, the Referent on Jewish affairs at the time in the German Foreign Ministry, prepared a memorandum intended for the Under_Secretary of State, Luther, for the purpose of receiving a decision from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ribbentrop. It read (T/682): "Sturmbannfuehrer Eichmann of the RSHA telephoned me and informed me confidentially that he (Heydrich) received a cable from the Fuehrer's headquarters, according to which the Fuehrer agreed that the Jews in Germany bear a distinguishing mark. Eichmann asked my opinion as to whether this could be applied to Jews of foreign nationality..." Already on 1 September 1941 (T/635) a "Police Regulation in Regard to the Marking of Jews," signed by Heydrich on behalf of the Minister of the Interior of the Reich, was published in the German Official Gazette. This Regulation obliged Jews of German nationality within the Reich and the Protectorate to carry the Jewish Badge (a star bearing the word "Jew") from the age of six, and forbade them to leave the district of their residence without special permit. To implement this "Police Regulation," two urgent letters (T/209) were dispatched from the Accused's office on 15 September 1941 for action or information, to a considerable number of central and local institutions. Paragraph 4 of the original Regulation (T/635) provided: "(a) Anyone wilfully or negligently acting against the prohibition contained in paragraphs 1 and 2 will be punished by a fine of up to 150 Reichsmark or by arrest of up to six weeks. "(b) This does not exclude far-reaching police security measures or regulations according to which a more severe punishment may be inflicted." On the other hand, two letters, included in exhibit T/209, mention in connection with "offences" regarding the wearing of the Jewish Badge, "wilful violation of the Regulation or of the executive orders...are punishable on principle by protective custody" - that is, by deporting the Jew to a concentration camp. The instructions, which were phrased in extreme language according to T/209, were passed on to their recipients in secret, with special emphasis that they were not to be made public.
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