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Stenographic Report of a Portion of the Interministerial Meeting at the Reich Aviation Ministry [Reichsluftfahrtministerium] (November 12, 1938)

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Goering: Wait a minute! I don’t care so much for it that the Jews don’t appear in spots where I don’t want them. My point is this one; if one Jew won’t have any more work, he’ll have to live modestly. He won’t be able to go far on his 3½% – to restaurants, etc. He’ll have to work more. That’ll bring about a concentration of Jewry which may even facilitate control. You will know that in a particular house only Jews are living. We shall also have concentrated Jewish butchers, barbers, grocers, etc., in certain streets. The question is of course whether we want to go on tolerating that. If not, the Jew shall have to buy from the Aryan.

Heydrich: No, I’d say that for the necessities in daily life, the German won’t serve the Jew anymore.

Goering: One moment. You cannot let him starve. But there’ll be the following difficulty. If you say the Jews will be able to have so and so many retail stores, then they’ll again be in business, and they’ll continually have to sell for the wholesaler.

Schmer: In a small town that wouldn’t work at all.

Goering: It could only be worked out if you’d reserve in advance whole districts or whole towns for the Jews. Otherwise, you’ll have to have only Germans do business, and Jew shall have to buy from them. You cannot set up a Jewish barbershop. The Jew will have to buy food and stockings.

Heydrich: We’ll have to decide whether we want that or not.

Goering: I’d like to make a decision on that right now. We cannot make another subdivision here. We cannot argue: so and so many stores will remain for the Jew because then again no control will be possible since these stores in turn would have to work with wholesale stores. I’d say, all stores should be Aryan stores, and the Jew may buy there. One may go one step further and say that these and these stores will probably be frequented mostly by Jews. You may set up certain barbershops operated by Jews. You may make concessions in order to channel certain professions into certain streets for certain tasks. But not stores.

Heydrich: What about the ghetto? Would the Jew have to go to an Aryan district to buy?

Goering: No. I’d say that enough German storekeepers would love to dwell in the ghetto if they could do some business there. I wouldn’t alter the principle that the Jew shall have no more say in German economy.

Heydrich: I shouldn’t like to comment on that. Now a few things which are important also from a psychological angle.

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