Circular from Dr. Robert Ley, Staff Chief of NSDAP Political Organizations, on the Action to "Coordinate" [Gleichschaltungaktion] the Free Trade Unions (April 21, 1933)

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The action in Berlin will be conducted by the Action Committee itself.

In the Reich the following will be occupied:

The headquarters of the unions;
The trade union buildings and offices of the Free Trade Unions; the party buildings of the Social Democratic
Party of Germany insofar as trade unions are housed there;
The branches and pay offices of the Bank for Workers, Employees, and Officials, Inc.;
The district committees of the General German Trade Union Federation and of the General Independent
Federation;
The local committees of the General German Trade Union Federation and of the General Independent
Employees Federation.

The following are to be taken into protective custody:

All trade union chairmen [Verbandsvorsitzende];
The district secretaries and the branch directors of the Bank for Workers, Employees, and Officials, Inc.

The chairmen of local committees and the employees of unions are not to be taken into protective custody but are to be urged to continue their work.

Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gauleiters.

The taking over of the independent trade unions must proceed in such a fashion that the workers and employees will not be given the feeling that this action is directed against them, but, on the contrary, against a superannuated system that does not conform to the interests of the German nation.