A new research paper examines how they were stripped of their financial assets during WW2. In a letter from the Litzmannstadt ghetto in Lodz, Poland, a deported Jew attempted to obtain an allowance from his bank in Luxembourg to which he was entitled under Nazi occupation rules. It is a particularly moving artefact, says historian Linda Graul, who is researching the dispossession of the Jewish population in the Grand Duchy during WW2. Banks in occupied territories had been instructed to pay out only minimal sums to Jewish clients, allowing them to cover basic living expenses. But the man in Lodz was refused even this request. “By that time, the account had long since been liquidated. There was nothing left to be had,” said Graul, who is writing her PhD on the systematic confiscation of Jewish financial assets. (…) In September 1940, the racial laws of the Third Reich were introduced in Luxembourg, which, among other things, defined who was to be considered Jewish. “These were, in some respects, tightened further in Luxembourg. The rules on mixed marriages, for example, were stricter here than in the original German law,” Graul said. “One might therefore ask whether Luxembourg served as a testing ground for the faster implementation of anti-Jewish legislation.” A web of regulations From autumn 1940 onwards, the Jewish population was required to provide details of their assets, which were meticulously recorded in registers. “This information was essential for the German authorities to even identify what they could expropriate,” Graul said. Under the security order of October 1940, all Jewish residents of the country were required to open an account at one of five banks authorised for this purpose and deposit all their liquid assets into this account. “From then on, they were only allowed to access a certain monthly allowance from their own money, part of which could only be used for specific, predefined expenses,” Graul said. For those affected, it was virtually impossible to make sense of the web of regulations. “Even if you wanted to follow the rules, you first had to gain access to the documents and understand what that meant for you personally,” Graul said.
via luxtimes: How Luxembourg Jews were dispossessed during Nazi occupation