Taking from the Weak, Giving to the Strong: The Jews and the German Statutory Pension System, 1933–1945

Scholars have largely neglected the involvement of Germany’s largest social program, its statutory pension system, in the Holocaust. This article demonstrates that the denial of pension rights to Jews conformed to general antisemitic policy. Prior to the 1941 promulgation of the so-called Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law, legal casuistry was used to deny Jews their benefits and to strip them of their pension equity. But thereafter, they lost their rights only when they left or were deported from Germany. From a macro-economic standpoint, the gains accruing to the regime due to this policy were minimal. For the victims, the losses were catastrophic.