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239 239 Epilogue On April 21, 1933, the Nazi government promulgated Germany’s first national law mandating the stunning of all animals into a state of unconsciousness before slaughter. Beginning on May 1, German Jews within the Reich’s borders could no longer legally slaughter animals using the Jewish method.1 The Nazi ban remained in place until 1946 when the allies repealed all National Socialist legislation, including the prohibition on kosher butchering.2 The 1933 slaughterhouse reforms were part of a series of anti-Jewish legislation intended to “stabilize” the economy and exclude Jews from a variety of professional and social arenas. They followed an April 7 law, 1 Gesetz über das Schlachten von Tieren vom 21 April 1933 (Reichsgesetz—Berlin),” Reichsgesetzblatt 39 (21 April 1933): 203. The law, however, did include one important exception . Until July 14, 1937, the Jews in Upper Silesia were permitted to practice kosher butchering because of the international minority protection in force in that province. 2 Eugene Kelly Jr., Office of Military Government, “Order Concerning the Slaughter of Cattle Pursuant to Jewish Religious Customs” 27 October 1945 ALM 133/2. Kosher butchering re-emerged as an issue of concern after World War II. As individual state parliaments and city councils addressed the Jewish right to practice kosher butchering, these nascent mutterings of concern developed into an organized campaign. In 1951, a number of Bavarian animal protection societies pushed the Munich city council to reinstate the 1933 ban. When the council endorsed the prohibition, the societies turned to the Bavarian diet with a similar request. A national campaign soon followed. See, American Jewish Committee, Munich City Council Votes Ban on Shechita (New York: self published , 21 June 1951); “Neuer Tierschutz in Bayern,” Allgemeine Wochenzeitung der Juden in Deutschland (6 July 1951): 11+; “Animal Protection Petitions,” Orthodox Jewish Archives (AJA) Collection of Rabbi Michael Munk; 16 December 1954 report to the police authorities from the city veterinary authorities ALM 133/2. The campaign continued through the twentieth century, shifting its focus to include the Muslim method of slaughter. CONTESTED RITUALS 240 which provided for the dismissal of “non-Aryans” from the civil service, and preceded the establishment of a quota limiting the number of Jewish university students and school pupils.3 The abattoir legislation deviated from these other restrictions in one important way. The quota and the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” included exemptions for certain groups of Jews. Veterans and those who had lost a father or brother on the front could retain their civil service job or attend university, at least temporarily.4 Yet, no matter how valiantly they had fought on the front, Jewish men could no longer practice kosher butchering. The era of granting exemptions to Jewish communities on the basis of religious toleration had ended. “Kosher butchering,” commented one Munich authority “should only be done in the Zionist state of Palestine.”5 Despite the existence of a Nazi ban on kosher butchering, two separate conversations concerning the rite took place after April 1933. On the one side, Nazi legislators and propagandists remained interested in kosher butchering. They discussed the repercussions for illegal kosher slaughter, further restrictions on available kosher meat, and possible propagandist tactics that would feature the Jewish rite. On the other side, German Jews responded to the meat shortages prompted by the 1933 ban and other subsequent restrictions. Jewish communal leaders contemplated how to distribute available kosher meat and reply to the current food scarcities. Rabbinical authorities simultaneously investigated permissible deviations from Jewish law, specifically whether to allow the stunning of animals before slaughter or the transgression of Jewish dietary laws. Local and state administrators further exaggerated the painful effect of the April 1933 legislation on observant Jews by punishing those who practiced clandestine shehitah and by restricting Jewry’s access to kosher meat. Governmental leaders recognized that illegal slaughter would and did take place. Worried that Jews would transgress German law, local and state administrators fined illegal kosher slaughterers and their Jewish communities. In some cases, German authorities also interned these 3 While the number of Jewish civil servants was fairly small (approximately 5000), approximately 4000 physicians, 3500 lawyers, and thousands of students were affected. The abattoir legislation also followed the failed national economic boycott of Jews, which took place on April 1. Avraham Barkai, “Exclusion and Persecution: 1933–1938,” in Meyer, ed., German-Jewish History in Modern Times vol. 4, pp. 201–203. Also see Marion A. Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair...

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