Legislating the Holocaust : the Bernhard Loesener memoirs and supporting documents

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-184) and index.

From April 1933 to early 1943, Lösener served as the official "Jewish expert" in the German Ministry of Interior. In that role, he personally drafted much of the Nazi anti-Jewish legislation. Pp. 3-31 contain an introduction by Schleunes, "The Enigma of Bernhard Lösener - Nazi Bureaucrat", reflecting on to what degree Lösener's postwar claims that he mitigated the severity of the Nazi racist legislation are justified. Contends that, belonging to a more moderate group of Nazi racists, he indeed alleviated the legal situation of the "Mischlinge" in his draft of the Nuremberg Laws. Pp. 33-109 contain Lösener's memoirs, "At the Desk for Racial Affairs in the Reich Ministry of the Interior", originally published in "Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte" (1961). Pp. 111-152 contain Lösener's testimony before the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1948. Pp. 154-180 contain the texts of some Nazi anti-Jewish laws, including the Reich Citizenship Law of 15 September 1935 and 13 supplementary decrees to it, as well as the Decree on the Identifying Mark for Jews of 1 September 1941.

ix, 187 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm