The German National Registration System
[Lansdowne, Pa]: Published by the author, December 7, 1943. First edition. Softcover. Quarto. [4], 74 leaves. Original printed wrappers. In this Staff study published only for OMGUS (the Office of Military Government, United States), Robert Kempner* considers it likely that the condition of German society immediately after the upcoming collapse of the Nazi regime would be chaotic enough to require the maintenance of a modified version of what he terms the 'National Police Registration," the Nazi centralized and police-operated 'Reichsmeldeordnung' system**. Kempner's conclusions were to become the basis of occupation policy on this issue throughout the rest of the 1940s. Minor age-toning and sporadic creasing along edges of covers. Some moderate abrasion along foredge of front wrap and the first 24 leaves (not affecting text), as they were pulled out from the book block. The remaining leaves are all stapled together, along with the back cover. Wrappers in overall good- to good, interior in good+ to very good condition. g- to vg. Item #39652
* Robert Kempner (1899-1993) was a German-born American lawyer. After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Hermann Goering fired Kempner from his position because of his anti-Nazi activities. He was then arrested and held for two months in a concentration camp after being accused of leaking information about Germany's rearmament, activities forbidden under the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Wilhelm Frick, then the Interior Minister, used Kempner's Jewish background to revoke his German citizenship. Kempner was then expelled from Germany. He taught law for a few years in Italy before immigrating to the United States. After World War II Kempner returned to Germany, the land of his birth, to serve as assistant US chief counsel during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. In a spectacular reversal of fortune, Kempner would prosecute two of his former superiors and persecutors - Hermann Goering and Wilhelm Frick.
** The 'Reichsmeldeordnung' system administered the following registers:
A. Register of Persons (Melderegister)
B. Register of Buildings (Hausregister)
C. People's Card Index (Volkskartei)
D. Alien Card Index (Auslaenderkartei).
Price: $750.00