His crime: being a Jew in lawful possession of firearms.1 The police knew he possessed firearms because he dutifully registered them in 1932 under the Weimar decree. In anticipation of the coming pogrom, the Nazi leadership launched a campaign to disarm Jews. Flatow was one of many who were arrested and turned over to the Gestapo. He would eventually be deported and die in a concentration camp. The police may not have realized that they had arrested a world-class gymnast who had won the gold for Germany at the 1896 Olympics: first place in the parallel bars events (individual and team) and second place in the horizontal bar event.2 Flatow's arrest record is in the Landesarchiv Berlin in a file labeled “House Searches of Jews 1938–39.”3 It is on a standard four-page police form entitled “Report Concerning Political Incident.” Two similar arrest reports were found in the same file. As will become evident, these arrests were part of an orchestrated police campaign to disarm all Berlin Jews, including those who possessed their firearms lawfully.
What do You think about Gun Control In The Third Reich?
