Latvia Under German Occupation in 1943Latvian Legation, 1944

Restoration of Private Enterprises
Camouflaged Economic Gangsterism

Even more convincing of its hidden real aims is the Nazi attitude toward the owners of shares in commercial and industrial corporations, which have the status of juridical persons. A decree relating to them the “Third Decree” was signed by Reich Commissar Lohse only on June 24, 1943, and went into force on July 1, 1943.

This extremely complicated and involved decree, consisting of 27 articles and each article of 3-5 paragraphs, is too long to be inserted here word for word. Its purpose obviously is to facilitate the expropriation of Latvian industrial establishments by Germans.

Moreover, not enough time has passed from the announcement of the above mentioned “Third Decree” to judge of the consequences of this procedure. During the past two years the Germans have placed the stock companies and corporations in such confusion, partly by reorganizing them in their own manner and partly by transporting their property to Germany, that they have already caused the shareholders too great a loss to correct it by the involved procedure emanating from the “Third Decree.” After all the chaos created by the Germans in the field of the stock companies, they can no longer improve their evil reputation in the eyes of the shareholders.