On 21 April 1933 (according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz), "Nazi Germany enacted a law that had the effect of outlawing kosher slaughter in the country. The law did not actually mention Jews or shechita (kosher slaughter); instead, it prohibited the killing of animals for food if they hadnt (sic) first been stunned or anesthetized. Because kosher slaughter requires that the animal be conscious at the time it is killed, it no longer conformed to the law."
What intrigues me about this question is the assertion that Hitler banned kosher food on the actual day that he proclaimed the Third Reich.
When did Hitler actually proclaim the Third Reich? Did he ever actually proclaim it at all?
The term 'Third Reich', adopted by Nazi propaganda as Drittes Reich, was first used in a 1923 book by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck – the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) being the first Reich and the German Empire (1871–1918 – engineered by Otto von Bismarck) being the second. It was never used officially; Nazi Germany was officially known as the Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943 and the Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Both inside and outside Germany, the term 'Third Reich' was often used to describe the Nazi regime in Germany from January 30, 1933, to May 8, 1945."
This clearly dates the beginning of Hitler's Third Reich to 30 January 1933 – the day on which he was appointed as Chancellor by the President, Paul von Hindenburg. It was indisputably under way by 2 August 1934, when (under a law enacted the previous day by Hitler's cabinet) Hindenburg's death left Hitler as Führer und Reichskanzler – an effective dictator.
It was in between these two dates that kosher slaughter was outlawed. I have been unable to find any evidence dating the start of the Third Reich to the same date (21 April 1933).
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