The Economic Destruction Of German Jewry By The Nazi Regime 1933 1937

The booklet by The Economic Bureau of the World Jewish Congress is a survey of the economic situation of Jews in the Third Reich. It starts with an overview of Jewish life in Germany before 1933, the effects of Nazi policy, the resulting decline of Jewish population in Germany and the impoverishment of the remaining community members up to 1937. The Nuremberg Laws are reprinted. Restrictions in businesses, arts, press and daily life are discussed. An article from the Trade magazine "Aufbau" from 1937 is reprinted.

The fullest account to date of German Jews' struggle for economic survival under the Third Reich.

This collection of essays by a range of international, multidisciplinary scholars explores the financial history, social significance, and cultural meanings of the theft, starting in 1933, of assets owned by German Jews. Despite the fraught topic and the ongoing legal discussions, the subject has not received much scholarly attention until now. This volume offers a much needed contribution to our understanding of the history of the period and the acts. The essays examine the confiscatory taxation of Jewish property, the looting of art and confiscation of gold, the role of German freight forwarders in property theft, salesmen and dispossession in the retail world, theft from the elderly, and the complicity of the banking industry, as well as the reach of the practice beyond German borders.

The author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers a personal account of life in Nazi Germany at the start of WWII. By the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Nazi Party, had consolidated power in Germany and was leading the world into war. A young foreign correspondent was on hand to bear witness. More than two decades prior to the publication of his acclaimed history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer was a journalist stationed in Berlin. During his years in the Nazi capital, he kept a daily personal diary, scrupulously recording everything he heard and saw before being forced to flee the country in 1940. Berlin Diary is Shirer’s first-hand account of the momentous events that shook the world in the mid-twentieth century, from the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia to the fall of Poland and France. A remarkable personal memoir of an extraordinary time, it chronicles the author’s thoughts and experiences while living in the shadow of the Nazi beast. Shirer recalls the surreal spectacles of the Nuremberg rallies, the terror of the late-night bombing raids, and his encounters with members of the German high command while he was risking his life to report to the world on the atrocities of a genocidal regime. At once powerful, engrossing, and edifying, William L. Shirer’s Berlin Diary is an essential historical record that illuminates one of the darkest periods in human civilization.

From 1933 to the end of 1938, a series of events assisted in the successful elimination of Jews from the German economy. The Jewish boycott of 1933, the Nuremberg Laws, and Kristallnacht, all served as examples of the treatment Jews could expect in the years to come. In addition, these events provided the Nazi government a glimpse of reactions from the German public and the Western world, providing essential feedback required in developing Jewish policy. In this process, the press played a pivotal role. During this period of initial persecution, a great many German Jews were removed from their jobs, banned from business associations, had their shops boycotted to discourage sales, and ultimately excluded from their professions. In addition, with the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws, Jews would be eliminated as citizens of the Reich, resulting above all in the legal elimination of Jews from positions in civil service. By the end of 1936 Jews experienced the process of forced emigration and "voluntary" Aryanizations. As a result, their property was being systematically removed through a series of decrees and regulations. By the end of 1938, in post Kristallnacht Germany, successful emigration rendered Jews penniless - their wealth tied to blocked bank accounts, "penalties," and decrees. The so-called "voluntary" Aryanizations turned "forced," and any hope of economic survival for German Jews in Germany became non-existent. These, and other, events occurred in plain view of the German public and the international press. They were both privileged to speeches delineating the goals of the Nazis towards the Jews, to the sight of S.A troops blocking the entrances of Jewish businesses, and were even aware of the emergence of "Aryan" businesses from the remains of once prominent Jewish businesses. They both experienced first hand the violence and the financial destitution inflicted on the Jews. Where they differed, however, was in their ability to play a passive role as witnesses; the responsibility to accurately, and truthfully, describe the events in a clear and concise manner abroad fell upon the press. They held the power to inform. Their words could have meant the difference between life and death of German, and ultimately European, Jews. What was reported about the Jewish persecution reached millions of individuals in America and other Western nations daily. The New York Times carried this burden above all others, as arguably the most prominent and trusted newspaper of the United States. The questions remain: With their reputation following them, and with first hand knowledge of the unfolding events, how did The New York Times represent the ongoing economic persecution of the Jews in Germany? Was the developing persecution reported accurately, as presented by current historical facts?

Going beyond the fanatical anti-Semitism of Hitler and his chiefs, Schleunes analyzes "the internal structure of the [Nazi] regime, the role of its bureaucracies, and the rivalries between competing power groups ... to trace the early stages of discrimination against Jews and their exclusion from public life that led ultimately to their deaths."--p.vii.

Appendix A: German ranks. Appendix B: Statistics of Jewish dead. Appendix C: Notation on sources. Index: pp. 1233-1274.

Nazism got to power with the stated goal of destroying the economic livelihood of Germany's Jewish population. For the most part, dispossession of Germany's Jews was a highly bureaucratic process. This paper identifies the main fiscal instruments used in this process and assesses the quantitative impact. The principal finding is that the fiscal booty from the dispossession of Germany's Jews was small: the Jewish share of Germany's real wealth matched the Jewish population share quite well. I also find that together with prohibitive bureaucratic obstacles, punitive taxes on emigrants provided a substantial disincentive to emigrate and often rendered emigration outright impossible. This incentive was only mitigated when confiscatory capital levies were imposed also on the resident Jewish population in 1938. Nevertheless the spoils from Jewish dispossession were nowhere nearly large enough to warrant an economic interpretation of the Holocaust as in (Aly, 2007). Germany's Jews were on the whole better trained than the average German but not necessarily much richer.