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Picketing Jewish-Owned Businesses in Nazi Germany: A Boycott?

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Boycotts Past and Present

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism ((PCSAR))

Abstract

This chapter argues that the picketing of Jewish businesses in Nazi Germany on and after 1 April 1933 was in fact not a boycott, even though it is generally referred to as such. On the basis of a semantic analysis of the use of the term in the 1930s, it is shown that the Nazis abused the word. In so doing they tried to conceal the fact that the violent ousting of businesses regarded as being Jewish was organized by the state and was, as a matter of fact, not part of a political or economic market struggle.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sworn statement by Arno Cohn, 30 July 1957, Compensation Office Berlin (EAB), 336718.

  2. 2.

    Report from Police Station No 152, 26 July 1935, State Archive Berlin (LAB), A Pr. Br. Rep 030, 21617.

  3. 3.

    Witness statement by baker Fritz Wachsmuth, 26 July 1935, ibid.

  4. 4.

    Letter from the NS Group Olivia to Police Station No. 152, 9 August 1935, ibid.

  5. 5.

    Police Station No. 152 Reports, 10 August 1935, ibid. The Cohns paid dearly for their brave act. Selma and Georg Cohn lost all their financial reserves, could not emigrate, and were deported to Kowno where they were murdered in November 1941: See: Federal Archive, Memorial Book, Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945, Cohn, Georg (born 25 April 1887) and Selma (nee Jacubowski born 15 May 1891). Cf. Property declaration by Georg Cohn, 13 November 1941, Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv Potsdam, Rep. 36 A (II), 6133.

  6. 6.

    Christoph Kreutzmüller, ‘The Eruption of Racist Fault Lines in Central European Economy 1918–1933’, in: National Economies, Volks-Wirtschaft, Racism and Economy in Europe between the Wars (1918–1939/45), eds. Kreutzmüller, Christoph, Wildt, Michael, and Zimmermann, Moshe, (Newcastle, 2015), 1–17.

  7. 7.

    Cf. “Rechtsfrieden gegen Gewaltfrieden”, Vossische Zeitung, 28.5.1919.

  8. 8.

    “Der Wirtschaftskampf”, Vossische Zeitung, 6.8.1918.

  9. 9.

    “Der Boykott gegen Ungarn”, Vossische Zeitung, 18.6.1920.

  10. 10.

    “Jugoslawischer Boykott gegen Italien”, Vossische Zeitung, 8.8.1920.

  11. 11.

    Cf. Nationalökonomie auf Deutsch, Berlin: Scherl, 1934, 11.

  12. 12.

    Reimer, Eduard, Kommentar zum Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb zum Zugabe und Rabattrecht, vol. 2, Berlin: Carl Heymanns, 1935, 553.

  13. 13.

    “Kauft keine französischen und belgischen Waren”, Vossische Zeitung, 4.2.1923, “Een algemeene boycott”, De Telegraaf, 30.3.1923.

  14. 14.

    “Mißstimmung bei den Gastwirten”, Vossische Zeitung, 1.3.1932.

  15. 15.

    “Land unter Terror”, Vossische Zeitung, 11.3.1932.

  16. 16.

    “Gegen Boykott”, Vossische Zeitung, 12.1.1933. Letter of the Reich Minister of the Interior to States, 27.12.1932, Federal Archive Berlin (BArch), R 3101, 13859.

  17. 17.

    Ahlheim, Hannah, ‘Deutsche kauft nicht bei Juden!’ Antisemitismus und politischer Boykott in Deutschland 1924 bis 1935, Göttingen: Wallstein, 2011, 156.

  18. 18.

    Wiener, Alfred, Der Wirtschaftsboykott, Amsterdam, 1934, 3.

  19. 19.

    Genschel, Helmut, Die Verdrängung der Juden aus der Wirtschaft im Dritten Reich (Göttingen, 1966), 44.

  20. 20.

    “Pogrom plot”, Daily Herald, 3.3.1933.

  21. 21.

    “Germany under Nazi rule”, The Times, 10.3.1933.

  22. 22.

    “Polish envoy in Reich charges 25 attacks”, New York Times, 24.3.1933.

  23. 23.

    “Facts about the Nazi terror”, Manchester Guardian, 27.3.1933.

  24. 24.

    Ahlheim, Deutsche, 246.

  25. 25.

    Kreutzmüller, Christoph, Final Sale in Berlin. The destruction of Jewish commercial activity 1930–1933 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn 2017), 105–110.

  26. 26.

    “Hitler über den Boykott”, Vossische Zeitung, 29.3.1933.

  27. 27.

    “Der Reichskanzler rechtfertigt den Lügen-Abwehrkampf vor dem Kabinett”, Völkischer Beobachter, 29.3.1933.

  28. 28.

    Friedländer, Saul, Nazi Germany and the Jews. Vol. 1, The years of Persecution (New York, 2005), 21f.

  29. 29.

    Wachsmann, Nikolaus, KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps (London, 2016). Cf. Wünschmann, Kim, Before Auschwitz. Jewish prisoners in the prewar Conencentration Camps (Cambridge and London, 2015), 17–57.

  30. 30.

    Cf. for one of the rare critical reports: “Unlösbar verbunden”, Vossische Zeitung, 29.3.1933.

  31. 31.

    Fröhlich, Elke (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941 (Munich, 2005), vol. 2/III, 156.

  32. 32.

    Klemperer, Viktor and Chalmers, M., The Klemperer diaries 1933–1945: I shall bear witness to the bitter end (London, 2000), 9.

  33. 33.

    Kreutzmüller, Final Sale in Berlin, 105–110.

  34. 34.

    “German business protests boycott”, New York Times, 31.3.1933.

  35. 35.

    Kreutzmüller, Final Sale, 196.

  36. 36.

    Roos, Daniel, Julius Streicher und der Stürmer 1923–1945, Paderborn et al.; Ferdinand Schönigh, 2014, 282f.

  37. 37.

    “Kriegserklärung des Weltfeindes Alljuda”, Der Stürmer, 14/1933 (April 1933). Cf. Roos, Streicher, 282–285.

  38. 38.

    “Die Boykott-Anordnungen zur Greuelabwehr”, Der Angriff, 31.3.1933.

  39. 39.

    “Ruhiger Boykottverlauf”, Vossische Zeitung, 1 April 1933. See also Johannes Ludwig, Boykott, Enteignung, Mord: Die “Entjudung” der deutschen Wirtschaft (Munich and Zürich, 1992), 312–315; Genschel, Verdrängung, 52.

  40. 40.

    “Boykott und Auslandsmeinung”, Jüdische Rundschau, 4 April 1933.

  41. 41.

    Cf. Picture of an unknown photographer, Berlin 1 April 1933, in: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Collection, 06007.

  42. 42.

    “Nach dem Boykott”, Berliner Tageblatt, 3 April 1933.

  43. 43.

    Evans, Richard, The Coming of the Third Reich (London, 2004), 436. See also Ahlheim, Deutsche, 259f; Friedländer, Germany, 42f.

  44. 44.

    “Boykott bei strenger Disziplin”, Berliner Börsen-Courier, 1 April 1933. See also Buchholz, Wolfhard, Die Ausgrenzung der Juden in der Tagespresse des Dritten Reiches, 1933–1941 (Frankfurt am Main, 2007), 63–69.

  45. 45.

    “Disziplin: Ein neuer Aufruf des Zentralkomitees”, Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 April 1933.

  46. 46.

    Conze, Eckart, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes, Moshe Zimmermann, Annette Weinke, and Andrea Wiegeshoff, Das Amt und die Vergangenheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik (München, 2010), 47.

  47. 47.

    Entry, 2 April 1933, Goebbels Tagebücher, Part 1, Vol. 2/III, 160.

  48. 48.

    Goebbels, Joseph, Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei (Berlin, 1933), 291.

  49. 49.

    “Ganz Deutschland boykottiert die Juden”, Völkischer Beobachter, 2./3.4.1933.

  50. 50.

    “Germany’s Jewish boycott”, Daily Mail, 3.4.1933.

  51. 51.

    Report by H. Rumbold to J. Simon, 1.4.1933, in: Documents on British foreign policy, 1919–1939, Second Series, vol. V, eds. Elbert L. Woodward, Rohan Butler, (London, 1956), 16.

  52. 52.

    “The great Nazi-victory on the shop front”, Manchester Guardian, 5.4.1933.

  53. 53.

    Longerich, Peter, Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (Oxford, 2010), 34f.

  54. 54.

    Kreutzmüller, Final Sale, 123.

  55. 55.

    Kreutzmüller, Christoph, Simon, Hermann, and Weber, Elisabeth, Ein Pogrom im Juni, Fotos antisemitischer Schmierereien in Berlin, 1938, (Berlin, 2013), 14.

  56. 56.

    Michael Wildt, ‘The boycott campaign as an arena of collective violence against Jews in Germany’, in: Nazi Europe and the Final Solution, eds. David Bankier/Israel Gutman, (Jerusalem, 2003), 53–72.

  57. 57.

    World Alliance for Combating Anti-Semitism, J’accuse, London, 1933, 5.

  58. 58.

    Comité des Délégations Juives (ed.), Das Schwarzbuch. Tatsachen und Dokumente. Die Lage der Juden in Deutschland (Paris, 1934), 312.

  59. 59.

    Barkai, Boycott, 23.

  60. 60.

    “3,000,000 in Reich feel ‘cold pogrom’”, New York Times, 16.4.1933.

  61. 61.

    Letter P. Leiser to Reich Ministry of Economics, 26.4.1933, BArch, R. 3101, 13859.

  62. 62.

    Ruling District Court, 16.5.1933, HM 2/8778 RGVA 721/1/2678.

  63. 63.

    Christoph Kreutzmüller, Ingo Loose, and Benno Nietzel, ‘Persecution and Strategies of Survival. Jewish Entrepreneurs in Berlin, Frankfurt/Main/Breslau 1933–1942’, Yad Vashem Studies, vol. 39, (2011), 31–70.

  64. 64.

    Nietzel, Benno, Handeln und Überleben. Jüdische Unternehmer aus Frankfurt am Main von den 1920er bis in die 1960er Jahre (Göttingen, 2013), 87f; Ahlheim, Deutsche, 360–379.

  65. 65.

    Tooze, Adam, The Wages of Destruction. The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (London, 2007), 61–65, 186.

  66. 66.

    Letter from the General Prosecutor at the Prussian Regional Court to Reich Minister of Justice via General Prosecutor at Berlin Superior Court, 18 April 1935, Political Archive of the Foreign Ministry (PArch AA), R. 100249.

  67. 67.

    Letter from Heimannsohn to Simonis, 24.1.1935; File note Rubinstein, 8.2.1935, both Central Archiv of the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), HM2 8806 (RGVA 721/3161).

  68. 68.

    File note Rubinstein 18.2.1935, CAHJP, HM2 8806 (RGVA 721/3161). Letter Otto Hirsch to Julius Lippert, 8.3.1935, Warburg Archive Foundation, Hamburg (SWA), I, 3-5-5. See also Ahlheim, Deutsche, 379–390.

  69. 69.

    Christoph Kreutzmüller, ‘Sticker und Stigmata: Antisemitische Kampagnen in der Wirtschaft 1900–1938’, in: Alltagskultur des Antisemitismus im Kleinformat: Vignetten der Sammlung Wolfgang Haney ab 1880, eds. Isabel Enzenbach and Wolfgang Haney, (Berlin, 2011), 123–135, here 129.

  70. 70.

    CV file note, 2 July 1935, ibid.

  71. 71.

    Kreutzmüller/Simon/Weber, Pogrom im Juni, 16f.

  72. 72.

    Report 133rd Police Precinct to Gestapo, 22 July 1935, LAB, A Pr. Br. Rep. 030, 21638.

  73. 73.

    Secret circular by the Reich-Association of Retail- and Wholesale Traders, Sept. 1935, CAHJP, HM 2/8787 RGVA 721/2880.

  74. 74.

    Report Cora Berliner, 1.10.1935, Leo Baeck Institute, AR 1578.

  75. 75.

    Kreutzmüller, Final Sale, 234.

  76. 76.

    “Berliners frown on drive on Jews”, New York Times, 20.6.1938.

  77. 77.

    Fromm, Bella, Blood and banquets. A Berlin social diary (New York, 1990), 274.

  78. 78.

    “Berliners frown on drive on Jews”, New York Times, 20.6.1938.

  79. 79.

    Eilbericht des SD-Oberabschnitt Ost an die Sicherheitspolizei, 24.6.1938, RGVA, 500, 1, 645.

  80. 80.

    Mitteilung des Oberabschnitts Ost an Stabskanzlei des SD, 22.6.1938, RGVA, Fond 500, 1, 645; emphasis added.

  81. 81.

    Court Verdict, 4 Sept. 1939, in: LAB, A Rep 358-02, 118422; Sworn statement Magdalena Reddehase, 4 Aug. 1949, in LAB, B Rep. 058, 14101.

  82. 82.

    Kreutzmüller, Christoph, and Schörle, Eckhard, Stadtluft macht frei? Jüdische Gewerbebetriebe in Erfurt 1919–1939 (Berlin, 2013), 46.

  83. 83.

    Kreutzmüller, Final Sale, 326f.

  84. 84.

    Stangneth, Bettina and Otto Adolf Eichmann, ‘Reich Main Security Office. The RSHA’s “Jewish Expert”’, in: The Participants. The men of the Wannsee-Conference, eds. Jasch, Hans Christian and Kreutzmüller Christoph, (New York and Oxford, 2017), 40–56.

  85. 85.

    Letter from the Foreign Office to the Chief of Police, 12 April 1933, PArch AA, R 121211.

  86. 86.

    On the fate of Reimer, see: Simone Ladwig Winters, Anwalt ohne Recht, Das Schicksal jüdischer Rechtsanwälte in Berlin nach 1933, Berlin 2007, S. 244.

  87. 87.

    Reimer, Kommentar, 559. See: “Boykott zunächst einen Tag”, Frankfurter Zeitung, 1.4.1933.

  88. 88.

    “Der sittenwidrige Antisemitismus”, Das Schwarze Korps, 16.4.1936. See: Gerhart Runte, Boykott und Kollektiv-Boykott im Völkerrecht (Emsdetten, 1935), 16.

  89. 89.

    Ibid.

  90. 90.

    Bibliographisches Institut (eds.), Meyers Lexikon (Leipzig, 1936ff), vol. 2, 58.

  91. 91.

    “Hitlerites limit boycott to a day”, New York Times, 1.4.1933.

  92. 92.

    De Oorlogsverklaring aan de Duitsche Joden, Het Laatste Nieuws, 1.4.1933.

  93. 93.

    “Nazis arrest 1000 Jews in fresh purge”, Washington Post, 16.6.1938.

  94. 94.

    Kurt Jakob Ball-Kaduri, Das Leben der Juden in Deutschland 1933. Ein Zeitbericht (Frankfurt, 1963), 83.

  95. 95.

    Bankier, David, Die öffentliche Meinung im Hitler-Staat. Die “Endlösung” und die Deutschen. Eine Berichtigung (Berlin, 1994), 94.

  96. 96.

    “Vom Judenboykott zum Boykott des Rechts”, Die Zeit, 3.4.1958.

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  1. Jewish Museum Berlin/House of the Wannsee-Conference, Berlin, Germany

    Christoph Kreutzmüller

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Correspondence to Christoph Kreutzmüller .

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  1. Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck College – University of London, London, UK

    David Feldman

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Kreutzmüller, C. (2019). Picketing Jewish-Owned Businesses in Nazi Germany: A Boycott?. In: Feldman, D. (eds) Boycotts Past and Present. Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94872-0_6

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