Abstract
The Nazi regime exploited the Jewish population economically through
an increasingly systematic program of expropriation. Under pressure,
Jewish owners sold their shops, factories, and land to “Aryan”
businessmen at prices far below market value. After the Night of Broken
Glass [Kristallnacht], the
Aryanization of Jewish property entered its final phase. On November 12,
1938, Göring issued the “Decree on the Exclusion of Jews from German
Economic Life,” according to which Jews were forbidden to own retail
stores and workshops and to sell merchandise and services. Jewish
businesses were confiscated by the state, closed, or transferred to
“non-Jewish” ownership. This photograph shows one such “Aryanized”
business, a rubber goods store in Frankfurt am Main. As the sign
indicates, the store was formerly called “Gummi Weil” (or “Weil Rubber
Goods”), but now went by Stamm & Bassermann, presumably the names of
its new “Aryan” owners.