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 November pogrom
[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” [“Weil Rubber Goods”], but now went by
Stamm & Bassermann, presumably the names of its new “Aryan”
owners.