Ruthless “aryanization” Methods Revealed

The “Aryanization” of Jewish businesses in the provincial centers of Germany is being carried out with unprecedented ruthlessness, a special survey made by a special J.T.A. correspondent recently shows.

In one of the districts in the North of Germany the Gauleiter and the Nazi president of the local Chamber of Commerce ordered the Labor Front entirely to “Aryanize” the clothing and textile industries by the end of the present year. The methods employed by the Labor Front to carry out this order are ruthless to the extreme. Four Labor Front officials usually appear before a Jewish businessman and ask him what steps he has already taken to sell his business to an “Aryan.” if they fail to receive a definite answer, the Jewish businessman is told that he must sell his business within a fortnight. He is also ordered to produce a list of his customers. A Jewish owner of a gentlemen’s clothing establishment who refused the last request, chiefly because he wished to spare his “Aryan” clientele, was threatened with the Gestapo and he had to comply. He was also forced to sell his business for a song within a fortnight. Another Jewish owner of a clothing establishment who raised objections was summoned to the local office of the Labor Front, where he was mercilessly beaten up. Other Jewish businessmen who were summoned to the Labor Front offices were reviled in unprintable language. A Jewish businessman who informed a Labor Front official that he already had an “Aryan” customer for his business, was told by the official that he (the official) himself intended to acquire his business and that the Jew would be unable to sell it to anyone else as every sale of a Jewish business had to be sanctioned by the Nazi authorities. Faced with such a dilemma, the Jewish businessman was forced to sell out to the official at a ridiculously low price.

The dismissal of Jewish travellers of German firms is also proceeding at a quick rate, the survey shows. German manufacturers have been told to dismiss their Jewish travellers who had been with their firms for many years at least by the end of 1938. Should they disobey this order, they are threatened that their supplies of raw materials would be cut off. Many german manufacturers assured the J.T.A. special correspondent that they had obeyed the order very unwillingly because their Jewish employees had been very loyal to them. The manufacturers have also been ordered to dismiss their Jewish agents abroad. Today there are only a very few Jewish representatives of German firms either in Germany or abroad.

In the small towns in Germany Jewish peddlers find it quite impossible to obtain licenses, although legally they are entitled to them. The plight among the Jewish peddlers is consequently indescribably great. Jewish peddlers also find it impossible to go to and other German town. If a Jewish peddler asks the German authorities for advice, he is told to emigrate. But emigration has become very difficult for the Jews in the provinces since almost all the Jews had been deprived of their passports. no regulations about the emigration of Jews exists, and every municipality pleases itself in the treatment of would-be ###emigrants.