The German courts, in a decision reported today, hold that a Jew doing business in Germany is doing so at his own risk and cannot hold the State responsible for negligence in maintaining order and affording him protection.
The decision, reported in the Saarbrucken Freiheit, reveals that a Jewish merchant, whose shop was destroyed by uniformed storm troopers while the regular police stood idly by, brought suit for damages in a Berlin court. The judge dismissed the suit with costs assessed against the plaintiff, and in a remarkable decision held that the claim for compensation was unfounded.
When a Jewish businessman establishes or conducts an enterprise in Germany, the court ruled, he must be aware that this constitutes an extraordinary provocation for an overwhelming majority of the German people. He must, therefore, from the first, count on the possibility of the destruction of his business and this danger should form part of the entrepreneur’s risk which every Jew in Germany must bear.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
