Jewish Merchants Liquidate Businesses in Face of Nazi Drive

Despite the recent government declaration of a policy of non-interference with business, the German Nazi drive against Jewish merchants has resulted in their voluntary liquidation of their businesses in many places. This is particularly true in the provinces, where Jewish merchants have liquidated rather than face the alternative of daily picketing of their stores by Nazi storm troopers.

Following last week’s panic among Jewish merchants in Dortmund as a result of the reintroduction of an official anti-Jewish boycott, many Jewish firms in that city have closed down altogether. As a result, many non-Jews have been thrown out of work. So many Jews are fleeing Dortmund that the last three Jewish schools there have shut their doors for lack of pupils.

Side by side with the movement against Jewish merchants, Jewish peddlers have been driven from the market places of many towns and cities. In Leipzig the movement against Jewish peddlers has reached such proportions that they are permitted to trade at present only on one street. Thus they are practically enclosed in a ghetto, as in the middle ages.

TIETZ OWNERS ELIMINATED

The Jewish owners of the Tietz Stores, with branches in several cities, have been disowned and the administration of their business has been transferred into government hands “as a means of developing healthier economics and eliminating social abnormalities.”

The small number of Jewish employees remaining in the Tietz Stores were immediately dismissed as soon as the special commissar, who henceforth will direct the business, took charge.

Prior to taking over the business the government imposed a high tax which the Tietz Stores were unable to meet. This gave the government its legal excuse to step in and take over the business. The ultimate aim of the government is said to be to transform all department stores into small bazaars run by independent small traders, who will of course be Aryans.