Berlin investigates: Whatever happened to the Jewish businesses?

Berlin university studies Jewish businesses in city prior to Holocaust
Eldad Beck

Both Germans and Jews across the world are “completely unaware of the significant contribution that German Jews made to Berlin commerce prior to the Holocaust,” says Professor Kristoff Kroitzmiller of Humboldt University’s history department.

Humboldt, one of three leading universities in Berlin, is currently conducting a unique study attempting to document all Jewish businesses that operated in Berlin before the rise of the Nazi Party.

The study, conducted by Humboldt’s history department, attempts to discern what exactly happened to Jewish businesses after the Nazi Party assumed power.

At a later phase in the study, researchers will also attempt to determine whether these Jewish business owners, or their families, ever received compensation for their businesses — which were ultimately confiscated by the Nazis or sold for far less their worth.

“In 1933, when the Nazis assumed power, there were 52 thousand businesses in Berlin,” says Kroitzmiller, the study coordinator.

“A quarter of these businesses were owned by Jews, which is tremendous considering that Jews only constituted five percent of Berlin’s population. Jews therefore made a hefty and significant contribution to Berlin commerce, and it is our goal to make the public aware of this little known fact.”

Kroitzmiller also noted that “There was a large wealth of documented Jewish businesses in Berlin prior to 1933. So far we have managed to trace roughly 4,000 businesses that were Jewish-owned or considered by the Nazis as such.

"I believe, however, the true number of Jewish businesses in the city was at least twice that," he added.

“One of the interesting topics that we would also like to examine is how these business owners dealt with the limitations imposed on them by Nazi rule, and what 'survival strategies' they employed before they were forced to sell their businesses,” Kroitzmiller noted.