Figure 1.--Were SA Storm Troopers are posting up a sign. It is a little difficult to read, but somethongh like , "Deutsche! Wehrt Guchg! Kauft nicht bei Juden!" Meaning, "German people! Fight back! Don't buy from Jews!" Notice how this is coucvhed as a defensive action, thus justified. Notice how it is being filmed. The NAZIS wereproud of what they were doing. Images luke yhis appeares in mewspapers, magazines, and movie film reels. We are not surevabout the business. Speisezimmer means 'diningroom', both home and hotel dining rooms.

President Hindenburg named NAZI leader Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany (January 1933). Hitler almost immediately launched what was to become a comprehensive campaign to isolate and exclude Jews from German national life. The first major steps two months after seizing power. The NAZIs launched the national campaign against the country's Jews with a boycott of Jewish shops, businesses, and professionals (April 1, 1933). [Berenbaum, p. 21.] The boycott was the opening move in the NAZi assault on German Jews. It was also a reprisal against Gruelpropaganda (atrocity stories) accounts by foreign jourrnalists darkening Germany's national image. This was a typical NAZI tactic, to blame Jews and justify and expand the actions taken. Sturmabteilung (SA Storm Troopers) positiined themselves in front of Jewish-owned department stores, small retail shops, and the offices of doctors, lawyers, and other profesionalss. Older Hitler Youth boys also participated. THis was all well organized. The SA and Hitler Youth boys were divuded into groups and asssigned locations to cover as many Jewish-owned shops and professionals as possible. They painted Stars of David and 'Jude" on shop windoiws and doors. They were given printed posters to post on windows, walls nd doors with anti-semitic slogans such as "Don't Buy from Jews" and "The Jews Are Our Misfortune." In addition Jews were attacked on the street and Jewish property damaged. The police now with NAZI bosses rarely if ever intervened. The Jews shop owners did not dare interfere or tear down the posters. It would mean a potentially fatal beating and trashing of the shop and knowing that the police would not intertfere. Jews were learning that in the new Germany, they did not want to draw attention to themselves and their family. The violence was not on the scale of Kristalnacht. Residstsance was futile and would just lead to even eorse consequenmces. The SA things were just learning how far they could go. German Jews were becomong increasingly aware that they no longer had the protection of German law. The initial boycott action only lasted one day, but it was just the beginning of a campaign to deny Jews the ability to make a living and steal their property.

Sources

Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know (Ed. Arnold Kramer. Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1993).

Created: 2:55 PM 1/22/2022
Last updated: 2:55 PM 1/22/2022