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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides
 
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The Boycott of Jewish Businesses

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The Boycott of Jewish Businesses in 1933 marked a pivotal moment in Nazi Germany, as it was the first major act of discrimination against Jews after Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The Nazi Party organized the boycott on April 1, 1933, targeting Jewish-owned businesses, doctors, and lawyers throughout Germany. This state-sanctioned action not only foreshadowed the escalating anti-Semitic measures that would culminate in the Holocaust but also highlighted the regime's intent to marginalize and economically disenfranchise the Jewish community.

After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the Nazi regime quickly moved to consolidate power and denigrate Jewish citizens. The Nazi propaganda machine, led by Joseph Goebbels, portrayed Jews as enemies of the state and blamed them for Germany's economic hardships. The boycott was framed as a defensive measure against alleged Jewish conspiracies to damage Germany’s reputation abroad.

Julius Streicher was a prominent Nazi propagandist and one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates. As the founder and editor of the violently antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, Streicher used his platform to incite hatred against Jews and heavily promoted the boycott. The newspaper featured inflammatory articles and cartoons demonizing Jews, and Streicher's messaging framed the boycott as a justified response to what the Nazis falsely claimed were Jewish-led international conspiracies against Germany.   Hitler was also appointed by the Nazi regime as the head of the Central Committee for the Defense against Jewish Atrocity Propaganda, giving him a formal role in orchestrating the boycott.   The following is an excerpt from a memo Streicher sent to local Nazi party leaders on March 31, 1933, with instructions on how to organize the boycott the next day. 
 

German national comrades! The ones who are guilty of this insane crime, this malicious atrocity propaganda and incitement to boycott, are the Jews in Germany. They have called on their racial comrades abroad to fight against the German people. They have transmitted the lies and defamations abroad. Therefore,  the Reich leadership of the German movement for freedom have decided, in defense against criminal incitement, to impose a boycott of all Jewish shops, department stores, offices, etc., beginning on Saturday, 1 April 1933, at 10 a.m. We are calling on you, German women and men, to comply with this boycott. Do not buy in Jewish shops and department stores, do not go to Jewish lawyers, avoid Jewish physicians. Show the Jews that they cannot besmirch Germany and disparage its honor without punishment. Whoever acts against this appeal proves thereby that he stands on the side of Germany’s enemies. Long live the honorable Field Marshal from the Great War, Reich President Paul v. Hindenburg! Long live the Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler! Long live the German people and the holy German fatherland!

Schulthess’ europäischer Geschichtskalender. Neue Folge, ed. by Ulrich Thürauf, Vol. 49 (Munich Beck, 1933), p. 81 as quoted in Stackelberg, Roderick and Sally A. Winkle, The Nazi Germany Sourcebook, New York: Routledge, 2002.

He continued to make speeches and directed propaganda efforts through his virulent antisemitic newspaper to encourage Germans to avoid Jewish-owned businesses and to participate in anti-Jewish demonstrations.  At the end of the war,  Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trials and was hanged in 1946. 

 

Guarded Storefront.jpgOn April 1, 1933, the Nazi regime implemented its first nationwide, state-sponsored coordinated action against Jews: a one-day   boycott targeting Jewish-owned businesses and professionals. Nazi Stormtroopers [Sturmabteilung (SA)] stood menacingly in   front of Jewish-owned stores, businesses, and offices, painting antisemitic slogans on windows and preventing customers     from entering. The Star of David was painted in yellow and black across thousands of doors and windows, accompanied by     antisemitic slogans such as "Don't buy from Jews!" (Kauf nicht bei Juden!) and "The Jews are our misfortune!" (Die Juden sind   unser Unglück!) Jewish professionals, including doctors and lawyers, were also targeted, with their offices vandalized and marked as untrustworthy. Despite these intimidations, many Germans continued to patronize Jewish businesses during the boycott, rendering the action largely unsuccessful.Marked Storefront.jpg

In his speech that day, Goebbels declared: "German citizens, defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!" He framed
the boycott as a necessary measure to protect Germany's honor and economic interests, suggesting that Jews were orchestrating an international smear campaign against the Nazi regime. The rhetoric was aimed at rallying public support and portraying the Nazis as protectors of the German people against alleged external threats by Jews abroad.  The speech also provided a chilling glimpse into the Nazi regime's future plans for systematic persecution.

Although the boycott itself was short-lived and met with mixed success, it marked the beginning of increasingly harsh antisemitic policies. Jewish businesses suffered immediate financial losses, while Jewish citizens felt an escalating sense of fear and insecurity. The event emboldened Nazi supporters and normalized public acts of discrimination, setting the stage for the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which legally institutionalized racial discrimination.           

The boycott did succeed, however, in one of its goals: it frightened Jews throughout Germany. Edwin Landau described what it was like in his hometown in West Prussia. On the Friday before the boycott, he recalled, “One saw the SA [storm troopers] marching through the city with its banners: ‘The Jews are our misfortune.’ ‘Against the Jewish atrocity propaganda abroad.’” He wrote about the day of the boycott:

Later that morning, the Nazi guards began to take up position in front of the Jewish businesses, and every customer was admonished not to shop at Jewish stores.  Two young Nazis were also posted In front of our shop and prevented customers from entering…  And this was the people we young Jews had once stood in the trenches for, spilling our blood to protect the country from the enemy. Was there any comrade-in-arms left from that period felt disgusted by the spectacle he was now witnessing? You could watch them as they passed by in the street, and there were persons among them one had done a favor for. They had a smile on their face, a smile that betrayed their secret joy. . . .

I took my war medals, put them on, went into the street, and went to some Jewish stores, where at first I was also stopped from entering.  But I was seething with rage, and would have liked most to scream my hatred into the faces of the barbarians. Hate, hatred—since when had that element seized hold of me? — This change had only come over me only a few hours before.  This country, this people, which up to then I had loved and admired, had now suddenly become my enemy. So I was no longer a German,-- at least was no longer supposed to be one.  Naturally, that cannot be arranged and settled in a short span of a few hours. But one thing that suddenly I sensed: I was ashamed of the trust that I had placed in so many who now were unmasked as my enemies. Suddenly even the street seemed to me strange and alien. Yes, the whole city had become a strange and alien place.  Words do not exist to describe the feelings that I experienced in those hours. Having arrived at home, I approached the one guard whom I knew and who also knew me, and I said to him: “When you were still in your diapers I was already fighting out there for this country.” He answered: “You should not reproach me for my youth, sir . . . I’ve been ordered to stand here.” I looked at his young face and thought, he’s right. Poor, misguided young people.

Landau, Edwin as quoted in Barkai, Avraham.  From Boycott to Annihilation: The Economic Struggle of German Jews 1933-43. Hanover: Brandeis University Press,1989


International responses to the boycott were varied, with some nations condemning the action while others remained silent. In the United States and Great Britain, Jewish organizations organized protests and rallies, such as one at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and called for economic retaliation. However, the lack of unified and decisive international action emboldened the Nazi regime, signaling that their policies would not face significant foreign resistance.

The Boycott of Jewish Businesses in 1933 was more than just an economic attack; it was a calculated and symbolic step in the Nazi strategy to eliminate Jewish influence from German life. While the event itself may have lasted only a day, its implications reverberated throughout the following decade. It highlighted the power of propaganda and the dangerous consequences of state-sponsored hate.  It served as a precursor to more severe acts of persecution, including the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 and the eventual genocide of six million Jews and five million other victims during the Holocaust.

Discussion Questions

  1. What role did propaganda play in preparing the German public for the Boycott of Jewish Businesses in 1933, and how did figures like Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels contribute to this effort?
  2. Why was the boycott on April 1, 1933, largely unsuccessful despite extensive Nazi propaganda and intimidation tactics?
  3. How did the boycott serve as a precursor to the more severe anti-Semitic measures that followed, such as the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 and Kristallnacht in 1938?
  4. What message did the Nazi regime intend to convey through the presence of SA Stormtroopers in front of Jewish businesses during the boycott?
  5. How did the Nazi regime justify the boycott to the German population, and what propaganda techniques were used to frame it as an act of self-defense?
  6. In what ways did the boycott reflect the Nazi regime’s broader strategy to marginalize Jews economically and socially in Germany?
  7. What factors contributed to the willingness of some Germans to continue supporting Jewish businesses despite the Nazi boycott?
  8. How did the boycott affect the way Edwin Landau thought about his identity
  9. How did the international community respond to the boycott, and why did these responses fail to deter further anti-Semitic policies by the Nazi regime? What lessons can be drawn from this response?