Nazi Boycott of Jewish Businesses - Earlier Boycotts

Earlier Boycotts

Antisemitism in Germany grew increasingly respectable after the first world war and was most prevalent in the universities. By 1921, the German student union, the Deutschen Hochschulring, barred Jews from membership. Since the bar was racial, it included Jews who had converted to Christianity. The bar was challenged by the government leading to a referendum in which 76% of students voted for the exclusion.

At the same time, Nazi newspapers began agitating for a boycott of Jewish businesses and anti-Jewish boycotts became a regular feature of 1920's regional German politics with right-wing German parties becoming closed to Jews.

From 1931-2 SA "brownshirt" thugs physically prevented customers from entering Jewish shops, windows were systematically smashed and Jewish shop owners threatened. In Christmas 1932, the central office of the Nazi party organized a nation-wide boycott. In addition German businesses, particularly large organizations like banks, insurance companies, and industrial firms such as Siemens, increasingly refused to employ Jews. Many hotels, restaurants and cafes barred Jews from entering and the resort island of Borkum banned Jews anywhere on the island. Such behavior was common in pre-war Europe; however in Germany, it reached new extremes.