Photograph of a protest by Jewish merchants in France in response to the boycott of Jewish shops in Nazi Germany. ...

Photograph of a protest by Jewish merchants in France in response to the boycott of Jewish shops in Nazi Germany. March 1933

Photograph of the façade of a Jewish shop in Paris, on whose display window appears the sign: LES REPRÉSENTANTS DES MAISONS ALLEMANDES NE SERONT PAS REÇUS - “Representatives of German firms will not be received” - a protest by French Jewry against Nazi Germany following Hitler’s rise to power and the persecution of Jews there. Paris, March 1933.

The photograph, depicting the protest of French Jewry against the persecution of Jews in Germany, is described on the verso in print by the ACME News Pictures agency: “The photograph shows - some of the signs bear the inscription: ‘German salesmen are not accepted, ’ and they were affixed to the windows of many Jewish shops in Paris in protest against the Nazi boycott of Jewish shops in Germany. ACME Agency, March 30, 1933.”

In March 1933, only weeks after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, an organized policy of boycotting Jewish businesses began to take shape in Germany. This was still a transitional stage between “grassroots” initiatives by party activists and SA members and actions directed from above, yet numerous instances were already recorded of marking Jewish shops, intimidating customers, and public calls to refrain from buying from Jews. News of the boycott reached France, and the Jews of Paris responded in kind by boycotting German suppliers.

A few weeks later, a nationwide boycott took place in Germany on April 1, 1933. It was organized by the Nazi regime, with SA members stationed at the entrances to Jewish shops, painting Stars of David and slogans such as “Kauft nicht bei Juden” (“Do not buy from Jews”), and attempting to prevent customers from entering. Although the boycott officially lasted only one day, its impact on public attitudes in Germany toward Jews was profound. It helped prepare the ground for a series of subsequent legal and economic measures, such as the “purging” laws of the civil service in April 1933, and marked the beginning of a systematic process of dispossessing Jews of their economic standing in Germany.

Size: 24×18 cm. Good condition.