File:Judenboykott 1933-04 Anti-Semitic Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses shops Berlin SA Sturmabteilung propaganda terror action Flyers calling for boycott Nathan Scmidt store Kauft nicht bei Juden Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe 3 1 0 17 12410 34.jpg

English: In April 1933, the National Socialists in NSDAP initiated an anti-Jewish/anti-Semitic boycott against Jewish shops and businesses in Germany. This early labeling and harassment of Jewish-owned businesses were stark examples of discrimination and persecution of the Jewish population in Nazi Germany (1933–1945) and an important step on the way to the later enactment of anti-Semitic laws and ultimately the Holocaust.

• The Nazi propaganda photo shows uniformed members of the SA (Sturmabteilung), the paramilitary storm troopers of the Nazi Party, outside the storefront of a Jewish-owned shop in Berlin on April 1, 1933. The brownshirt activists distribute anti-Jewish leaflets to passersby and city residents and hold a swastika-adorned sign/poster bearing the following message:

"Attention, Germans! These Jewish owners of the 5 P.S. stores are parasites and undertakers of German craftsmanship! They pay starvation wages to German workers! The main owner is the Jew Nathan Schmidt."

• According to a discussion at www.trworkshop.net the founders of "5 P.S. stores" (German: 5 P.S. Läden, Lederwarengeschäft »5 PS« , Fünf Preisstaffeln/Preisspanne, Five Price Ranges) were the brothers Adolf and Nathan Schmidt (born in the 1880s). After the first World War, the firm opened retail shops in six of the main cities in Germany, trading under the name 'Alligator'. In 1932, another chain of retail shops under the name '5 PS (5 price ranges) was opened. Under Nazi pressure, the brothers Schmidt were forced to sell their business in Germany and, together with Nathan's son Henry and nephews Arthur Schmidt and Sidney Amerikaner, they arrived in Britain in the spring of 1938, where they continued their business as "Alligator Leather Goods Co. Ltd".

• The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses (German: Judenboykott) in Germany began on April 1, 1933, and was claimed to be a defensive reaction to the international anti-Nazi boycott, which had been initiated in March 1933.

It was largely unsuccessful, as the German population continued to use Jewish businesses, but revealed the intent of the Nazis to undermine the viability of Jews in Germany. It was an early governmental action against the Jews of Germany by the new National Socialist government, which culminated in the "Final Solution". It was a state-managed campaign of ever-increasing harassment, arrests, systematic pillaging, forced transfer of ownership to Nazi Party activists (managed by the Chamber of Commerce, Industrie- und Handelskammer), and ultimately murder of Jewish business owners. In Berlin alone, there were 50,000 Jewish-owned businesses.

Already on March 28, the National Socialist Kampfbund for the Commercial Middle Class (Nationalsozialistischer Kampfbund für den gewerblichen Mittelstand), under Adrian von Renteln, had advanced and occupied or sealed off Jewish shops in Kiel, the Ruhr area, and in some cities in Brandenburg. On April 1, 1933, a Saturday, at 10 o'clock - in some places already the evening before - the actual boycott began. Uniformed, sometimes armed SA (Sturmabteilung), HJ (Hitler Youth), and Stahlhelm guards stood outside Jewish shops, medical practices, and law offices all over German cities, preventing potential customers from entering all day long. Signs and posters demanded: 'Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews! - The Jews are our misfortune! - Avoid Jewish doctors! - Don't go to Jewish lawyers!' (Deutsche! Wehrt euch! Kauft nicht bei(m) Juden! – Die Juden sind unser Unglück! – Meidet jüdische Ärzte! – Geht nicht zu jüdischen Rechtsanwälten!) Other uniformed members of the same groups spread these slogans with chants and loudspeaker vans in the streets.

• See Footage of SA activists shouting anti-Jewish slogans, etc. (vimeo.com), Nazi Germany Stages Jewish Boycott - 1933 (British Movietone report/newsreel on Youtube), Joseph Goebbels' propaganda speech on the Anti-Jewish boycott (archive.org), etc.

• Copy of a photo from the National Digital Archives in Poland (Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe), published under a Public domain license, allowing copying, modification, distribution, and performance of the work, even for commercial purposes, without requiring permission.