Aryanization of Businesses in Germany

[Text: Barred from attending medical school under the Nazis’ antisemitic prewar legislation, in 1936, Len took on an apprenticeship in a shoe store where he witnessed the “Aryanization” of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.] 

Len Daniel: The Nazi government at the time sent in party members to take over businesses, not to take them over to buy them, but to put in what they call, I think, gauleiter, who you had to employ him. And he would sit in the office and he would observe and he would control everything that went on. And then eventually, what was a dictatorship within an organization, and eventually they took over everything.  

Interviewer: And such a person came into your father’s ... 

Len Daniel: No, my father’s [shop] was too small, but where I was apprenticing because it was a larger operation. But with an individual [indiscernible], there’s nothing much you can do with one... there were no employees.  

Interviewer: That wasn’t worth doing at the butcher shop, but for the shoe place ... 

Len Daniel: Right, my younger brother was with my father, and there was somebody else. But there was a total of three people involved, which didn’t warrant anybody coming in. And the shoe store, well, it came to a point where they didn’t say anything, just you couldn’t move, you felt uncomfortable, and people had started to leave Germany.