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Commerce and Professional Life
By 1933, Jews made up 16 percent of Germany's lawyers and 11 percent of its doctors. Many major department stores were also owned by Jewish businessmen, as were more than 50 percent of all retail and wholesale clothing stores. Jews were respected citizens of their communities and held positions of responsibility in all areas of government service.
With the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the German Jewish population felt an immediate and noticeable shift in the way they were viewed by German society and government. While anti-Semitism had been and still was rife throughout Europe, now the government echoed the virulent, bigoted and hateful sympathies and state sanctioned discrimination became even more common both within German and across Europe. Ernst Drucker discusses his father's businesses in Vienna, Austria prior to World War II:
Sylvia Richman discusses her family's businesses in Krakow, Poland prior to World War II and how they were affected by the war:
