File:Judenboykott 1933-04 Anti-Semitic Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses shops Berlin SA Sturmabteilung propaganda terror action Hemdenmatz Kauft nicht bei Juden Block store entrance Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe 3 1 0 17 12415 34413 retouced ph.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 the discrimination and persecution of Germany's Jewish population 1933–1945 and an important step on the way to the later enactment of anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany 1933–1945 and ultimately the Holocaust in Europe.

• Nazi propaganda photo of uniformed members of the SA (Sturmabteilung), the paramilitary brownshirt storm troopers of the Nazi Party, demonstrating and protesting against Jewish-owned business in Berlin on April 1, 1933.

An SA man positioned in the doorway prevents customers from entering the store "Hemdenmatz" (owned by mr Schaub and mr Stein from Poland). There is a large crowd, primarily composed of men wearing hats, on the sidewalk outside. In the windows hangs a campaign poster with the following anti-Semitic slogan: Deutsche! Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei Juden! (Germans! Protect yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!' ). A poster also has the text: Inhaber der Firma Hemdenmatz sind 2 galizische Juden aus Tarnepol u Lemberg ('Owners of the company Hemdenmatz are 2 Galician Jews from Tarnopol and Lemberg.')

The press photo has been retouched with paint to stand out more clearly in print.

• The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses (German: Judenboykott) in Germany began on Saturday 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 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.