Big Business and «Aryanization» in Germany, 1933-1939

In February 1945, concerned about the Allied armies closing in on Germany, the Reich Economics Ministry issued instructions to the principal regional administrations concerning the treatment of what it called the historically and politically important records of dejewification. Understanding the role played by German big business in the so-called Aryanization of the German economy begins with an accurate appreciation of the relative economic position of Jews at the outset of the Third Reich. On the whole, that position had been declining for at least twenty years, both in prominence and distinctness, both within the country as a whole and within the leading ranks of the corporate world in particular. In November 1937, almost all of the circumstances that had insulated German big business from the full force of Aryanization changed rather abruptly. The foregoing survey and analysis of the involvement of German big business in the Aryanization of the German economy suggests various tentative conclusions.