Persecution and the holocaust under the National Socialist regime

With the election of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of the German Empire on January 30th 1933 and the reformation of the Hamburg senate which included the National Socialists, the persecution of Jews directed by the state began in March 1933. In parallel with the anti-jewish propaganda of the media being forced to follow suit, the expulsion of Jews from many areas of social and economical life began: jewish employees were sacked, shops and warehouses boycotted, more and more jobs and careers required the „proof of Aryan document “and the recognition of worthy Hamburg Jews was undermined by the removal of historical documents and street names.
Through the „Nuremberg laws“ of September 1935 the denial of rights of the Jews was intensified. They lost their equal rights acquired in the 19th century and were no longer allowed to work in public service. Marriage to non-jews particularly was not allowed. Disregard of these laws was severely punished, especially in Hamburg, compared to the whole of Germany.
In the first years of the Nationalist Socialist regime, the only alternative for Jews was to emigrate or to find other ways of survival. Emigration was mostly only possible at high financial cost and loss of property. Organizations like the jewish cultural society were able to offer a certain stability in view of the growing isolation.
In the night of the progrom from the 9th to the 10th of November 1938 systematic violence against the Jews in Germany started with arrest, destruction of the synagogues as well as closure and commandeering of jewish trade organisations. These sanctions were followed by a mass departure which was the purpose of the National Socialists. The freedom of movement of the remaining Jews was rigorously further restricted.
In autumn of 1941 Hamburg Jews were removed in four transports to the ghettos of Minsk and Riga and almost all were exterminated. After the National Socialists decided between January 1942 and February 1945 on the extermination of european Jews, 17 deportation trains with 6000 Jews travelled from Hamburg to the concentration camps Ausschwitz and Theresienstadt where most of them died.
In the concentration camp Neuengamme the imprisoned Jews formed a small group, in it‘s numerous outer camps thousands had to serve hard labour under terrible conditions. 8877 Jews from Hamburg died under the National Socialist regime. At the liberation of Hamburg in May 1945, only a few hundred of the approximately 17000 Jews living in Hamburg in 1933 survived.


Jews in Hamburg
- The arrival of the first Jews in Hamburg
- Enlightment and emancipation
- Jews in the german empire
- Jews and the Weimar Republic
- Persecution and the holocaust under the national socialist leadership
- Jewish Schools
- Jews and business in Hamburg
- Living conditions and Jewish residential areas
- The Synagogue