“Decisive Defense and Hard Reparations”

At that point, Helene was 84 years old. She had raised four children with her deceased husband Gustav. Her family had lived in Parchim since at least 1804 and had contributed to the city’s success with a flourishing cloth trade and manufacturing business, carrying its name far beyond the borders of the state of Mecklenburg. After Gustav’s death in 1930, their sons Leo and Rudolph expanded the business to Hamburg. But this glory has long since faded. The cloth factory was “Aryanized” and the Gumpert brothers became ensnared in an agonizing legal battle with the buyers. During the particularly severe riots of Kristallnacht in Parchim, Rudolph was arrested and imprisoned in the Alt-Strelitz prison, while his brother Leo was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Helene stood before the ruins of her life.

Kristallnacht as the Prelude to Financial Pillaging

The November 1938 pogroms (Kristallnacht) represent a break in the lives of German Jews in every sense. For a brief time, the merciless and murderous violence and the destruction of financial entities and religious sites—all of which occurred in a short period of time—marked the sad climax of years of exclusion and disenfranchisement. Those affected by the events of 9 November didn’t have the chance to catch their breath—in short succession, extensive laws and ordinances were passed that were intended to completely deprive Germany’s remaining Jews of the basis of their existence.

Already on 12 November, representatives of state offices concerned with “policy on Jews” met under the leadership of Hermann Göring. At the end of the conference, after a contentious discussion, they had established the “Ordinance on Reparations by Jews of German Nationality” (Verordnung über die Sühneleistung der Juden deutscher Staatsangehörigkeit). Two days later, the ordinance, a mere two paragraphs long, was published in the Reichsgesetzblatt (Reich Law Gazette), rendering it legally effective. The wording is brusque:

“The antagonistic stance of the Jewry toward the German people and Reich, which does not shrink even from cowardly acts of murder, requires us to stage decisive defense and require hard reparations.”

According to the lawmakers’ interpretation, these reparations could only be made with money—together, all of the Jews in Germany had to raise one billion Reichsmarks and pay it to the Reich. The Reich Ministry of Finance would soon decree instructions for implementation of the payments.

The State’s Acute Need for Capital

Plans for extraordinary taxes that would apply only to Jews had existed for a long time, but for various reasons, until this point they hadn’t reached the implementation stage. But in fall of 1938, an opportune political moment arose—the assassination of Legal Consul Ernst von Rath provided the perfect pretense—just as state finances reached a dire state. Thus, these payments weren’t the transfer of guilt from an individual to the collective, but rather were intended to cover the acute need for cash in the Reich budget, and to help finance armaments. (It is no coincidence that it was Göring who signed the ordinance; he was in charge of the Four-Year Plan, according to which the German Reich was to be economically and militarily prepared for war within four years).

Over a Billion Reichsmarks Plus the “Aryanization” of Businesses

Ultimately, the payments exceeded the desired sum of one billion Reichsmarks. The tax office even sent demands for payment to emigrants living abroad. Since the state had long since taken control of their assets remaining in Germany, which were frozen in their accounts, most of the emigrants couldn’t avoid payment.

In total, German Jews had to surrender 25 percent of their assets to the state by the end of 1939. At the same time, their incomes sank to nothing, as the “Law on the Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life” was passed simultaneously, completing the “Aryanization” of Jewish businesses and effectively prohibiting Jews from any commercial activities by the end of the year. Their precarious financial situation meant that many Jews had to postpone their escape from Germany into the distant future, if it wasn’t prevented completely.

Epilogue ...

After the war, Jews in the Federal Republic of Germany could petition for financial compensation, including for loss of assets due to the “Jewish Property Levy.” It was important to provide documentation as proof for the compensation authorities. The 1938/39 statements from the tax offices suddenly took on a new significance: they were evidence of state-organized plundering.

But for Helene Gumpert there would be no compensation. She died in Parchim in 1941, completely impoverished. Before she died, she had to witness her family home turned into a so-called Judenhaus, from which the last Jews in Parchim were gradually deported to their deaths.

Ulrike Neuwirth, archive