Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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just fewer than 50% of its original medical professionals who were in practice in
1933.
Civil servants, including professionals in education, may have enjoyed a
period of respite until the Nuremberg Laws, however, by the end of 1935 and at
the very latest by early 1936, Jewish civil servants and non-Jewish civil servants
with Jewish spouses had been forced into retirement. Clearly, a greater number of
Jewish business people and self-employed individuals in the city were able to
maintain their economic existence for a longer period of time than their
professional or salaried co-religionists. The only exception to this observation was
the case of medical professionals, who, statistically, fared slightly better than
those in businesses. By 1938, given the number of businesses sold or ‘aryanised’
and the number of individuals forced from positions, the options for the two-thirds
of the original community who still remained were very limited. With the flurry of
legislation in 1938, the community was descending into a state of real
impoverishment, which culminated in the registration of Jewish assets. By the
time of the pogrom in November 1938, those Jews still holding jobs in Magdeburg
were, almost without exception, working for Jewish employers. Consequently, the
employment situation was largely dependent on the number of still extant Jewish
firms and businesses. 130 A small minority were living off the proceeds of
liquidated assets. The remainder were unemployed.
130 Barkai, op. cit., p. 111.