Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

285
approximately 530 individuals for the period. This amounted to a further reduction
in the city’s Jewish population by approximately 42%. It must be assumed that the
majority of this emigration occurred between the pogrom and May 1939. Jews
from Magdeburg emigrated to other parts of Europe, to Palestine, the British
Empire, North and South America and to Africa. 118
When the figure of 726 Jews for 1939 119 is subtracted from the original June
1933 statistic of 1,973 120 Jews in Magdeburg, the drop in population during that
approximately six-year period computes to 1,247 persons. Thus, between 1933
and 1939 the Jewish population dropped by approximately 63%. Clearly, such
factors as births, deaths and relocations in Germany cannot be factored into this
figure. However, it must be assumed that the majority of the Jews, who comprise
this 63%, emigrated as a result of Nazism.
The reactions of the perpetrators in the aftermath of the pogrom were further
repressive measures and the desire to re-establish ‘law and order.’ The Jewish
community in Magdeburg, as elsewhere in Germany, was fined for the damage
inflicted and further segregation was legally imposed, notably in Jewish
businesses and in public schools. Key priorities of the city were the restoration of
the damaged cityscape and the confiscation of the insurance payments which
normally would have been paid out to the Jewish owners of the damaged
1939, Listung der Erhebungsbögen für Provinz Sachsen, Stadtkreis Magdeburg,
Gemeinde Magdeburg, BAB, op. cit., pp. 3–29.
118 Correspondence and report from the president of the Synagogen-Gemeinde zu
Magdeburg, Otto (Ismar) Horst Karliner, to Director Fink, American Joint
Distribution Committee,1 March 1948, Bestand 5B1, Signatur Nr. 65, CJA, op. cit., p.
211.
119 Landesverband Jüdischer Gemeinden Sachsen-Anhalt, ed., op. cit., p. 189.
120 Statistisches Reichsamt, Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, Band 451, Volkszählung:
die Bevölkerung des Deutschen Reichs nach den Ergebnissen der Volkszählung 1933,
Heft 5, Die Glaubensjuden im Deutschen Reich, Bestand R 3102, BAB, op. cit., pp.
15–33.