Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Jewish patients only on 1 April 1939. 169 Evidence does not provide any further
information on other reregistrations.
One other group of professionals for whom there was still a demand were
those practitioners of law. Solicitors, or ‘Konsulenten,’ were subjected to the same
measures as their medical colleagues. In Magdeburg, Julius Riese was still serving
his community’s legal needs in July 1939. 170 This reduction in the number of
professionals created much strain on the community. Jews could only be attended
to by Jewish professionals, whose numbers were limited. This indirect form of
persecution added to the burden of daily life. The professionals themselves
counted themselves fortunate to be able to practise, unlike others who were
already impoverished. This was in spite of the fact that they had been stripped of
their professional dignity, as evidenced in their titles since July 1938, and that
their segregated practices operated under highly regulated restrictions and
constant monitoring.
The remaining approximately 30% to 40% of Jewish-owned businesses
attempted to continue to operate. Owing to the constantly increasing exclusionary
measures, the majority of these businesses had been ‘aryanised’ by September
1939. In the wake of the pogrom, ‘aryanisations’ occurred at an expedited pace. In
a number of cases businesses were simply abandoned and/or eventually
confiscated. The compounded effect of lack of employment opportunities,
exclusion, ‘aryanisations’ and confiscations had reduced the remaining
approximately 726 Jews to poverty. The task of attempting to sustain Jewish
169 Nachweisung der Veränderungen unter den Ärzten, Zahnärzten und Apothekern
des Kreises Magdeburg für den Monat März 1939, 1. April 1939, Bestand Rep. C 28 I
g, Signatur Nr. 34, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 154.
170 Correspondence from Julius Israel Riese, Konsulent, 10 July 1939, Bestand Rep. C
28 I f, Signatur Nr. 933, Band 8, LHASA MD, p. 191.