Language:
German
Year of publication:
2002
Titel der Quelle:
Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2002) 116-134
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Economic aspects
Abstract:
Traces, step by step, the sale of two Czech-Jewish malt factories, Reiser in Prague and Hamburger in Olmütz, to "Aryan" German firms. The transactions, mediated by Czech and German banks, took place in September and October 1940, when there was as yet no law of forced Aryanization in the food industry. Thus both owners were able to demand prices not far below actual value. However, the owner of Hamburger, Erich Heynau, had fled to Switzerland; all his funds in Czechoslovakia, including the payment for the factory, were blocked. In a move strongly fought by the German Foreign Office, which feared a precedent, he appealed to the Swiss courts for the right, at least, to the outstanding debts of Swiss beer factories (which formed the bulk of Hamburger's custom). The Federal Court ruled in his favor, commenting that German legal concepts violated fundamental Swiss principles of ownership and of equality before the law regardless of race.
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