Setting up Shop in the House of the Hangman: Jewish Economic Life in Postwar Germany

FAIN: FEL-273041-21

Anna Holian
Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)

Research and writing leading to a book on Jewish economic life in postwar Germany (1945-1970).

How did Jews make a living in Germany after the Holocaust? And how were making a living and making a home intertwined? These are the questions at the heart of my book on Jewish economic life in postwar West Germany. Covering the period between the end of the war and the mid-1970s, the book offers an economic and social history of a long and painful (re-)integration process. I examine how Jews (re-)established themselves in business and consider what role their economic activities played in rebuilding Jewish life in Germany. I also consider how survivors’ personal economic histories mapped onto the economic history of the country as a whole. I challenge the prevailing view that Jews in postwar Germany were “sojourners,” temporary residents prepared to leave -- and abandon their businesses -- at the earliest opportunity. But I also show that, despite what is often assumed, they benefited only modestly from the German "economic miracle" of the 1950s and 60s.

Associated Products

Getting (Re-)Started: Jewish Migrant Livelihoods in Early Postwar Western Germany (Article)
Title: Getting (Re-)Started: Jewish Migrant Livelihoods in Early Postwar Western Germany
Author: Anna Holian
Abstract: This essay examines Eastern European Jewish livelihoods in western Germany during the first years after the Holocaust. It charts the different paths Jewish displaced persons (DPs) took into the world of work, including the Allied economy, the black market and the German economy. Over time, entrepreneurial activity in the formal Germany economy would become the main means of making a living. In the period covered here, however, the consequences of Nazi-era persecution converged with the postwar remnants of a racialized economic order to strongly disadvantage Jewish foreigners seeking to “set up shop.”
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://www.medaon.de/pdf/medaon_29_holian.pdf
Primary URL Description: Link to PDF of the article.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Medaon
Publisher: HATiKVA e.V.

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