Philipson Warech Jewish Heritage Collection

Holocaust

Jewish Disenfranchisement

Before they were sent to the ghettos and then concentration camps, the Jewish people were systematically excluded from German culture and "othered" in every area of life.

Jewish disenfranchisement under Nazi rule did not happen all at once. It unfolded through a deliberate, escalating series of policies that stripped Jewish people of their rights, livelihoods, and place in society—often through ordinary, everyday objects and bureaucratic changes. Beginning with the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933 and formalized through laws like the Nuremberg Laws, Jewish citizens were redefined as outsiders in their own country. What followed was not only legal exclusion, but a systematic effort to erase Jewish participation in public, economic, and social life.

This collection traces that process through artifacts that reveal how discrimination became embedded in daily experience. Labels on consumer goods, altered identification documents, and images of public arrests show how policy translated into lived reality—how neighbors, businesses, and institutions all became part of enforcing exclusion. Long before deportations began, Jewish life in Germany had already been profoundly restricted, marked, and made vulnerable through these incremental but relentless acts of disenfranchisement.

‍

Important Moments

1933–1935

With the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, Jewish citizens were systematically stripped of civil rights. The Nuremberg Laws codified racial discrimination, redefining Jews as non-citizens and banning marriage or relationships between Jews and non-Jews.

1935–1938

Policies increasingly forced Jewish people to be visibly and bureaucratically identified. Names were altered with “Sara” or “Israel” on official documents, passports were stamped, and daily life became regulated and surveilled. These measures isolated Jews socially and made discrimination immediate, visible, and enforceable in everyday interactions.

1933–1938

Jewish-owned businesses were boycotted and forced to close or transfer ownership to non-Jews. Professional bans pushed Jewish doctors, lawyers, and academics out of public life. Everyday goods—like cosmetics and household items—were labeled or excluded, severing Jewish participation in the economy.

1938

The escalation of state-sanctioned violence culminated in Kristallnacht, when synagogues were destroyed, businesses looted, and thousands of Jewish men arrested and deported to concentration camps. Public brutality reinforced the complete exclusion of Jews from German society.

Highlights from the Collection

View full collection

German police in Berlin arrest a busload of Jewish men in April 1933, shortly after Hitler took power in Germany.

These cosmetic boxes are from Romania, and all three are full, never opened. The labels with the Stars of David were used to indicate manufacture by a Jewish company during the Holocaust era.

The back of Marga Kilinski's envelope. In Germany and German-occupied areas, Jewish people were required to identify themselves on any letters they mailed, as well as other legal documents, by adding “Israel” (for men) or “Sara” (for women) as middle names. This was required so that Nazi officials could sensor Jewish mail, as you can see by the postal censor tape.

Jewish Disenfranchisement

Important Moments

Highlights from the Collection

German police in Berlin arrest a busload of Jewish men in April 1933, shortly after Hitler took power in Germany.

These cosmetic boxes are from Romania, and all three are full, never opened. The labels with the Stars of David were used to indicate manufacture by a Jewish company during the Holocaust era.

The front of an envelope containing a letter written in 1941 by Marga Kalinski, who would later be murdered in Auschwitz.

Marga Kilinski, the author of a letter whose envelope appears in this collection, was murdered in Auschwitz.