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Final Sale in Berlin: The Destruction of Jewish Commercial Activity, 1930 1945

Before the Nazis took power, Jewish businesspeople in Berlin thrived alongside their non-Jewish neighbors. But Nazi racism changed that, gradually destroying Jewish businesses before murdering the Jews themselves. Reconstructing the fate of more than 8,000 companies, this book offers the first comprehensive analysis of Jewish economic activity and its obliteration. Rather than just examining the steps taken by the persecutors, it also tells the stories of Jewish strategies in countering the effects of persecution. In doing s.o, this book exposes a fascinating paradox where Berlin, serving as the administrative heart of the Third Reich, was also the site of a dense network for Jewish self-help and assertion.

Christoph Kreutzmüller is a senior researcher and educator at the House of the Wannsee Conference. He has written extensively in the field of Holocaust, economic, and photographic history. His publications include Berlin 1933-1945 (2013, co-editor Michael Wildt), Fixiert: Fotografische Quellen zur Verfolgung und Ermordung der Juden in Europa (2012, with Julia Werner), and Haendler und Handlungsgehilfen: Der Finanzplatz Amsterdam und die deutschen Grossbanken (1918-1945) (2005).

Joanne Intrator is a practicing psychiatrist and author in New York City who is currently writing a book about her 9-year battle for restitution of a building owned by her grandfather, Jakob Intrator, at Wallstrasse 16 in Berlin. Jakob Intrator was a merchant originally from Galicia whose business interests included a successful egg wholesaling enterprise. After a forced sale, the building at Wallstrasse 16 was used by the Nazis to produce the "Jewish Stars" that Jews in Nazi-occupied areas were required to wear.