July 6, 1939

Aryanization

Nationwide ban on Jewish retail businesses and trades takes effect

No source consulted supports a mass closure on 6 July. The date looks like a calendar error assembled from at least two different anti-Jewish decrees.

The date does not hold

No authoritative source consulted corroborates a nationwide closure of the 'last remaining Jewish enterprises' in Germany on 6 July 1939. There is no person, decree, place or immediate result to attach to it.

The German Historical Museum dates the forced closure of businesses owned by Jews from January 1939.

Two nearby measures may explain the error: a Reich law of 6 July 1938 excluding Jews from certain trades and health resorts, and a decree of 4 July 1939 creating the compulsory Reich Association of Jews in Germany, reported publicly around 7 July.

What the record does support

The verifiable nationwide measure was Göring's Regulation for the Elimination of the Jews from the Economic Life of Germany, signed 12 November 1938. It barred Jews from retail stores, mail-order businesses, sales agencies and trades beginning 1 January 1939.

It empowered authorities to close violating businesses, and permitted remaining enterprises to be liquidated or transferred to non-Jewish ownership, subject to official exceptions.

Not closure so much as seizure

'Last remaining' is also too absolute. Aryanization frequently meant forced transfer at a depressed price rather than the shuttering of the firm; coerced sellers sometimes accepted 20 to 30 percent of a business's actual value.

Of roughly 100,000 Jewish-owned businesses in Germany at the beginning of 1933, about two-thirds had already been closed or transferred by 1938.

The July 1939 Reich Association decree segregated and controlled Jewish communal life; it was not the decree that closed Jewish retail businesses.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1939-01-01.

What the sources leave uncertain

The listed date and formulation could not be verified and appear erroneous.
One possible source of confusion is a Reich law of July 6, 1938 excluding Jews from certain trades and health resorts, reported retrospectively by a U.S. diplomat.
Another possible conflation is the July 4, 1939 decree creating the compulsory Reich Association of Jews in Germany, which was reported publicly around July 7.
The phrase 'last remaining enterprises' is too absolute: forced Aryanization included both closure and continued operation after transfer to non-Jewish owners.