Aryanization

   The forcible expropriation of Jewish property and businesses in Germany and in much of German-occupied Europe during World War II. The Aryanization process was enacted through a set of government decrees. Examples of laws that ensured the Aryanization of Jewish property in Germany include the decree of 22 April 1938 that made it a crime for a German to disguise the fact that a business was owned by a Jew. The decree of 29 April 1938 required Jews to report the value of their property, except for personal goods, in excess of 5,000 reichsmarks. The decree of 14 June 1938 defined what the government meant by a Jewish-owned business. The decree of 6 July 1938 ordered that in accordance with the law of 14 June 1938 those businesses defined by the government as Jewish must cease operations by 30 December 1938. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht on 9–10 November 1938, the German government required the Aryanization and/or liquidation of German-Jewish owned retail businesses. This was followed in December 1938 by a decree that required the Aryanization and/or liquidation of German-owned industrial enterprises. The decrees, which enacted the Aryanization of Jewish property into law, subsequently became models for countries that fell under German influence or occupation. Following the Anschluss in March 1938, the Nazis Aryanized Jewish property in Austria. The process of Aryanization continued in German-occupied Belgium, Bohemia and Moravia, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Serbia, and was referred to as “Romanianization” in Romania.