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ELPLOUEMT PRACTICES
On the basis of conversations with numerous Jewish employees,
I would conclude that there is little evidence of discrimination at
this time either with respect to finding or holding a job. They
report having encountered no difficulties in obtaining employment
for which they were qualified. To be more precise, there is no
perceptible discrimination on the part of the German public employ-
ment exchanges, government agencies, and private employers. Physicians
and dentists have also not found unusual difficulties in establishing
their practices which are built up largely of non-Jewish patients.
The small size of the Jewish community no doubt tends to reduce the
competitive element in all fields of economic activity.
Outside of Berlin, where at present the situation is favorable,
there are occasional reports of discrimination in the employment of
Jews, It is reported that some job applicants have been turned down
by the employer who advances as his reason the lack of job openings.
In some such instances, the applicant has reason to believe that his
religion rather than the absence of an opening accounts for his failure
to obtain employment. In view of the deep-rooted anti-Semitism in
Germany, the suspicion may not be without grounds.
It appears that Jewish persons engaged in business are at a
distinct disadvantage. One of the principal difficulties stems from
the "Aryanizationit practices during the Nazi regime which forced
Jewish merchants out of business. As a result, Jewish merchants
have not yet been able to build up the necessary contacts and channels
maintained by non-Jewish merchants in business.
Consequently, Jewish business men have found it difficult to
obtain allocations of merclandise from domestic manufacturers as well
as an appropriate share of imported material. Non-Jewish German
business men and their trade associations are undoubtedly aware that
this practice has an adverse effect on Jewish merchants, and that this
handicap is seriously retarding the Jewish merchants in their attempt
to gain a foothold in the German economy. It is not to the credit of
these business men and trade associations that they have failed to
provide some remedy for this inequality of opportunity.
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