A JEWISH EXODUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 252, 24 October 1934, Page 13

A JEWISH EXODUS.

DESERTING STRONGHOLD. FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN, Sept. 20. Frankfurt-am-Main, the birth town of the Rothschilds, is. feeling more than other German cities the effects of the anti-Jewish policy of the Nazi Government. The closing or emigration of Jewish firms in Frankfurt has attained such proportions that it causes serious alarm to the town authorities. According to official figures an average of 40 Jewish firms per month have closed or been taken from the country since the Nazis came into power. A record number 102—went by this route in June. Among the well-known Jewish firms to wind up their affairs in Frankfurt is the banking house of Speyer. Since the beginning of 1933 a total of 3976 Jews have left Frankfurt, of whom approximately 3000 emigrated to foreign countries. Among them are a number of university professors, physicians and lawyers who were able to obtain good positions in their new home countries. Frankfurt-am-Main has a total population of 550,000 inhabitants, of which approximately 30.000 ■ were of Jewish - faith when the Nazis assumed power. • Frankfurt has been the stronghold of the Jewish population in Germany since the early Middle Ages._ A ghetto with special imperial privileges was founded in the twelfth century. The oppressive laws under which the Jews of Frankfurt lived through the Middle Ages and the following centuries were only abolished in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The exodus of prominent Jews and Jewish capital from Frankfurt may result in closing the University of Frankfurt, which was founded in 1914 with the aid of generous gifts, mostly from Jewish citizens. Donations from ■wealthy Jews poured in regularly until Hitler became Chancellor, when they "were stopped. The university has been in financial difficulties ever since.