Robbery During the Holocaust: The Language of Robbery and the States Allied to Nazi Germany

Abstract

The systematic robbery of European Jews was a crucial aspect of the Holocaust. While it is undisputed that Nazi Germany was the principal initiator and organiser of the Holocaust, this article examines the robbery of Jews in countries that joined the Tripartite Pact of the Axis powers, using Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia as examples. Was there a shared pattern in the widespread robbery of Jewish property? To what extent was the term ‘Aryanisation’ applied in the states that were allied to Nazi Germany? Through an exploratory approach that combines different methodological perspectives, this article traces the language of robbery used to frame and justify the robbery of Jews during the Holocaust. This framing, emanating from Germany and Austria, also played a key role in the institutionalisation of robbery in the states allied to Nazi Germany. By examining these states from a comparative perspective, the article highlights the similarities in the institutionalisation of robbery, its framing and the competition for booty. Focusing on these commonalities, this approach seeks to explain more fully the phenomenon of robbery on a European scale. The article adopts an integrated history approach, emphasising a European perspective. Primary sources for this study include the 16-volume edition of The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany 1933–1945 .