Context

The term “Judenhäuser” (“Jew houses”) is still used today to describe buildings where Jews were forced to live. The term is often used to denote buildings where Jews were forced to live. It originates from the Nazi era and lived on in personal accounts. It is not clear whether the Nazi authorities in Berlin used the term “Judenhäuser”. Records show they used the term “Judenwohnungen” for apartments occupied by Jewish tenants – regardless of whether the tenants lived there voluntarily or whether they were forced to live there.

Because both terms are pejorative and ambiguous, this project avoids them and uses terms such as “forced home” and “compulsory accommodation” instead.

Only properties owned by Jews were used as compulsory accommodation until about May 1939. Under the “Law on Tenancy with Jews” of April 1939, an increasing number of Jewish people were evicted from their homes and allocated housing in other apartments. Most of these were already occupied by Jewish tenants; they were not consulted and had no choice but to accommodate the new subtenants.

From spring 1939 on, Jewish people needed official authorization to move home, even to move in with relatives or friends. They were effectively no longer free to choose where they lived. For most, the housing they were forced to move into was their last place of residence before they were deported.

Some people were forcibly rehoused who did not identify with Judaism but were categorized as Jewish according to the Nuremberg race laws because of their parents’ and grandparents’ religion. Some couples in “mixed marriages” were affected by the Law on Tenancy with Jews: Jewish men married to non-Jewish women were forcibly rehoused; couples in “privileged mixed marriages” between non-Jewish men and Jewish women were not.  

The Nazi dictatorship brought severe restrictions on Jewish people’s housing options. Numerous antisemitic measures, such as professional bans and takeovers of Jewish businesses, made it increasingly difficult for Jewish people to make a living after 1933. Many were reduced to poverty.

For financial reasons, many were forced to move into smaller accommodation. But in 1936 Berlin housing associations started refusing Jewish tenants and seeking pretexts to force existing Jewish tenants out of their homes. In 1938, housing associations started arbitrarily evicting Jewish tenants.

This law, enforced across the German Reich, made it possible to forcibly rehouse Jewish people and so concentrate them in fewer places. It limited the possibilities for Jewish people to choose where they lived to an absolute minimum.

Pursuant to the Law on Tenancy with Jews, the task of finding new housing for the Jewish tenants who were evicted from their homes was assigned to the Berlin Jewish Community, under the supervision of the Nazi state’s secret police (Gestapo). The Jewish Community set up a “housing advice office” for this purpose.

Jewish people were rehoused exclusively in properties owned by Jewish people on the reference date May 5, 1939. Although these properties were almost all forcibly sold or auctioned off later, they were still categorized as “Jewish”. The housing advice office mostly allocated housing in apartments that were already occupied by other Jews. It sought large apartments that could house several subtenants as well as the main tenants who already lived there. It employed “housing agents” to view potential sites and obtain information on the apartments’ location, size and furnishings.

The housing advice office was under orders from the GBI to rehouse evicted Jewish people. In this way, the Nazi authorities used the organization for its own ends – as it did other Jewish Community facilities.

In 1941, the Nazi regime started deporting most residents of forced homes to ghettos and extermination camps, where they were murdered. The deportations were organized by the Gestapo. The deportees’ property, including the belongings they left behind in their compulsory accommodation, was seized by the Asset Reclamation Office under the Berlin-Brandenburg Chief of Finance (OFP). Since the apartments often remained vacant for months after their occupants had been deported, the OFP paid the rent due to the property owners – with money stolen from those who had been deported.

The Main Economic Office under the Mayor of Berlin took charge of the assets of deported Jews. From December 1942 on, this office evaluated, removed, and sold the deportees’ property. Removals were often carried out by private forwarding agents. The proceeds from the sales went via the OFP to the state treasury.

The Mayor of Berlin’s Main Planning Office was authorized to claim the apartments of deportees and rent them out to non-Jewish people or reserve them for purposes that were “essential for the war effort”. They were only used as compulsory housing for other Jews if the Nazi authorities had no other use for them.

Forcible rehousings of Jewish tenants began when the “Law on Tenancy with Jews” of April 1939 came into force. Revoking protection for Jewish tenants, it motivated – but did not require – non-Jewish landlords and landladies to oust their Jewish tenants. Many Jewish people evicted in this first phase were able to move in with friends or relatives. The others were allocated housing by the Jewish Community’s housing advice office. During this early phase, many Jewish people emigrated or fled their homes, leaving their apartments and rooms vacant. This meant the housing advice office had some scope to factor in Jewish tenants’ requirements when allocating new housing.

By January 1941, the Nazi authorities were no longer content to rely on landlords to take action against Jewish tenants. The General Building Inspector’s office (GBI) then started carrying out “eviction actions”. In these, the Jewish tenants of non-Jewish owned properties were instructed to vacate their homes at very short notice and move into forced homes. The GBI carried out four such operations between January 1941 and January 1943, evicting the tenants of about 5,000 Berlin apartments. From October 1941 on, evicted Jewish tenants not only faced compulsory rehousing but also deportation. In this period, resident fluctuations were especially high, with many Jewish people forced to move within Berlin, often for only a few weeks or months, prior to deportation. Evictions from compulsory housing peaked in early 1943, when the Jewish forced laborers employed in the arms industry were deported.

Few Jewish people remained in Berlin after the mass deportations in March 1943: a few thousand Jewish people who had gone into hiding from the Gestapo, and Jewish spouses in “mixed marriages”. They numbered around 4,000 in 1945 and lived in the last remaining forced homes. After the deportations, non-Jewish tenants moved into the apartments previously used for compulsory housing.

People who were forcibly rehoused lived with a severe lack of privacy and many restrictions on their movements. Living at close quarters with several others – often complete strangers – and sharing kitchens and bathrooms caused additional stress. The residents of forced homes were not only removed from their familiar surroundings and separated from their local communities, and sometimes even families. Having been ousted from the city’s social and economic life and deprived of their rights, they were largely segregated from their non-Jewish neighbors.

Life for the residents of compulsory housing was effectively taken up with forced labor. From late 1938 on, virtually all Jewish people over the age of 15 were made to perform forced labor, initially for public utilities such as street-cleaning and refuse collection. From early summer 1940, most Jewish people were employed as forced laborers in the arms industry. Some needed to travel long distances to reach their place of work. So, as most were banned from using public transport, they set out very early in the morning and did not return until late in the evening.

From October 1941 on, the residents of Berlin’s compulsory housing lived with the permanent fear of being deported as they witnessed their roommates and neighbors being taken away.

Records show, however, that the living situation in compulsory housing was not always the same. Some apartments were larger or more comfortable than others. In some cases, the residents knew each other or were related. Especially during the first phase, the housing advice office managed to house family members together or close to each other. This became more difficult in later years.

Increasingly, subtenants were forcibly housed with complete strangers. The residents of some apartments fluctuated greatly due to emigration and escape, rehousing, and finally deportations; in others they remained largely constant for several years until the last occupants were deported in late 1942/early 1943.