Source : Israelitisches Familienblatt 25 March 1937
The Small Man - His Position and Function in the Economic Sector
Among those Jews who have an especially difficult battle for existence, there is a large number of small merchants and artisans. There are those who work in modest shops, small workshops or improvised spaces where they sell or exercise their craft, barely making ends meet. They have no possibility of advertising their business, no hope to enlarge their body of customers. They dread each day, fearing that they will not earn enough to sustain them and their families. One can imagine how difficult the circumstances are in which those small merchants and artisans work. The most difficult conditions are those of the travelling salesmen and representatives, who are not situated in one location or address. They live almost constantly under precarious conditions, never knowing if they will be able to earn their bread the next day. In the absence of precise data, one can only estimate the number of Jews in this line of business. It is certain that this group of Jews is steadily growing. Jewish employment and the income pyramid of Jewish society show a constant drop of large segments of society towards the bottom of the pyramid. Thus, the head of the pyramid is becoming thinner and thinner, and the base is becoming wider. When the civil servants who were dismissed are unable to emigrate, they tend to turn to these jobs. The same is true for those who were independent and whose business was destroyed by the economic crisis, making them lose their livelihood… What should the Jewish community do for those small businesses, the salesmen, the merchants and artisans in order to support them in their struggle? Showing understanding for their hardship and sympathy is not enough. One should show and act upon those sentiments…. The focal point of the struggle of Jewish small businessmen and artisans in not merely in the difficult circumstances, but that they are very often deprived of options that are available to others. They frequently cannot obtain credit to finance transactions or to help them overcome periods when they sell nothing. This is where Jewish agencies should step in and provide the necessary credit to enable those Jews to survive. Here too the help should not be presented as charity, but should be a business measure, even though it is motivated by goodwill and by a wish to help….
