German city, now part of the state of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany. In June 1933, 26,158 Jews lived in Frankfurt. Following the Nazi rise to power on January 30, 1933, Frankfurt Jews were subject to physical assaults. The Nazis in the city did not wait for April 1, 1933, to launch an anti-Jewish boycott, and persisted in such action after that day. Early in 1933, a Jew, Ludwig Landmann, was the city's mayor; he was ousted when the Nazis came to power, and the new Nazi mayor dismissed all Jewish employees before the enactment of a national law to that effect. Most privately owned commercial establishments also dismissed their Jewish employees. The economic situation of the Jews deteriorated sharply, and both Jewish communities, the Orthodox and the "secessionist" Orthodox, faced collapse. The Jews of Frankfurt, however, donated what they could to the community organisations, and a large welfare network was established. By 1935, the welfare network aided nearly 20 percent of the Jews. Frankfurt's Jews - like Jews elsewhere in Germany - responded to their exclusion from society by setting up their own cultural and educational activities. They founded a Jewish symphony; Martin Buber reactivated the Juedisches Lehrhaus (Jewish Academy); and theatrical troupes, exhibitions and sports programs were also organised. During the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938, five of the city's largest synagogues and most small prayer houses were burned down. Rioters ransacked Jewish stores and also caused loss of life. In the following days, thousands of Jews were arrested and 2,161 were taken to Buchenwald. In the wake of all this, 618 Jews left Frankfurt in November 1938 and by May 1939, only 13,751 Jews were left - along with an additional 440 who the Nazis considered Jews by race, and 2,687 persons of "mixed blood." By September 1941, the total number of "members of the Jewish race" had gone down to 10,592. Between November 1938 and the end of 1943, 715 Jews committed suicide.
