The relationship of I.G. Farben’s Agfa Filmfabrik Wolfen to its Jewish scientists and to scientists married to Jews, 1933–1939

Abstract

Given the firm’s size and strategic significance, I.G. Farbenindustrie’s relationships with its Jewish employees during the National Socialist period are of considerable interest. This is especialy true of one component of the combine, namely the Actien-Gesellschaft fur Anilin-Fabrikation (Agfa). From the company’s founding in 1873 at Berlin by the chemists Carl Alexander Martius and Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the latter son of composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and great grandson of Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, through the early years of the Hitler regime, Jews were substantially involved in Agfa as managers and as scientists.1 This involvement was all but eliminated during the Nazi period, but the change was not a sudden one. From 1933 to 1938 Agfa management, led by Fritz Gajewski, made efforts to retain employees who were Jews or married to Jews. While these efforts met with some success in spite of a hostile political climate, increased government pressure led the LG. Farben central committee to dismiss all Jewish employees, including those at Agfa, in 1938. Even after 1938 the management of the Filmbrik Wolfen endeavored to assist dismissed scientists trying to leave the country, and supported scientists married to Jews who stayed in Germany.