The Auctioneers: How Jewish Property Was Sold Off under Nazism | Full Documentary

31 May 2025 | With the pogroms in 1938/39, the systematic antisemitism of the Nazis broke through. This led to incomparable violence and despotism towards Jewish citizens. The events, that reached their first peak in the Reichspogromnacht but continued for years afterwards, also led to a massive wave of expropriation. The vast monetary and material values taken from the Jews are beyond imagination. But they’ve been documented meticulously in the books of a then booming industry: the auctioneers.

They were the exploiters of Jewish property, from industrial enterprises to silver spoons: tax inspectors and bailiffs, pawnbrokers, and auctioneers. Especially the latter are among the major profiteers of the Holocaust. Their files, which in many cities only now have been made accessible, paint a new and more detailed picture of the persecution of Jews in Germany.

The accuracy, with which events have been documented, allows telling this story with the means of historical data journalism for the first time ever, putting private stories in perspective with the main developments in Nazi-Germany

“The Auctioneers” is a hunt for relics of the past that leads from private property to everyday life between 1938 and 1944, to those who’ve profited most from the property transfers, and finally to some sort of economic balance of the Holocaust.

Documentary: The Auctioneers: Profiting From the Holocaust (2018)
Directed by Jan N.Lorenzen
Production: Hoferichter & Jacobs, ARD, MDR


The currency exchange for the Reichsmark against the US dollar in the Thirties was as follows:

Around 1930 – 1931, there were approximately 4.2 Reichsmarks to the US dollar. (With one or two slight variations.)

From the mid to late Thirties, the Nazi regime implemented currency controls, so the exchange rate moved closer to 2.5 Reichsmarks to the US dollar. – Mark