GNT: Former Jewish Mall

Brandenburger Straße 59, 39307 Genthin

In 1928 the department store of Hugo Magnus, a Jewish textile merchant, built. In November 1938 "Kristallnacht" windows of Jewish shops including those in Genthin were smashed. Among other things, the department store of Hugo Magnus and the neighboring "department store Lowenthal" owned by Julius Gottfeld were destroyed and plundered. After that night almost all Jewish people emigrated from Genthin including a man named Max Hirschfeld. He escaped to Berlin, but was deported to the concentration camp in Theresienstadt and killed there. By 1939 there were only three Jewish citizens left in Genthin. Hugo Magnus was able to flee with his family from Nazi Germany. He survived in Shanghai and emigrated to the US later.