Fromms: How Julis Fromm's Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis by Michael Sontheimer, Götz Aly, Shelley Frisch Page B
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reminded them that “German refugees are urgently advised to exercise the utmost caution when speaking to others. For your own good, you are urgently advised not to accept any offers of employment without prior permission from the English government.”
Julius Fromm tried to obtain permission to build a condom factory, but the plan went up in smoke when the war began, so he had to bide his time. The resulting forced idleness was very hard on this indefatigable man of action. In Berlin he had been in charge of more than five hundred employees and a worldwide sales network. Now he was reduced to ruling a small household with the same iron fist that had brought him success in Germany. Soup was set out on the table for lunch at precisely 12:30. Anyone who came late went away hungry.
Possessions tie you down. The more the German Jews had worked their way up and gained recognition, the harder it was for them to relinquish what they had earned and leave their homeland. Although Julius and Selma Fromm had fled Berlin, Julius’s brothers and sisters hesitated to do the same.
Alexander had obtained a pro forma divorce from his non-Jewish wife and transferred ownership of the optician’s shop to her. Even so, he was required to designate his big, beautifully equipped shop at Memhardstrasse 4, designed by Korn and Weitzmann, a Jewish place of business. The exterior had black marble and bronze panels with two curved cut-glass display windows leading to the entrance. Two film vending machines were installed outside. Glass sliding doors, built-in leather sofas, mirrored walls, and recessed ceiling lighting made for an inviting atmosphere for customers.
Alexander Fromm wrote up a report of the events surrounding Kristallnacht and the damage to his store: “As it was marked as a Jewish business in 1938, it was subject to the night of pogroms against Jews on November 9.” All the store windows were broken, the inside décor—“optical instruments, all mirrors, glass cases, and cabinets”—destroyed, and “a large part of the goods” smashed or looted. In the later restitution proceeding, he estimatedthat the “damage during the expulsion of the Jews on November 9” had amounted to twenty thousand Reichsmarks. “Right after Kristallnacht, the Gestapo came to the shop to take me into custody; I was saved only because I had already gone into hiding.” 52
Alexander Fromm, ca. 1950
Salomon Fromm’s optician’s shop was also ransacked and demolished on that infamous night. Siegmund, who, like Alexander, was married to an “Aryan,” was taken away for a month to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the outskirts of Oranienburg, after which he was released, and required to report to the police on a daily basis for a full year.
By now, it must have been quite clear to Julius Fromm’s brothers and sisters that they had to get out of Germany as quickly as possible. The now-Aryanized Fromms Act was interested in acquiring Fromms Cosmetics Associates, which belonged in equal parts to Siegmund, Bernhard, and Else’s husband, Willy Brandenburg. On January 17, 1939, the three owners of Fromms Cosmetics had to appear before the notary Dr. Carl vom Berg on Bendlerstrasse, where Julius had been forced to sell his company. Fromms Act, owned by Göring’s godmother Elisabeth Epenstein, and represented by Julius Fromm’s longstanding directors, Berthold Viert and Karl Lewis, took over Fromms Cosmetics for a pittance: 16,700 Reichsmarks. The company’s estimated market value was 100,000 Reichsmarks. The annual sales, as a former employee later attested, amounted to approximately 300,000 Reichsmarks, and the annual profit was 35,000 Reichsmarks.
The purchase price was to be paid out by the notary once the sellers had initiated the new owners into the production process. To this end, the three of them had to “make their workforce available to the buyer.” The “sellers are obligated,” the contract further stated, to dismiss
Julius Fromm tried to obtain permission to build a condom factory, but the plan went up in smoke when the war began, so he had to bide his time. The resulting forced idleness was very hard on this indefatigable man of action. In Berlin he had been in charge of more than five hundred employees and a worldwide sales network. Now he was reduced to ruling a small household with the same iron fist that had brought him success in Germany. Soup was set out on the table for lunch at precisely 12:30. Anyone who came late went away hungry.
Possessions tie you down. The more the German Jews had worked their way up and gained recognition, the harder it was for them to relinquish what they had earned and leave their homeland. Although Julius and Selma Fromm had fled Berlin, Julius’s brothers and sisters hesitated to do the same.
Alexander had obtained a pro forma divorce from his non-Jewish wife and transferred ownership of the optician’s shop to her. Even so, he was required to designate his big, beautifully equipped shop at Memhardstrasse 4, designed by Korn and Weitzmann, a Jewish place of business. The exterior had black marble and bronze panels with two curved cut-glass display windows leading to the entrance. Two film vending machines were installed outside. Glass sliding doors, built-in leather sofas, mirrored walls, and recessed ceiling lighting made for an inviting atmosphere for customers.
Alexander Fromm wrote up a report of the events surrounding Kristallnacht and the damage to his store: “As it was marked as a Jewish business in 1938, it was subject to the night of pogroms against Jews on November 9.” All the store windows were broken, the inside décor—“optical instruments, all mirrors, glass cases, and cabinets”—destroyed, and “a large part of the goods” smashed or looted. In the later restitution proceeding, he estimatedthat the “damage during the expulsion of the Jews on November 9” had amounted to twenty thousand Reichsmarks. “Right after Kristallnacht, the Gestapo came to the shop to take me into custody; I was saved only because I had already gone into hiding.” 52
Alexander Fromm, ca. 1950
Salomon Fromm’s optician’s shop was also ransacked and demolished on that infamous night. Siegmund, who, like Alexander, was married to an “Aryan,” was taken away for a month to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the outskirts of Oranienburg, after which he was released, and required to report to the police on a daily basis for a full year.
By now, it must have been quite clear to Julius Fromm’s brothers and sisters that they had to get out of Germany as quickly as possible. The now-Aryanized Fromms Act was interested in acquiring Fromms Cosmetics Associates, which belonged in equal parts to Siegmund, Bernhard, and Else’s husband, Willy Brandenburg. On January 17, 1939, the three owners of Fromms Cosmetics had to appear before the notary Dr. Carl vom Berg on Bendlerstrasse, where Julius had been forced to sell his company. Fromms Act, owned by Göring’s godmother Elisabeth Epenstein, and represented by Julius Fromm’s longstanding directors, Berthold Viert and Karl Lewis, took over Fromms Cosmetics for a pittance: 16,700 Reichsmarks. The company’s estimated market value was 100,000 Reichsmarks. The annual sales, as a former employee later attested, amounted to approximately 300,000 Reichsmarks, and the annual profit was 35,000 Reichsmarks.
The purchase price was to be paid out by the notary once the sellers had initiated the new owners into the production process. To this end, the three of them had to “make their workforce available to the buyer.” The “sellers are obligated,” the contract further stated, to dismiss
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