Dispossessions of cinemas in “grand Strasbourg”
The confiscation of movie theaters served a dual purpose: ideological and financial. The commercial circuit had to be restarted as quickly as possible; the first task of the regional head of the cinema department was to draw up a list of movie theaters subject to the confiscation and seizure of the property of so-called ‘enemies of the People and the Reich’ – a process more generally referred to as expropriation.
Thereby, on the 17 movie theaters in “grand Strasbourg” (Strasbourg, its outlying districts and its inner suburbs, which more or less correspond to the ‘Straßburg-Stadt kreis’ in the new Nazi administrative structure) in 1939, 8 of them fall within the scope of the order of November 13, 1940, issued by Gauleiter Robert Wagner, which specifies the property subject to confiscation. They belonged to 5 of them to Jews, 2 to a French person living in another department, and the last one to Société Strasbourg-Actualités of Réginald Ford. These were the Broglie-Palace, the Capitole, the Palace and the Eldorado, 4 movie theaters managed and/or run by Gaston Guthmann, a Jewish man; the Cinéma du Polygone, run by his nephew Georges Levy; the Arcades and the Olympia, two movie theaters owned by the Paris-based company Est-Cinéma and run by the same man, Régis Jean from Nantes; and finally, the Cinéac.
First, dispossessed movie theaters reopened after a germanisation and were given, individually, to a temporary operator in charge of the management: the kommissar Verwalter. Then, the Referent für film selected potential buyers to handle their exploitation. Because of many candidates, the Nazis authorities decided to choose two ‘ethnically Alsatians’ per movie theater, after verifying their political reliability.
Dispossessed movie theaters, business assets and buildings were sold by German custodian to these new operators who were exclusively Alsatians (like asked by the authorities). These operators created collective enterprises with retroactive effects from the date the venue opened. A part of the money was given directly into the account of the general representative for property “hostile to the People and the Reich’, the custodian.
Photo 48 : AVES (1Fi8 95) – Cinema des Arcades, located in ‘des Grandes Arcades’ street, during the winter 1939-1940 (on the right, next to cars). The French owner Régis Jean was depossessed of his venue just few months after.
Photo 49 : Archives fédérales Suisses (E 4264(-) N 22646) – Gaston Guthmann was depossessed of his movie theaters in Strasbourg and fled in Limoges with his family. They tried to cross the border in Switzerland in 1944, but they were intercepted by German customs officers. Gaston fled with his daughter Nicole. However, his wife Georgette and second daughter Claudine were arrested and deported in Auschwitz on June 30, 1944.
Photo 50 : Archives d’Alsace (683D180 et 683D186) – Sales contract of the movie theater Palast (previously Palace).