Following the Kristallnacht pogroms on November 9/10 , 1938 , the Kulturbund was allowed to continue its activities ; however , the discrimination and persecution of Jews had driven many into impoverishment . The number of venues and of ensemble members was reduced . On December 16 Hans Hinkel , State commissioner for Prussian theatre affairs including the Kulturbund , in Goebbels ' Reich 's Propaganda Ministry , declared in front of Dr. Werner Levie ( 1903 – 1945 ) , a Dutchman and therefore one of the few available members – not in hiding or arrested – of Kulturbund 's executive board , that until the end of December all the still existing 76 Jewish German publishing companies were to be shut down or sold to so-called Aryan owners . The few publications , which would still be permitted to appear , were to be directed by a publishing department to be formed within Kulturbund . In January 1939 the Kulturbund 's publishing department opened in the offices formerly used by the Zionist '' Jüdische Rundschau '' , which had been shut down right after the Pogrom , with its former editor , Erich Liepmann , being the manager of the publishing department . The Kulturbund managed to save a great deal of the book stocks of the to-be-ceased publishing houses from being pulped . Levie reached the concession , that Jewish publishers obliged to liquidate their companies , might export their book stocks on their own until April 1939 if the respective purchasers would pay in foreign exchange to the Reichsbank . However , the publishers would be paid in inconvertible Reichsmarks only . The Kulturbund 's publishing department bought the remaining book stocks from their old proprietors at a discount of 80 % to 95 % of the original price and would only pay , once proceeds from sales abroad or to German or Austrian Jews and gentiles of Jewish descent would materialise . Also Austria , annexed by Germany in March 1938 , was covered by the '' Kulturbund 's '' publishing department
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Jüdischer Kulturbund