April 1st, 1933 was the Nazi's Boycott Day
"We chose those images — from five years before Kristallnacht — to say that the best way to ensure we are not 'here again' is by resisting the modern equivalent of Boycott Day, and take a stand against boycotts." Mark Birbeck writes of the anniversary of the Nazi's Boycott Day, in 1933.
In this last year, we've seen attempts to close a Jewish restaurant, a bakery repeatedly attacked, ambulances from a Jewish community service set on fire, and demands to exclude Israel from sports and arts.
Are we really here again?
Last November we started to ask this question, initially in response to anti-Israel activists in London's Notting Hill, who demanded Jewish-owned Miznon be boycotted and driven from the area. We printed placards, a banner and leaflets. And we made a video in which we asked Jews and non-Jews why they thought it important to come together and make a stand.
Our Fight
November Pogroms
Those who commented on the images we had chosen for our placards assumed they were from Kristallnacht — the November pogroms in 1938 seen as a defining moment in the escalation of attacks on Jews that led to the Holocaust. On that night, across Germany and Austria, synagogues were set ablaze, shops and businesses had their windows smashed, and Jews were deported to camps — some murdered.
But the images we used were not from these pogroms. The pictures of notices saying 'do not buy from Jews' and of brownshirts intimidating customers were from 1933 — five years before the infamous night of the broken glass.
Boycott Day
On April 1st, in 1933, the Nazis organised national boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses. There was certainly violence and intimidation that day, but key was to isolate Jews; to inexorably drive them from public life.
We chose those images — and the year 1933 — to show that nothing happens in one step; to say that the best way to ensure we are not 'here again' is by resisting the modern equivalent of Boycott Day; and to call for a stand against attempts to isolate Jews and their allies — a stand against boycotts.
If you want to take a stand as well, then sign up to our mailing-list, make a donation, and join our trip and seminar at Nottingham's National Holocaust Museum on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.
Our Fight
