City history: The wildfowl and fur shop Norbert Lorch

In its monthly themed series, the Bocholt city archive is this time remembering the shop of former Jewish citizen Norbert Lorch. The motif dates from 1932 and shows the shop in question at the address "Ostmauer 3".

The Jewish shop owner himself and his wife Elise Auguste, née Kleine-Vehn, presumably positioned themselves in front of it together with their son. The extensive and openly displayed goods include rabbits, pheasants and a few hares.

After the death of his father in 1924, Norbert Lorch continued to run his parents' horse butcher's shop and converted the business into a poultry, egg and fur shop. However, during an unannounced inspection in 1932, "apparently untenable conditions" were found in the slaughter room, as recorded in a regulatory file in the city archives: Only ventilated through a small window, the view of the neighbouring house facade could be seen just 30 cm behind the window. Neither daylight nor fresh air could reach the slaughter room, also because the narrow alley was completely dirty and cleaning was said to have been impossible due to the narrow space.

Victims of anti-Semitic prejudice

Once again, this statement shows how densely built-up Bocholt city centre was before the destruction. In unusually harsh words, the police chief constable Abbing described the slaughterhouse in 1934 as "a disgusting sight" that was "sickening". In a letter to the district president, the mayor spoke of a state "that defies description". Obviously anti-Semitic prejudices influenced their judgement.

Further alleged "unsustainable" defects in the shop, which consisted of a sales room, a slaughter room with an integrated toilet and a storeroom, led to its closure on 24 January 1936, whereupon Norbert Lorch first tried his hand at selling everyday items and then, after it was banned, at selling furs.

At the end of 1936, the Nazi mayor Emil Irrgang finally prohibited the operation of the business premises. In any case, the building rented by the widow Hüls was dilapidated, which was used as justification for the gradual economic exclusion. However, the actual demolition of the supposedly dilapidated building did not take place until 1958. Although the Nazi mayor and also the district president assured Norbert Lorch at the end of 1936 that it was entirely possible to reopen the business in suitable premises, the language used in the records and the behaviour of the decision-makers reveal their anti-Semitic motives. In 1947, the municipal regulatory office ruled that "there would never have been a business closure if Lorch had not been a Jew."

Escape to the Netherlands - return after the end of the war

Norbert Lorch reacted to his economic marginalisation and the violent persecution of Jewish people by fleeing to the Netherlands, where he was captured by the Gestapo and deported to a concentration camp.

However, Norbert Lorch survived the reign of terror and ventured a new start in war-ravaged Bocholt after the end of the war. After returning home from the concentration camp, Norbert Lorch applied to reopen his shop for "game, poultry, delicatessen, fruit, vegetables and hides" in September 1945, which he succeeded in doing at Stiftstraße 32.