| “The remains of the Beleuchtungshaus des Westens (“Lighting House of the West”) shop at Kurfürstendamm 203, in the Charlottenburg District of Berlin. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. The owner, Wilhelm Philippi (March 26, 1887 – ????), had outlets in Hamburg and Berlin. The name on the shop window served to guide Schutzstaffel (SS) squads in civilian clothes. After Kristallnacht, Philippi immediately sold his business, which had incorporated on February 27, 1935, to “Aryan” Arno Krumpelt (May 26, 1891 – June 19, 1943), proprietor of Arno Leuchten (“lighting”) and fled to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, He sponsored several Jews entering the United States. Next door, Berthold Neumann, piano wholesaler at Kurfürstendamm 205, was also destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom. Founded in 1920, Berthold Neumann was deleted from the register of Berlin businesses in 1940. The family fled to the Netherlands. Berthold Neumann’s son, David (May 17, 1879-????) is listed at Yad Vashem’s Shoah Names Database as killed in the Holocaust by his son Eugen Noiman, who survived and lived in Israel. David lost his daughter Charlotte Trier (August 11, 1916 – 1945) to typhus at Bergen-Belsen; his brother-in-law Ludwig Trier (April 24, 1894 – 1945) was murdered in Auschwitz; his niece Irene Lebenshtein (June 15, 1889 – September 18, 1942) was murdered at Auschwitz. This photo appeared in the November 11, 1938, issue of the New York Times. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1749.jpg |
| Image Size | 376.52 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2048 x 1257 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | World Wide Photo |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 11, 1938 |
| Location | Kurfürstendamm |
| City | Berlin |
| State or Province | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
| Record Number | https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/jewish-owned-shop-destroyed-during-kristallnacht |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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