Chemische Fabrik Siegfried Kroch AG was a company with Jewish owners which was founded in Berlin in 1901 and later had its seat in Hamburg-Wandsbek [4]. It also maintained a branch in Goldberg in Mecklenburg. The state-archive file "Entjudung der Zweigstelle Goldberg der Firma Chemische Fabrik Siegfried Krach AG in Hamburg" (de-Judaisation of the Goldberg branch) dates from 1939 [1]. According to the town article on Goldberg the branch was "Aryanized" in that year and renamed Chemische Fabrik Wandsbek AG. According to Bajohr, who does not name a year, the Wandsbek company was taken over by front men financed from the Hamburg Foundation of 1937; whether this includes the Goldberg branch, however, the study does not say [3].
The company
According to the catalogue of a securities auction, the firm was founded in Berlin in 1901 by Siegfried Kroch and was a stock corporation from 1921, whose seat was moved to Hamburg-Wandsbek in 1937 [4]. The catalogue names as products leather and textile oils, auxiliaries for metalworking, foam suppressants and anti-rust lacquers [4]. A share of 1,000 RM which was issued in Berlin in May 1934 bears the name "Chemische Fabrik Siegfried Kroch AG" [4]. In the archival finding aids the name, by contrast, sometimes appears as "Siegfried Krach" [1].
The branch in Goldberg
Under Goldberg, the Claims Conference list names Heinz and Anna Kroch as original owners of the "Chemische Fabrik Siegfried Kroch AG" and lists property in Flur 13 with the parcels 250/7, 250/9, 250/12, 250/14 and 251/3 [2]. The claim number is 16675 [2]. At least the Goldberg branch of the Hamburg firm was "Aryanized" in 1939 and renamed Chemische Fabrik Wandsbek AG because the owner was of Jewish descent. No documented information is available as yet on production, employees or buildings of the Goldberg branch, and the later fate of the owners Heinz and Anna Kroch is likewise not documented.
The "Aryanization"
The State Main Archive Schwerin holds, in the records of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Ministry of the Interior, in the group "Sale of Jewish property", file no. 13764/38 titled "Entjudung der Zweigstelle Goldberg der Firma Chemische Fabrik Siegfried Krach AG in Hamburg", which is dated 1939 [1]. The contents of the file, however, are not described in the finding aid [1].
In a study of "Aryanization" in Hamburg, the historian Frank Bajohr describes how Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann used funds of the Hamburg Foundation of 1937 to finance front men who bought up all shares of the Chemische Fabrik Siegfried Kroch AG in Wandsbek, which belonged to Jewish owners [3]. Bajohr relies here on a file of the Hamburg restitution office archive [3]. At this point, however, the study gives no year for the share purchase [3].
According to the auction catalogue the firm was renamed "Chemische Fabrik Wandsbek AG" in 1942, dissolved in 1952 and struck from the register by the authorities in 1953 [4]. The date of the renaming is thus given differently in the sources, since besides 1939 the auction catalogue names 1942 [4].