Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (11 page)

confessional sense, but were regarded as Jews by the National Socialists on the

grounds of their origins or ancestry.
71

Whilst the German-Jewish minority was legally and culturally integrated, it is

impossible to overlook the particular social structure of this group, which distin-

guished it clearly from the rest of society. The large majority of Jews lived in large

cities, they were mainly members of the middle class, to a large extent of the educated

bourgeoisie, they were predominantly active in trade and commerce, and represented

a relatively large proportion of the professions. As far as religion was concerned, most

classed themselves as liberal Jews, although an ever greater degree of religious

indifference was manifest amongst Jews as it was amongst the rest of the population.

In sharp contrast to this group was an independent Eastern Jewish proletariat in

which orthodox religious conviction was comparatively well represented.
72

The identity of the overwhelming majority of the German Jews was founded on

their being firmly anchored in German culture and in both patriotic and liberal

convictions. The very name of the Jewish organization that counted the most

members, the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (literally

the Central Organization of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith) was itself an

expression of the belief predominant amongst German Jews that the process of

acculturation had been successfully completed, for the most part, and that the

development of a certain group identity did not represent isolation but was an

instrument for making a specific Jewish contribution to the well-being of the

German state.

In relation to this main general tendency, the Zionists—who reacted strongly

against the idea of a German-Jewish symbiosis—played a comparatively minor

role: the Zionist Organization for Germany had only some 20,000 members

around 1930
.73

Even this brief overview suggests clearly that the majority of German Jews were

not inclined to abandon their position in Germany over-hastily, and they clung—

to the point of self-delusion—to the idea that the ‘seizure of power’ was a

temporary crisis that would blow over. Nonetheless, under the pressures of the

boycotts and the National Socialist terror during the phase of seizing power

44

Racial Persecution, 1933–1939

in 1933, an estimated 37,000 Jews left the Reich; politically active, younger, and

relatively prosperous Jews were comparatively over-represented amongst these

refugees. In 1934, because of the relatively calm situation, only some 23,000

Jews left.
74

A particular chapter in the history of German-Jewish emigration, in which a

clear signal was given for how far the new regime was prepared to work together

with the Zionist movement in this area, is the so-called ‘Haavara Agreement’

concluded in August 1933 by the Reich Finance Ministry, the Zionist Organization

for Germany, and the Anglo-Palestine Bank in Tel Aviv. This agreement estab-

lished special measures for circumventing the restrictive currency legislation that

banned the export of foreign currencies and therefore represented a considerable

hurdle for those wishing to emigrate. The wealth of Jewish émigrés that remained

in Germany was liquidated and an equivalent was transferred to the British

Mandate of Palestine in the form of exported German goods. These were then

sold, and from the proceeds the German émigrés were provided with the min-

imum level of capital that enabled them to count as ‘capitalists’ in the eyes of the

British authorities, which in turn guaranteed them fast-track immigration. Of the

approximately 50,000 German Jews who emigrated to Palestine before the begin-

ning of the war, several thousand were to profit from this agreement; in this way

German goods to the value of more than 100 million Reichsmark were exported to

Palestine, as well as to other countries. The regulated emigration of a not incon-

siderable proportion of the German Jews was therefore assured by means of a

consolidation of the German export market in the Near East, which from the

German perspective represented an important breakthrough against the attempts

of international Jewish groups, and others, to boycott German goods.
75

The decision by the majority of German Jews to hang on at first and stay where

they were was considerably influenced by the activities of Jewish organizations,

which will be investigated in more detail in the course of this overview. In the early

days of National Socialist rule, the Centralverein was unable to rid itself of the idea

that the continuing existence of the Jews in Germany could be safeguarded after

all, if necessary by accepting certain forms of legislative discrimination. It was not

until 1935 that the Centralverein (which had to alter its name after the Nuremberg

Laws)
76
recognized the illusory nature of such beliefs and began urgently advocating emigration. It is certain, however, that the increasing level of activity on the

part of Jewish support organizations contributed to the decision to wait and see.

One consequence of the pressure on the German Jews was that for the first time

the heterogeneous Jewish minority in Germany formed a unified representative

body to coordinate the various efforts. At the beginning of 1932 the regional

organizations of the Jewish communities decided to create a national delegation

to safeguard their interests, but in practice it did not become active at that point.

Only in September 1933 did the umbrella organizations of the Jewish communities

in the individual German states, the Centralverein, the Jewish Veteran Organizations,

Displacement from Public Life, 1933–4

45

and the Zionist Organization form a Reichsvertretung or Reich Board of Deputies

of German Jews. The President was Rabbi Leo Baeck, universally recognized as a

leading figure in the intellectual life of German Jewry.
77

In addition, on the initiative of the Reich Board, the Central Committee for

Support and Development was created on 13 April, as a reaction against the

boycott. This Central Committee set itself the task of maintaining and strength-

ening the position of German Jews by social and economic means, whilst the

Reich Association concentrated on political representation and education. The

leading Jewish organizations were represented on the Central Committee, which

was also chaired by Leo Baeck. In its first appeal, made at the end of April 1933, it

opposed what it called ‘unimpeded emigration’. The Committee was integrated

into the Reich Board in April 1935.
78
As far as its practical activities were concerned, the Central Committee took up the work begun before 1933 by the Jewish

support organizations. Economic measures for support were in the hands of the

Central Office of Jewish Economic Assistance, founded in March 1933
.79

A broad range of support measures were coordinated under the umbrella of the

Central Committee and the Central Office, including distributing loans, correlat-

ing applications for and offers of capital funds, finding jobs for Jews who had been

dismissed, and a special support programme for out-of-work academics and

artists, to name only the most important measures.
80
An important area in which the Central Committee was active was ‘professional restructuring’, or the

re-education of the predominantly commercially trained Jewish minority for

technical, practical, or agricultural professions, which were more likely to be

useful for emigrants. It was in the first years of the ‘Third Reich’ that this work

was severely hampered by the authorities.
81

The Central Welfare Office of the German Jews had been founded in 1917 to

coordinate the various socially oriented Jewish organizations, and the main

problem that it faced was the severe diminution in resources for the support of

people in need that had been caused by the collapse of the small and medium-

sized Jewish communities in many towns.
82
Until 1938, even if Jews were discriminated against in many respects, they had the right to support from the social

services. Until then, Jewish welfare services were essentially supplementary to this,

and embraced many different types of allowances and subsidies.

In 1933 by far the majority of the approximately 60,000 Jewish school-age

children attended state-funded schools.
83
At the end of 1933 the newly created Education Committee of the Reich Board passed guidelines for the curriculum in

Jewish primary and secondary schools that emphasized the rootedness of the

German Jews in Germany. The foundation of new Jewish schools began rather

tentatively, but in 1935 there was a significant influx of children into Jewish

schools.
84

In July 1933 the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden (the Cultural Association of

German Jews) was formed in Berlin. Its main considerations were to help Jewish

46

Racial Persecution, 1933–1939

artists from the capital who had been dismissed from their positions to find other

means of supporting themselves and to spare the Jewish public the need to attend

the events organized by the ‘Aryanized’ culture industry. By 1934 the Kulturbund

attracted 20,000 members and was able to offer them a comprehensive pro-

gramme of culture, in part in its own theatre in Berlin. More Jewish cultural

associations were founded in the provinces during the months that followed.
85

From 1933 Jewish men and women were excluded from sporting clubs

and associations, and this strengthened the activities of the existing Jewish

sports clubs.
86
In 1934 the Jewish National Committee for Physical Education in Germany was founded as an umbrella organization for the 250 clubs and 35,000

activists.

In 1933 and 1934, therefore, significant initiatives towards the organization of an

independent Jewish life were discernable beneath the persecutions, which together

formed an impressive picture of Jewish self-determination and which enabled

individuals to have a degree of autonomy. From 1935, when the regime imposed

the segregation of Jews in all areas of life and increased the restrictions on their

economic activity, these early beginnings were to form the basis for a Jewish sector

that was independent within Nazi-dominated society, if under attack from all

sides.

Racial Persecution of other Groups in

the First Years of the Regime

The persecution of the Jews by the National Socialist regime was at the centre of a

more widely reaching implementation of racist policy. This approach was deter-

mined by two main considerations. First, measures against ‘alien peoples’ (Fremd-

völkische) or ‘alien half-breeds’ (fremdvölkische Mischlinge) can be grouped under

the heading of ‘ethnic racism’—these included measures against Gypsies and the

small group of non-Europeans living in Germany, mostly Africans, or the children

born of Germans with non-Europeans. The second target of Nazi racial policy—

under the slogan of ‘racial hygiene’—was the ‘eradication’ (Ausmerzung) of

undesirable elements in the ‘Aryan’ race and was thus directed against those

with so-called hereditary diseases, ‘social misfits’, and homosexuals.

‘Racial hygiene’ concentrated first above all on those suffering from ‘hereditary

diseases’. As has already been outlined, the sterilization law of 14 July 1933

provided for the enforced sterilization of men and women in this category,

whose offspring would ‘most likely’ inherit physical or mental deficiencies.
87

With the establishment of public health departments in the summer of 1934 the

regime had at its disposal an important instrument for carrying out ‘negative

hereditary care’.
88
These health departments evaluated medical and other official Displacement from Public Life, 1933–4

47

documents to identify ‘persons with heredity illnesses’ and to use these individual

cases as the basis for discovering ‘inferior hereditary lines’ within the German

people.

Doctors and other medical personnel were required to notify the authorities of

people they believed to be suffering from ‘hereditary diseases’. Applications for

sterilization could be made by state-registered doctors, the directors of medical

institutions, those concerned or their legal representatives, and decisions on such

applications were made by the ‘hereditary disease courts’, made up of a lawyer and

two doctors.
89
In by far the majority of cases these courts determined in favour of sterilization; the number of applications refused varied from 1934 to 1936 between

7 and 15 per cent. The total number of those subjected to sterilization will have

been about 360,000 in the Altreich (Germany as it was until the end of 1937),

although it may have been higher. Both men and women were sterilized, slightly

more men than women overall.
90

There were nine possible diagnoses included under the sterilization law, and of

these ‘mental deficiency’ was the most common, used in more than 50 per cent of

cases, followed by ‘schizophrenia’, ‘manic-depression’, and ‘epilepsy’. These four