Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Dilemmas and Responses

Jewish Life in Nazi Germany

J
ewish
L
ife in
n
azi
G
ermany

r

Dilemmas and Responses

Edited by

Francis R. Nicosia

and

David Scrase

Berghahn Books

New YoRk
•
oxFoRD

First published in 2010 by

Berghahn Books

www.BerghahnBooks.com

© 2010 The Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont

All rights reserved. except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jewish life in Nazi Germany : dilemmas and responses / edited by Francis R. Nicosia and David Scrase.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84545-676-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Jews—Germany—History—1933-1945. 2. Jews—Germany—Social conditions—20th century. 3. Jews—Government policy—Germany— History—20th century. 4. Jews—Persecutions—Germany—History— 20th century. 5. Jews—Legal status, laws, etc.—Germany—History— 20th century. 6. Germany—Politics and government—1933–1945.

7. Germany—ethnic relations—History—20th century. I. Nicosia, Francis R. II. Scrase, David DS134.255.J495 2010

305.892'404309043—dc22 2010011007

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The photograph on the cover of this book is courtesy of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, washington, DC.

ISBN: 978-1-84545-676-4 (hardback)

“Juda verrecke” Die Fahne spricht “Juda lebt ewig” erwidert das Licht

(“Death to Judah”

So the flag says “Judah will live forever”

So the light answers)

Rachel Posner, the wife of Rabbi Dr. Akiva Posner of kiel, wrote these words on the back of the photograph appearing on the cover of this book. She took this photograph in their apartment in kiel at Hanuk-kah, 1932, just weeks before Hitler’s appointment as Reich Chancellor. The window looks out on the town hall in kiel, from which a Nazi flag is hanging. The Posners left Germany in 1933 and arrived in Palestine in 1934. Both the menorah and the photograph are featured in the new Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

C
ontents

Preface ix List of Illustrations xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Dilemmas and Responses 1

Francis R. Nicosia

1. Changing Roles in Jewish Families 15
   

   Marion Kaplan
   

2. evading Persecution: German-Jewish Behavior Patterns after 1933 47
   

   Jürgen Matthäus
   

3. Jewish Self-Help in Nazi Germany, 1933–1939: The Dilemmas of Cooperation 71
   

   Avraham Barkai
   

4. German Zionism and Jewish Life in Nazi Berlin 89
   

   Francis R. Nicosia
   

5. without Neighbors: Daily Living in
   Judenhäuser
   117
   

   Konrad Kwiet
   

6. Between Self-Assertion and Forced Collaboration: The Reich Association of Jews in Germany, 1939–1945 149
   

   Beate Meyer
   

7. Jewish Culture in a Modern Ghetto: Theater and
   

Scholarship among the Jews of Nazi Germany 170

Michael Brenner

Appendixes

Contributors 221

Selected Bibliography 223

Index 237

P
refaCe

Five of the essays in this book are based on lectures delivered at the Miller Symposium on “Jewish Life in Nazi Germany,” held at the University of Vermont. organized by the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Cen-ter for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont, this was the fourth symposium bearing the name of Carolyn and Leonard Miller, who have been generous supporters of the Center’s work and great friends of the university.

established to honor the work of Professor Raul Hilberg, who served on the faculty of the University of Vermont for more than three decades, the Center for Holocaust Studies is committed to furthering the cause of Holocaust education and to serving as a forum for the presentation and discussion of new perspectives on the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Professor Hilberg’s pioneering scholarship remains a model and a standard for scholars, and it is his work in the field that remains an inspiration for the Center’s programming and also for publications such as this. The Miller Symposia have contributed significantly to the Center’s efforts to explore insufficiently charted areas in the history of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. our goal in organizing them has been to address topical, or even controversial, themes in that history, relying on the expertise of some of the most accomplished scholars and other authorities in the field.

The first Miller Symposium brought together some of the world’s leading scholars in the history of eugenics and the German medical establishment during the Third Reich. It resulted in the anthology
Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices, Legacies
, published by Berghahn Books. The second Miller Symposium focused on German business and industry under National Socialism. It brought together scholars who are among the most respected and innovative analysts of German business, industry, and finance in the years of the Third Reich. The resulting volume,
Business and Industry in Nazi

Germany
, was published by Berghahn Books. The third Miller Symposium featured some of the most important scholars in the history of the arts in Nazi Germany. Their contributions to the volume
The Arts in Nazi Germany: Continuity, Conformity, Change
address the roles of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, Jewish cultural institutions, US cultural influence, and German youth in the life of the Nazi state.

The fourth Miller Symposium brought to the University of Vermont some of the world’s leading scholars of the history of Jews and Jewish life in Nazi Germany. Based on the authors’ original scholarship, the essays assembled here serve as an introduction to some of the most current research and controversies in the tragic history of German Jews from Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in January 1933 to the onset of the “final solution” in late 1941. These essays focus, for the most part, on the everyday lives of ordinary German Jews, and will be of interest to students and scholars of twentieth-century German history and the Nazi era, the history of German Jewry, and the Holocaust.

Both the fourth Miller Symposium and this volume owe a tremendous debt to Leonard Miller and his late wife Carolyn. Their support for the Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont has helped to sustain and expand its programming over the years. The editors also recognize and thank the symposium’s organizing committee, which included katherine Johnson, Jonathan Huener, and the editors of this volume. we wish to extend a special note of thanks to Dr. Robert Bernheim, Interim Director of the Miller Center from 2006 to 2007, and currently executive Director of the Michael klahr Holocaust and Human Rights Center at the University of Maine at Augusta, for his assistance.

1. Form for the authentication (by German police officials) of photographs used in conjunction with racial ancestry cases handled in 1942 by the Berlin prosecutor’s office.
   

   Courtesy
   : Landesarchiv Berlin. 57
   

2. Form for the authentication (by German police officials) of photographs used in conjunction with racial ancestry cases handled in 1942 by the Berlin prosecutor’s office.
   

Courtesy
: Landesarchiv Berlin. 58