[3.11. Joint's
reconstruction work in NS Germany since
1933 - Jewish press fights]
[Kassas]
Reconstruction was, of course, another sphere of activity which JDC
took a very special interest. Much was said about the need for
reconstruction in the German situation, though the emphasis on this
decreased as the Nazi intent to evict the Jews became obvious. In the
early 1930s, however, this was not quite so clear,
Table
6: Loan Kassas of the Reconstruction Foundation in Germany
|
Year
|
No. of
kassas
|
Capital
(in marks)
|
No. of
loans
|
Amount
loaned (in marks)
|
1933
|
42
|
934,000
|
1417
|
465,000
|
1935
|
60
|
848,000
|
|
880,000
|
1937
|
45
|
|
3500
|
1,070,000
|
(p.130)
and JDC tried, through the Reconstruction Foundation, to create loan
kassas in Germany on the well-tried
East European model.
After 1937 a swift decline set in as the German government made the
kassas operations practically impossible, and at the end of 1938 they
were terminated.
JDC also tried to create Free Loan kassas outside the Reconstruction
Foundation system, as in Poland, and invested over 400,000 marks in
them between 1933 and 1937. But before they could take root, the Nazis
made their operations impossible too, and they were liquidated along
with the rest of the
kassas
in December 1938.
(End note 57:
-- Printer, p. 97;
-- 24-Gen. & Emerg. Germany, Foundation, 1933-39
-- 26-Gen & Emerg. Germany, Lists, etc. 1935/6
-- 28-30-ZA report, 1936)
[1934: Less anti-Semitism in NS
Germany - discussions about the Jewish future 1935]
The situation in Germany itself fluctuated from year to year. It cannot
even be said that there was always a distinct trend for the worse. For
instance, in 1934 - the year of the great purge in the Nazi party (June
30) - it seemed that the anti-Semitic wave had abated slightly, and
there was no new wave of terror or boycott directed against the Jews.
"Superficially regarded", said Kahn, "it would appear that a certain
halt has been called in Germany to the measures adopted against the
Jewish population."
(End note 58: Kahn report, 3/28/34 [28 March 1934]; In: WAC, Box 321
(b)
Hitler himself had reportedly said as much at a meeting with the German
Statthälter (state
governors). In other words, there was still room for a certain measure
of self-delusion.
Against that background a great controversy between the nationalist and
liberal wings of Jewry continued in Germany. Zionists demanded the
recognition of Jewish separateness on the basis of Jewish national
identification. The liberal CV rejected this point of view with
"determined unanimity", because they saw in Germany the center of their
endeavors "now, just as in the past".
(End note 59: CV-Blaetter für Deutschtum und Judentum, 1/10/35 [10
January 1935], by Dr. Emil Herzfeld. (Fate played a trick on Dr.
Herzfeld: ultimately he had to settle in Palestine, where he lived out
his days in national Jewish Tel Aviv). The declaration in support of
Hitler's foreign policy was made in November 1933; see: Grunewald, op.
cit. [The Beginning of the Reichsvertretung; In: Leo Baeck Yearbook;
London 1956], pp., 57 ff.)
The liberal Jews of Germany obviously thought that they would outlast
the Hitler regime, and in 1934 and early 1935 it was still possible to
believe that. In early 1935 Dr. Jonah B. Wise, one of the leaders of
JDC, who had just come back from Europe, agreed with this position
mainly from a pragmatic point of view. The question was "to meet the
onslaught of Hitler and survive it. They (the German Jews) feel they
have possibilities of surviving for some years. If conditions do not
radically change, many affluent persons will (p.131)
remain in Germany. Most of them will remain because there is no place
for them to go and no country wants people over forty unless they have
the highest specialization for some work." However, Wise added a remark
that reflected a growing conviction among German Jews in the spring of
1935: "That the young people will leave is almost certain. It is said
that Germany will be an old folds' home and a graveyard."
(End note 60: Executive Committee, 3/26/35 [26 March 1935]; Hyman
said in his contribution to a summary for 1934 (R53): "The hope of
Jewish leaders to find an orderly, constructive transformation of a
segment of Jewish life, especially for the youth, within the borders of
Germany itself, to be supplemented by a carefully nurtured preparation
of waves of annual emigration, has been disappointed, since training is
permitted only for emigration, immediate or ultimate." B.C. Vladeck, a
Labor member of the JDC Executive Committee, put a socialist
interpretation on the same ideas when, in a discussion with the Zionist
Berl Locker (12/23/35-WAC, Box 323 (d), he said that "there is a vast
underground movement in Germany of 'Aryans', socialists, etc., who are
fighting the Fascist regime and that the Jew must fight along with
them." Therefore, the task of progressive Jews in Germany was to stay
where they were).
[End 1933: RV supports Hitler's
foreign policy]
RV [Reichsvertretung] was largely under the control of liberals like
Hirsch, Seligsohn, and Brodnitz. At the end of 1933 it came out with a
declaration supporting Hitler's foreign policy; this was done not
because of Nazi pressure but because of the German-centered convictions
of its leading members.
[Jan 1935: Jewish Saar Germans
included]
In January 1935 it "heartily welcomed home" the 4,800 "Jewish Saar
Germans" after the Saar plebiscite had resulted in the annexation of
that area by Germany. (Saarlander Jews even came from abroad to vote
for the inclusion of the region in Germany!)
(End note 61: Jewish Chronicle, 1/13/35 [13th January 1935]. On the
18, the Chronicle reported that a man named Herr Fischel had come all
the way from Buenos Aires, his fare paid by the German consulate, to
vote for Germany).
[Naumann's National German Jews
section]
There was an even more extremist Germanic section of Jewry, led by Dr.
Max Naumann, whose organization tried to create a category called the
National German Jews (Nationaldeutsche Juden). "We would regard it as a
national calamity for Germany and for us National Jews, who are among
the best Germans, if Hitler did not take the fate of the German people
in his hands. The members of our league, more than 5,000 people, voted
as one man for Hitler as Reich president. Hitler is our future. No one
but he can solve the Jewish question."
(End note 62: Ibid., 1/11/35 [11 January 1935]. Interview of
La Croix with Naumann)
This, of course, was the opinion of but a small lunatic fringe, but it
is significant that these opinions should have been stated as late as
the end of 1934 and early 1935.
RV [Reichsvertretung], however, was far from a supine servant of the
Nazi dictatorship.
[Jewish press in NS Germany: RV
fighting the regime: Streicher's Stürmer (Stormer)]
Throughout 1935 Baeck and Hirsch and their friends tried to fight back,
supported by the foreign organizations, and took their case to the
still-legal Jewish press in Germany. For instance, on February 8, 1935,
the
CV-Zeitung published a
frontal attack by Rabbi Eschelbacher on
Der Stürmer, Julius Streicher's
obscenely anti-Semitic paper.
(End note 63: P. 11, in an article called: Eine Nummer des Stuermer [A
number of the Stuermer])
In the same issue there was a direct attack against Streicher himself,
for "accusing" an opposition leader - (p.132)
wrongly - of being Jewish. One argument used by RV [Reichsvertretung]
was that since the Nazi rule was totalitarian, the Nazis could have
done more against the Jews than they actually did. Since "only" certain
restrictions were in force, the conclusion was that German Jewry had
the right to fight back on the basis of the actual laws on the books,
that they could prevent a worsening of the situation by appealing to
the law.
(End note 64: CV-Zeitung, 1/31/35 [31 January 1935])
[Jewish press in NS Germany:
Public protest against Streicher]
In the January 31, 1935, issue there was even a public protest by RV,
signed by Baeck and Hirsch, against Streicher. Entitled "The Honor of
German Jews", it culminated in the statement that "for the guarding of
our honor nothing remains to us but a solemn public protest."
(End note 65: Ibid. [CV-Zeitung, 1/31/35 [31 January 1935]: "Zur
Wahrung unserer Ehre bleibt uns nichts als feierlicher Protest.")
A possibility of appealing to the courts under the laws of libel was
hinted at.
[Jewish press in NS Germany:
Attack against Nazi minister Schemm]
This point was made in even more explicit terms on February 14, when a
direct attack was printed on the Nazi minister Schemm, the "leader" of
the Nazi Teacher's Association, who had abused the Jewish religion.
Schemm was told that he had thereby maligned the Christian God and had
"harshly insulted, not only the religious feelings of German Jews, but
those of Jews all over the world as well."
(End note 66: Ibid. [CV-Zeitung], 2/14/35 [14 February 1935], p.11)
[Jewish press in NS Germany:
Rundschau demands]
The Zionist
Jüdische Rundschau
published an article demanding that the government cease to defame
Jews, that it guarantee decent material conditions under prevailing
legislation, and that it establish orderly emigration procedures and
autonomous cultural institutions.
(End note 67: Quoted in
Jewish
Chronicle, 3/15/35 [15 March 1935])
It must be remembered that this took place in Nazi Germany almost two
years after the abolition of all parties and the independent press. The
courage displayed by RV was wholly admirable, but of course no results
were achieved.
