[3.12. The race laws
of Nuremberg 1935 - Zionist Jewry splits]
[Four RV (Reichsvertretung)
demands when the race laws should be accepted]
All these attempts at maintaining a foothold in Germany collapsed with
the publication of the Nuremberg racial laws on September 15, and the
first of twelve detailed provisions (Verordnungen) on November 14,
1935. Immediately following the publication, RV came out with a
four-point program demanding that, on the basis of the new laws, the
government stop the defamation and the boycott, grant cultural and
religious autonomy to the Jews, and recognize RV as the central Jewish
organization. Under these conditions, the Jews would accept the new
laws.
(End note 68:
Informationsblätter
der RV, 9/22/35 [22 September 1935])
[The Zionists in discussion about
the race laws]
This stand produced a bitter argument between the Zionists, (p.133)
who demanded nonrecognition of the Nuremberg laws, and the RV
leadership. The Zionists had been in the peculiar position of opposing
the Nazis more vigorously than the liberals and yet being supported, in
a way, by the government because of their advocacy of emigration to
Palestine. The Nazis argued that Zionists helped Germany solve the
Jewish problem and that Palestine could absorb a million Jews. If only
half of these were German Jews, then the whole Jewish problem might be
solved.
(End note 69:
Jewish Chronicle,
5/17/35 [17 May 1935], quoting
Der
Völkische Beobachter)
This did not mean, of course, that the Nazis did not attack the
Zionists as well; Goebbels's [newspaper]
Angriff did so frequently.
[Zionists want the national
definition of Jews - Kareski (Jewish Volkspartei) defends the race laws
- more Zionists in the RV (Reichsvertretung) - blame of Kareski -
suspicion collaboration with Gestapo]
Inside the Jewish community, the Zionists pressed for a policy of
national definition and speedy emigration, and demanded a greater say
in the affairs of RV. A spokesman of the Zionist Right in the Berlin
community (the so-called Jewish Volkspartei), Georg Kareski, took a
different position in an interview published in the [newspaper]
Angriff (quoted in the Jewish
Chronicle, January 3, 1936), where he defended the new laws as offering
an answer to the problem of an alien nationality, provided they were
executed on a basis of mutual respect.
The Zionists now turned against Kareski as well, and he was practically
ostracized at a conference held at Berlin in early February 1936.
However, during the following year Kareski tried repeatedly to oppose a
reconstructed RV, in which the Zionists now had a greater say.
This situation came to a head in the spring of 1937 when the leaders of
RV appealed to the foreign organizations to prevent the takeover of RV
by Kareski, who, they insinuated, was cooperating with the Gestapo.
After consultation between JDC and the British Jews, on June 11, 1937,
a letter was written over the signature of Sir Herbert Samuel to Leo
Baeck, in which confidence was reiterated in "the present personnel and
management" of RV. Serious misgivings were expressed in the event of
any change in the composition of RV.
(End note 70: Executive Committee, 9/23/37 [23 September 1937])
It is not clear whether it was this intervention that changed the
situation, but it is probable that it had at least some influence. At
any rate, RV maintained its independence of internal Gestapo pressure
for some time longer, and Kareski's attempt was repulsed. (p.134)
