The Holocaust in Germany

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Large number of people standing beside a railway siding with the camp gate in the background
Jews are deported from Würzburg to the Lublin District, General Governorate, 25 April 1942

The Holocaust in Germany was the systematic persecution, deportation, imprisonment, and murder of Jews in Germany as part of the Europe-wide

Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. The term typically refers only to the areas that were part of Germany prior to the Nazi regime coming to power and excludes some or all of the territories annexed by Nazi Germany, such as Austria or the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
.

Overall, of the 522,000 Jews living in Germany in January 1933, approximately 304,000 emigrated during the first six years of Nazi rule and about 214,000 were left on the eve of

judenrein.[1]

Background

Main article: History of the Jews in Germany

In the 1920s, there were around 500,000 Jews living in Germany, making up less than 1 percent of the country's population. They enjoyed legal and social equality, and were wealthier on average than other Germans. The Jews of Germany were largely assimilated into the German society, although a minority were recent immigrants from eastern Europe.[2][3][4] During the period of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933, German Jews assumed an important role in the government of the country and held various positions in politics and diplomacy. Furthermore, they were prominent in economic, financial and cultural matters.[5][6] During this period, there were also a number of active Jewish political and religious organizations, such as Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens and Agudat Yisrael. However, the Jewish community of Germany faced several pressing issues, including the integration of eastern European Jews and growing antisemitism, which was fueled by the steady rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP).

Prewar laws and policies

Anti-Jewish laws

Main article: Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany
Boycott of Jewish stores and businesses staged on April 1st, 1933 by the National Socialists
Nazi SA militants in 1933 forcing a Jewish lawyer in Munich to walk with a sign that says "I will never again complain to the police"

Throughout the 1930s, various German government agencies, Nazi Party organizations, and local authorities instituted a variety of anti-Jewish measures without centralized coordination.[7] The first nationwide anti-Jewish laws were passed in 1933, when Jews were banned or restricted from several professions and the civil service.[8] After hounding the German Jews out of public life by the end of 1934, the regime passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.[9] The laws restricted full citizenship rights to those of "German or related blood", restricted Jews' economic activity, and criminalized new marriages and sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jewish Germans.[10][11] Jews were defined as those with three or four Jewish grandparents.[12]

In 1938 and 1939, another wave of legislation focused on forcing Jews out of economic life.[11] They were barred from additional occupations such as real estate brokers or commercial agents,[13] and forbidden to practice as doctors, pharmacists, dentists, or lawyers except for Jewish clients.[11] The expropriation of Jewish businesses began in 1937 with their registration and enabled by a law passed in early 1938.[13] In December 1938 a decree called for the shutdown of all Jewish businesses still in operation.[14] Overall, the Nazis passed about 1,500 anti-Jewish laws.[11]

The regime also sought to segregate Jews with a view to their ultimate disappearance from the country.[9] Local anti-Jewish measures included signs declaring Jews unwelcome in a locality. Jews were banned from many spa towns and public amenities such as hospitals and recreational facilities. Jewish students were also gradually forced out of the school system. Some municipalities enacted restrictions governing where Jews were allowed to live or conduct business.[15]

Anti-Jewish violence

See also: Kristallnacht
Jewish shop destroyed during Kristallnacht, 10 November 1938
Mass arrest of Jews in Baden-Baden after the November pogroms

Anti-Jewish violence, largely locally organized by members of Nazi Party institutions, took primarily non-lethal forms from 1933 to 1939.

Danzig, most Jews fled before the annexation or shortly afterwards.[20]

On 9–10 November 1938, the Nazis organized

a pogrom (Kristallnacht) throughout Germany that saw over 7,500 Jewish shops (out of 9,000) looted and over 1,000 synagogues damaged or destroyed.[22] At least 90 Jews were murdered. The damage was estimated at 39 million Reichsmark.[23] The regular police, Gestapo, SS and SA all took part.[24] Between 9 and 16 November, 30,000 Jews were arrested,[25] although many were released within weeks.[26] German Jewry was held collectively responsible for restitution of the damage; they were also charged a special tax of over a billion Reichsmark.[27]

Emigration

Main article: Emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe

The Nazi government wanted to

Germany deported many Polish Jews.[34] The policy of forced emigration continued into 1940.[35]

Forced labor camps

Beginning in 1938—especially in Greater Germany—many Jews were drafted into forced-labor camps (Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden) and segregated work details. These camps were often of a temporary nature and typically overseen by civilian authorities.[36] Initially, the actual labor was not primarily of economic importance, but often consisted of meaningless work that was intended to humiliate the victims. However, during the war and with the increased need for laborers in the armaments industry, the prisoners were made to work in factories and other industrial sites.[37]

Ultimately, the camps were intended to be a place of "destruction through work" and served as a transition from forced labor to physical annihilation. The fine line between forced labor camps and extermination sites, in which systematic killing was carried out, was particularly blurred in occupied Poland and the occupied territories of the Soviet Union.[38] During the last year of the war, people of partial Jewish descent and non-Jewish partners in mixed marriages were arrested and imprisoned in one hundred such camps.[39] After 1943, many of the camps were integrated into the larger network of Nazi concentration camps.[36]

Deportation to ghettos and extermination camps

See also: Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany and Extermination camp
Local residents look on as a group of Jewish deportees arrives at the Fränkischen Hof assembly center during a deportation action in Kitzingen, 24 March 1942

At the beginning of September, all German Jews were required to wear a yellow star, and later that month, Hitler decided to deport them to the east.[40] In conjunction with the mass deportation, emigration was banned.[41] By the end of 1941, 42,000 Jews from Greater Germany and 5,000 Romani people from Austria had been deported to Łódź, Kovno, Riga, and Minsk, where most were not immediately executed.[42] In late November, 5,000 German Jews were shot outside of Kovno and another 1,000 near Riga, but Himmler ordered an end to such massacres and some in the senior Nazi leadership voiced doubts about killing German Jews.[43][44] Executions of German Jews in the Baltic States resumed in early 1942.[45]

Around 55,000 German Jews were deported between March and June 1942, mainly to ghettos in the

Maly Trostinets.[48] In late 1942 additional Jews from Greater Germany were deported to killing centers or ghettos in Eastern Europe.[49]

Although the Nazis' goal of eliminating any Jewish population from Germany had largely been achieved in 1943, it was reversed in 1944 with the deportation of around 200,000 Jews from Greater Hungary due to increasing demand for labor.[50]

Aftermath

When the war ended, there were less than 28,000 German Jews and 60,000 survivors from elsewhere in Germany. By 1947, the population had increased to 250,000 owing to emigration from Eastern Bloc countries sanctioned by the communist authorities; Jews made up around 25 percent of the population of displaced persons camps.[51] Although many survivors were in poor health, they attempted to organize self-government in these camps, including education and rehabilitation efforts.[52] Due to the reluctance of other countries to allow their immigration, many survivors remained in Germany until the establishment of Israel in 1948.[51] Others emigrated to the United States around 1950 due to loosened emigration restrictions.[53]

References

  1. ^ "German Jews During The Holocaust, 1939–1945". USHMM. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  2. ^ Cesarani 2016, p. 7.
  3. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 43.
  4. ^ Beorn 2018, p. 96.
  5. ^ Donald L. Niewyk, The Jews in Weimar Germany (2001)
  6. ISBN 978-0-226-06171-9
    .
  7. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 39.
  8. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 40.
  9. ^ a b Longerich 2010, p. 52.
  10. ^ Longerich 2010, pp. 52, 60.
  11. ^ a b c d Gerlach 2016, p. 41.
  12. ^ Cesarani 2016, p. 106.
  13. ^ a b Longerich 2010, p. 101.
  14. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 117.
  15. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 42.
  16. ^ Gerlach 2016, pp. 43–44.
  17. ^ Gerlach 2016, pp. 44–45.
  18. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 44.
  19. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 45.
  20. ^ a b Gerlach 2016, p. 46.
  21. ^ Cesarani 2016, p. 153.
  22. ^ Cesarani 2016, pp. 184–185.
  23. ^ Cesarani 2016, pp. 184, 187.
  24. ^ Cesarani 2016, pp. 188–189.
  25. ^ Evans 2005, p. 591.
  26. ^ Cesarani 2016, p. 200.
  27. ^ Evans 2005, pp. 595–596.
  28. ^ a b Gerlach 2016, p. 48.
  29. ^ Gerlach 2016, pp. 48–49.
  30. ^ Gerlach 2016, pp. 49, 53.
  31. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 52.
  32. ^ Nicosia 2008, pp. 88–89.
  33. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 50.
  34. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 49.
  35. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 51.
  36. ^ a b Dean 2020, pp. 265, 267.
  37. ^ "Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden (ZAL für Juden)". bundesarchiv.de. 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  38. ^ "Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden (ZAL für Juden)". bundesarchiv.de. 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  39. ^ Dean 2020, pp. 273.
  40. ^ Gerlach 2016, pp. 75–76.
  41. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 77.
  42. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 76.
  43. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 79.
  44. ^ Longerich 2010, pp. 298–299.
  45. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 300.
  46. ^ Longerich 2010, pp. 321–322.
  47. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 322.
  48. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 323.
  49. ^ Longerich 2010, p. 324.
  50. ^ Gerlach 2016, p. 188.
  51. ^ a b Kochavi 2010, p. 509.
  52. ^ Kochavi 2010, pp. 512–513.
  53. ^ Kochavi 2010, p. 521.

Sources

Further reading
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