case study 7 - jews in nazi germany
TRANSCRIPT
GHL Bard College Berlin
November 10, 2021
CS2 Track A: Statelessness
Religion, Expulsion, and Extermination:
Becoming Stateless - Jews In Nazi Germany
Challenge Question: How did Nazis turn German Jews into pariahs? Did restrictions on
citizenship create the conditions for extermination?
Throughout the Middle Ages, religious prejudice and anti-Jewish violence caused Jews to dwell
on the periphery of society. This marginal existence then changed radically for the smaller
number of Jews residing in parts of Western and Central Europe. Beginning in the 17th and 18th
centuries, the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment led many European countries
to stress ideas of liberty, tolerance, rationality over traditions, and the separation of church and
state. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the potency of these ideas enticed people to lift
restrictions on Jews. France became the first country to provide full citizenship to its Jews in
1789, and many countries quickly followed. This legal change became known as Jewish
emancipation, and it marked the beginning of a new chapter in Jewish history. As a result, some
Jews found the opportunity to flourish in this quickly changing society. Jews were already much
more literate and well educated than most other groups that were around them, and education
as a method of social development has become increasingly significant. While more Jews than
ever before were becoming prominent and important members of society, they were still a
small minority in the late 1800s, and the great majority of Jews did not become affluent or
powerful. Nonetheless, their success prompted hostility from those who were ill-equipped to
deal with the changes brought about by new ideas and new industries in Europe.
For more than 1,000 years, myths born of Christian religious writing and imagery had been used
to justify the persecution of Jewish people. However, in an increasingly scientific and secular
society, opponents to Jewish prosperity attempted to justify old hostilities with the language of
science, claiming there was a scientific basis for preventing Jews from continuing to climb the
economic and social ladder. In 1879, the German publicist, Wilhelm Marr, published a book that
erroneously claimed that Jewish liberation had allowed Jews to seize control of German
industry. Additionally, he established the League of Anti-Semites to resist the Jews’ continued
emancipation and integration into society. While the idea of the Jews as a race of people rather
than a religious group had roots dating back to Spain hundreds of years earlier, however,
referring to the Jews as “Semites” was new, as was Marr's claim that the Germans and Jews had
been in a longstanding racial battle that could only end when one group had eliminated the
other.
Moreover, old biases against Jews were being justified all across the world in the name of racial
science and eugenics. Supporters of race science asserted that certain races were superior to
others and that the distinctions between groups were not due to ideas or circumstances, but
rather to biological differences passed on in the blood. The shift from anti-Judaism to
antisemitism was only feasible when Europeans conceived of the notion of race in the
nineteenth century. Wilhelm Marr believed the Jews were a race. As a result, antisemitism can
be considered a form of racism.
As Germany fought to recover from World War I, the power of old beliefs, the proliferation of
pseudoscientific theories about race, and the advent of a dictator who instilled public hate of
Jews would prove catastrophic. Between 1933 and 1945, Germany was dominated by Adolf
Hitler and the Nazi Party. During this time of totalitarian tyranny, the Nazis began to purge
Germany of Jews, driven by a belief in the superiority of an 'Aryan' race and a desire for racial
purity, initiating the process of stripping Jews of their citizenship and statehood. The Nazis
adopted new regulations based on racial ideas prominent in Nazi ideology at an annual party
assembly held in Nuremberg in 1935. The Nuremberg Laws classified Jews as a race rather than
a religious community. It excluded Jews from citizenship, prohibited them from marrying or
having sexual relations with those of "German or related blood.", and banned the employment
of German women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in Jewish households. The Reich
Citizenship Law stated that only those of German or related blood were defined as citizens;
thus, Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship despite the fact
that they still had their German passports. A supplementary decree was issued and defined as
Jewish anyone with three Jewish grandparents, or two grandparents if the Jewish faith was
followed. By the start of World War II in 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews
emigrated to the United States, Palestine, Great Britain, and other countries.
In 1942, the Wannsee Conference was held between Nazi officials to plan the “final solution” to
the so-called “Jewish question”. The aim was straightforward: establish a strategy that would
result in a "final solution to the Jewish question" in Europe. Several heinous suggestions,
including mass sterilization and deportation to the island of Madagascar, were explored. When
deportation was not possible, Heydrich, a high-ranking German SS, police official during the
Nazi era, and a principal architect of the Holocaust recommended shipping Jews from all across
Europe to concentration camps in Poland, where they would be worked to death.
Did restrictions on citizenship create the conditions for extermination?
Citizenship limitations were one of the most important measures in Nazi Germany's
dehumanization of the Jewish people. Jews were routinely subjected to a wide range of abuses
because they were unable to exercise their basic human rights. Thus, they fell victims to
discrimination, exclusion, robbery, and violence without any legal protection. An example of this
would be the Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) in which Jewish houses, synagogues, and shops were
destroyed and hundreds of Jewish people were killed. Moreover, the Nuremberg Racial Laws
came into force which officially turned the Jews into second-class citizens with fewer rights than
non-Jews. Denying Jews’ civil rights at a period when nationalism was at its height, as well as
conflict and bloodshed sweeping over the country, all contributed to the normalization of
anti-Semitism, creating circumstances for extermination.
When Germany was defeated in the First World War in 1918. Right-wing fanatics blamed Jews
for the defeat. They also accused Jews of being capitalist exploiters who thrived at the cost of
others. Simultaneously, Jews were accused of being communists seeking global dominance
through revolution. The blame of the Jews did not follow a logical structure but the Nazis'
primary goal at the time was to expel Jews from Germany at any cost.
Between 1933 and 1939, a lot of steps were taken inside Germany to isolate German Jews from
the rest of the population. From sterilizing, isolating, and eventually killing, to rearm Germany in
preparation for the conquest war, but also to cover up that rearmament by talking peaceful
intentions publicly so that people elsewhere in the world wouldn't be too alarmed.
The Second World War was critical in escalating the Nazis' anti-Semitic agenda into genocide.
The Nazis intensified their anti-Jewish measures in response to certain occurrences throughout
the war. Mass murder appeared to be an extreme alternative to previous deportation efforts.
The war made deporting Jews to Madagascar difficult, and the plan to send Jews farther east
could not be carried out since victory over the Soviet Union was not imminent. As a result, the
"final solution to the Jewish question" came in the form of extermination.
Although the Republic of Germany heavily recognizes its past, and what the Jews had to
experience under Nazi rule from 1933-1945, there are still antisemitic presences in Germany.
The Nazi party may not exist in Germany anymore, but there is an established right-extremist
party called the AfD, Alternativ für Deutschland. The AfD is responsible for sending out racial
discriminatory advertisements. They believe that Germany should remain “German,” and that
immigrants, specifically from the middle-east, shouldn’t be allowed into the country. The AfD is
also responsible for using fear mongering tactics to make immigrants look like a threat to the
German people. The threats that the AfD are saying is that Muslims threaten German identity
and they will cause an increase of intermixing with anyone who isn’t “German.”
The Holocaust was one of the most horrific events to have ever happened in global history and
the remembrance of the Holocaust is important in order to prevent future actions that could
potentially be genocidal to a specific group of people. However, one genocide that isn’t heavily
recognized throughout the whole world is the Armenian genocide. This genocide started in
1915 and ended in 1917. The Ottoman authorities were responsible for killing 600,000 to even
1.5 million Armenians. It was also targeted at a specific group of people and it was also done
because of this idea of ethnic cleansing. Today, the Turkish government still doesn’t recognize
this genocide, but because it is not nationally recognized in certain countries doesn’t mean that
it shouldn’t be remembered. The recognition of many specific groups who were targeted by
different governments and authorities because of who they were ethnically and religiously is
essential when trying to prevent events like the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide to
happen in the future.
1933- Nazi Germany
2021- Democratic Germany