Jews in Nazi Berlin
From Kristallnacht to Liberation
Though many of the details of Jewish life under Hitler are familiar, historical accounts rarely afford us a real sense of what it was like for Jews and their families to live in the shadow of Nazi Germany’s oppressive racial laws and growing violence. With Jews in Nazi Berlin, those individual lives—and the constant struggle they required—come fully into focus, and the result is an unprecedented and deeply moving portrait of a people.
Drawing on a remarkably rich archive that includes photographs, objects, official documents, and personal papers, the editors of Jews in Nazi Berlin have assembled a multifaceted picture of Jewish daily life in the Nazi capital during the height of the regime’s power. The book’s essays and images are divided into thematic sections, each representing a different aspect of the experience of Jews in Berlin, covering such topics as emigration, the yellow star, Zionism, deportation, betrayal, survival, and more. To supplement—and, importantly, to humanize—the comprehensive documentary evidence, the editors draw on an extensive series of interviews with survivors of the Nazi persecution, who present gripping first-person accounts of the innovation, subterfuge, resilience, and luck required to negotiate the increasing brutality of the regime.
A stunning reconstruction of a storied community as it faced destruction, Jews in Nazi Berlin renders that loss with a startling immediacy that will make it an essential part of our continuing attempts to understand World War II and the Holocaust.
“Beate Meyer, Hermann Simon, and Chana Schütz have envisioned and edited a remarkable book. Jews in Nazi Berlin, 1933–1945 explores Jewish life in that city during that era—while at the same time depicting patterns that held elsewhere. The editors’ deft touch reflects their keen historical imagination and utterly human approach. Focusing on individuals and families, the essays tell a multi-faceted story of both ruin and resourcefulness. Richly illustrated and ably translated, Jews in Nazi Berlin is a treasure: the book about Jewish life at the very heart of the Nazi kingdom to read and to assign to classes.”—Debórah Dwork, author of Flight from the Reich, Refugee Jews: 1933–1946
“Berlin, home to a third of German Jewry; Berlin, where Jews constituted a large part of the cultural, medical, legal, and business communities; Berlin, where the Nazis sought very publicly to humiliate Jews and destroy their community. Berlin and its Jews stand at the center of this erudite and moving essay collection that weaves Nazi policy, social reactions, and Jewish perceptions into a highly illuminating and deeply depressing account. The authors focus on Jewish views and voices, those Jews left in Berlin after the mass emigration, those who worked for Jewish organizations, those who hid, and those who were deported. One feels the menacing cloud of deportations as one reads extraordinarily poignant individual and family stories of courage and despair, survival and death.”<Marion Kaplan, author of Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany>
“The authors succeed in bridging the gap between the broad issues, such as the process of illegal immigration or hiding, and the experience of individuals. The volume is, therefore, extremely useful for both teachers and students.”—Library Journal
“A lavishly illustrated book of essays. . . . [A] fine and comprehensive volume.”--Canadian Jewish News
Foreword by Hermann Simon
Editors’ Preface
PART ONE: 1938
1 1938: The Year of Fate
Hermann Simon
2 The Juni-Aktion (June Operation) in Berlin
Christian Dirks
PART TWO: Emigration
3 The Flight and Expulsion of German Jews
Michael Schäbitz
PART THREE: Aryanization
4 “Aryanized” and Financially Ruined: The Garbáty Family
Beate Meyer
PART FOUR: The Yellow Star
5 Berlin Jews: Deprived of Rights, Impoverished, and Branded
Albert Meirer
6 The Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt, 1938–43
Clemens Maier
PART FIVE: Zionists
7 אף על פי כן (In Spite of Everything): Zionists in Berlin
Chana Schütz
PART SIX: Forced Labor
8 Forced Labor
Diana Schulle
9 The Rosenstrasse Protest
Diana Schulle
PART SEVEN: Deportation
10 The Deportations
Beate Meyer
11 Every Person Has a Name
Rita Meyhöfer
12 The Opera Singer Therese Rothauser
Alexandra von Pfuhlstein
13 Sad Experiences in the Hell of Nazi Germany: The Scheurenberg Family
Christian Dirks
14 Ruth Schwersenz’s Poesiealbum
Karin Wieckhorst
PART EIGHT: Betrayal
15 Snatchers: The Berlin Gestapo’s Jewish Informants
Christian Dirks
PART NINE: Survival
16 How the Frankenstein Family Survived Underground, 1943–45
Barbara Schieb
17. Banished from the Fatherland: How Hans Rosenthal Survived the Nazi Regime
Michael Schäbitz
PART TEN: Jewish Organizations
18 The Fine Line between Responsible Action and Collaboration: The Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland and the Jewish Community in Berlin, 1938–45
Beate Meyer
19 Oranienburger Strasse 28–31
Diana Schulle
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Glossary
Contributors Name Index
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.
