FROM THE PRESENTATION (Part A) Chapter 6 Outcast Subjects of the State Sub-Chapter A Jewish Responses to the Nuremberg Laws Introduction Parallel to the relative stability of the Nazi regime in the period 1935-1937, the situation of the Jews seemed to establish its own problematic balance. After the Nuremberg laws, the continuing development of an autonomous but segregated Jewish social and economic sphere was accompanied by systematic initiatives at orderly emigration from Germany. The steady decline of German Jewry seemed to be the inevitable outcome of this process. SCREEN A Response Of The National Representation (Reichsvertretung) The official response of the National Representation of the Jews in Germany ( Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden in Deutschland ) to the Nuremberg Laws reflected the complex situation that had overtaken the Jews in September 1935. The Representation's communique, drafted through a process of negotiation among its constituent organisations, expressed hope that Jewish life in Germany might continue in a reasonable manner and asserted the Representation's claim to leadership. At the same time, however, preparations for emigration of the young also figured importantly in the Representation's plan of action. The Goal - Autonomy Central points in the National Representation's (Reichsvertretung) official response to the Nuremberg Laws. The Laws decided upon by the Reichstag in Nuremberg have come as the heaviest blow for the Jews in Germany. But they must create a basis on, which a tolerable relationship becomes possible between the German and the Jewish peoples.…A precondition for such a tolerable relationship is the hope that the Jews and Jewish communities of Germany will be enabled to keep a moral and economic means of existence by the halting of defamation and boycott. The organization of the life of the Jews in Germany requires governmental recognition of an autonomous Jewish leadership. The Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden in Deutschland [the National Representation] is the agency competent to undertake this...'. (Documents on the Holocaust 84) 'Time for Action' Principal provisions of the National Representation's plan of action after enactment of the Nuremberg Laws : The most urgent tasks for the Reichsvertretung , which it will press energetically and with full commitment, following the avenues it has previously taken, are: 1. Our own Jewish educational system must serve to prepare the youth to become upright Jews… 2. The increased need for emigration will be served by large-scale planning, firstly with respect to Palestine , but also to all other available countries, with particular attention to young people. This includes study of additional possibilities for emigration, training in professions suited for emigrants, particularly agriculture and technical skills. Support and care of the needy, sick or aged must be assured through further systematic expansion of the Jewish welfare services.' Documents on the Holocaust 85 More On A Spiritual Reaction The close supervision of the Gestapo prevented German Jews from freely expressing the sense of pain and crisis, which they felt in the wake of the Nuremberg laws. The following excerpt is from a prayer written by Rabbi Leo Baeck for the night of Yom Kippur, 10 October 1935, which was banned for public reading by order of the Gestapo. Composition of the prayer led to the arrest and brief imprisonment of Leo Baeck and Otto Hirsch, leaders of the Representation. We Stand Before God At this hour the whole House of Israel stands before its God, the God of Justice and the God of Mercy.… We will say 'we have sinned' and will pray with the will to repentance before the Lord and we will pray 'Lord forgive us'. We stand before our God and with the same courage with which we have acknowledged our sins...shall we express our abhorrence of the lie directed against us, and the slander of our faith and its expressions: this slander is far beneath us. We believe in our faith and our future.... We are filled with sorrow and pain. In silence will we give expression to all that which is in our hearts, in moments of silence before our God. This silent worship will be more emphatic than any words could be.' Documents on the Holocaust 87-8, Yitzhak Arad, Yisrael Gutman, Abraham Margaliot, eds., Yad Vashem 1981. SCREEN B Responses Of The Jewish Organisations Despite the coordination between them in the National Representation (Reichsvertretung) , ideological disputes and power struggles between the major Jewish organisations persisted. The situation in which the Jews found themselves under the Nazis weakened the liberal and German-patriotic Jewish organisations and built up the strength of the Zionists, who until then had been a small minority among German Jewry. The disputes between these factions were also evident in the divergent ways in, which they responded to the Nuremberg Laws. The Liberal response The supervision of the German censor made it difficult for members of the Centralverein(CV) to express their response to the Nuremberg Laws. It was perhaps the impossibility of attacking the Nazi government that led the Liberals to assail their rivals within the Jewish community: An entire era has come to its end... We are convinced that the songs of victory being sung in certain Zionist circles grate crudely on the ears - not only of most German Jews but also of those close to the Zionists themselves. Instead of their thinly veiled jubilation at the implications of these developments for relations among the Jewish organisations, a response of 'Alas, we have won' would have been more understandable, and certainly more Jewish.... These times call for discipline and sacrifice… We believe that the smallest and easiest sacrifice must be the repression of ambition, propaganda needs, and organisational egotism.' C.V Zeitung, 26 September 1935. The Zionist response For the Zionists, whose worldview was fundamentally more pessimistic with regard to emancipation, the new laws did not come as a surprise. They regarded the new situation as an opportunity to expand their influence. Throughout the Diaspora, we Jews are mere objects of legislation. Our legal status is determined not by us... Forty years ago, this awareness was one of the major motives for the [formation] of the modern Jewish national movement, based upon the aspiration to transform the patterns of Jewish existence and to reinstate the Jew as a subject in history.... This is the deep meaning of the National Home in Palestine.... The Jewish laws in Germany open a new chapter in the history of our Galut [exile]… These are events from which we should glean lessons about the singularity of Jewish existence and about the Jews' status as a nation among the nations.' Juedische Rundschau, 17 September 1935. More On A Patriotic German Response Some champions of German patriotism, led by the Union of Jewish Front Veterans (RJF), felt that the Nuremberg Laws dealt a final blow to their ambition to remain proud Germans; they descended into a severe crisis of morale. Others, even in late 1935, simply continued in their refusal to accept their status as outcasts and issued illegal leaflets proclaiming their right to remain German because of their 'sacrifice of blood.' (In 'roll over' - from a pamphlet circulated in Berlin by members of the Alliance of War Veterans, as quoted by Gestapo agents - November 1935.) Comrade, think about it. Nobody can dispossess us of what we earned, through our blood, with our blood! No deprivation of rights and no enslavement can take away our Germany! Fallen soldiers of the wars for Germany, You are our witnesses. Our goal is to live for your sake in spite of all as Germans and Jews. Comrades promise it solemnly. David Bankier, 'Jewish Society through Nazi Eyes 1933-1936,' in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, p.115, Vol. 6, 1991. More: Zionist Distress Although the Nuremberg legislation invested them with ideological and organisational momentum, the Zionists fell into distress in the ensuing months. The limited number of immigration certificates to Palestine meant that the principal Zionist solution to the problem of German Jewry became unrealistic for the majority of German Jews. The Zionists were thus forced to grant greater legitimacy to emigration to other countries, and to focus more intensively on activity in the internal German Jewish arena.