REICHSVERTRETUNG DER DEUTSCHEN JUDEN (National Representation of German Jews) National Representation of the Jews in Germany
National Representation of the Jews in Germany (Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden in Deutschland)
An umbrella organisation embracing the main Jewish political and community organisations in Germany
The Representation was established in September 1933 to co-ordinate various organisations' interaction with the Nazi regime and to re-organise internal Jewish life. Rabbi Leo Baeck was appointed to head the Representation, Dr. Otto Hirsch was named its director general, and representatives of various currents in German Jewry sat on the executive committee. The Representation's inquiries with the heads of the Nazi regime were rejected; within a few months, the focal point of its activity shifted from attempts to modify the Jews' political status in Germany to the internal Jewish domain. The Representation, by means of the Central Committee of German Jews for Relief and Reconstruction - which became subordinate to it in 1935 - operated in fields such as Jewish education, vocational training, economic aid and relief, and assistance in emigration. The Representation's constituent organisations remained autonomous and, even as they co-operated, engaged in power struggles for dominance in the Representation and in German-Jewish public life generally. In February 1939, after most of the subordinate organisations were outlawed, the heads of the Representation, in conjunction with officials of the regime, dissolved the Representation and replaced it with the Reich Association of Jews in Germany Reichsvereinigung .
