In the second half of the 19th century, especially since 1880s on, mass immigration of Jews from eastern Europe began to the West, most of the Jews leaving for the US and some to Germany and other western European states. Following the First World War the number of eastern European Jews in Germany grew and during the Weimar republic approximately 20% of the Jews in Germany were of Eastern European origin. The German Jews' attitude to these Jews, who in general were more traditional and less integrated into German life, was ambivalent. German Jewish organisations felt obliged to help their brethren, but at the same time many German Jews feared that their presence might encourage anti-Semitism. During the 30's eastern European Jews, not having German citizenship, were more vulnerable to Nazi anti-Jewish policy.
