The Nuremberg Laws made many German Jews aware that the deterioration in their situation was not merely a temporary contingency. This realization led to a process of reorganisation within the Jewish organisations. Public attention and organisational aid were thus directed much more significantly toward emigration as the solution to the plight of most German Jews. No longer was it viewed as the path for small numbers of individuals. The mounting economic hardship that typified the daily lives of many Jews - the result of the Aryanization processes and the Jews' ejection from the German welfare system - made it necessary to devise a social-relief system for those who remained for the time being in Germany.
Sub-Chapter On Emigration
SCREEN A
Emigration Becomes A Major Issue
Tens of thousands of Jews began to leave Germany following the Nazi rise to power. At first, most of the emigrants were political opponents who feared the regime's vengeful hand, Eastern European Jews who returned to their countries of origin, Zionists who emigrated to Palestine, and government officials who had lost their jobs. However, the circle of emigrants gradually widened. Another watershed occurred after the Nuremberg Laws were passed. There was no dramatic increase in the number of Jews emigrating, but interest in the issue of emigration increased so markedly that it became a major topic on the agenda of the German Jewish leadership. The new circumstances led to Jewish emigration to an expanding number of overseas destinations, such as the United States and even South America.
'Reducing the Number of Jews'
From the preface to the 1936 budget of the Berlin Kehilah (community organisation)—the Liberals' stance: The idea of emigration is becoming increasingly prominent today. The trend towards reducing the number of Jews through emigration reflects the wishes of influential bodies in the State. It also accords with the desires of a large part of German Jewry as a result of the new legislation.… [However,] it is generally agreed that a considerable number of Jews will be unable to leave Germany.' Abraham Margaliot, 'The Reaction of the Jewish Public in Germany to the Nuremberg Laws', Yad Vashem Studies, p. 103, Vol. 12.
A Comprehensive Plan for Jewish Emigration
A report from 19 September, 1935, by Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, representative of the 'Hehalutz' movement in Germany, expressed the Zionist understanding of emigration from Germany in the wake of the Nuremberg legislation. The report outlines a plan for the transfer of dominance among the German Jewish leadership into the hands of the Zionists. It then proposes that negotiations be held with the Nazi authorities toward the implementation of the emigration plan. [The negotiations should focus on] a substantive plan for emigration to Palestine and other countries with the aim of liquidating German Jewry over a span of 15-20 years. The authorities will have to permit all necessary prerequisites such as taking out capital, vocational training and political activity. The government will have to recognize that the implementation of such a liquidation plan...is only possible if the Jews remaining in Germany in the short term will be granted the possibility for economic existence...'. The original initiative for a plan of mass emigration had come from Max Warburg ΓÇô one of the leaders of Liberal Judaism in Germany. 19 September 1935, Ben Gurion Archive, Sde-Boker, Israel, Correspondence.
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The Haavara ('Transfer') Agreement
On 7 August 1933, an agreement was signed between leading German and Palestinian Zionists, together with the management of the Anglo-Palestine Bank, and the German Ministry of Economics. The agreement allowed the emigrants to transfer capital from Germany through the export of German goods to Palestine. In spite of the shortage of foreign currency, until 1936 the agreement allowed Jews leaving Germany for Palestine to take 1,000 British Pounds, enough to pay for a British entry visa. The Haavara Agreement helped make Palestine a popular destination for Jews emigrating from Germany during the first years of Nazi rule. The Nazi ruling elite signed the agreement out of their strong desire to encourage Jewish emigration from Germany.
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Youth Aliyah
One important activity designed to prepare the emigration of German Jews was 'Youth Aliyah'. As early as late 1932, Recha Freier initiated organisational work toward vocational and agricultural training of German-Jewish children and youth in anticipation of their emigration to Palestine. The World Zionist Organisation adopted the idea following the Nazis' rise to power, and training camps were set up in various locations throughout Germany. Nearly 10,000 youngsters emigrated to Palestine under this program by the outbreak of war. Most were initially received by kibbutzim. (Kibbutzim - Socialist collective settlements in Palestine.)
SCREEN B
Organising Emigration
The increasing importance of emigration for German Jewry led to an expansion of the resources allocated to preparations for it. More vocational training and foreign language courses were offered, more information on the political and economic situation in various countries was disseminated, and a profusion of private companies offered to transport people and freight to various emigration destinations. The Jewish press also took greater interest in the matter.
Organising Emigration
The turning point in the policy toward emigration among the German Jewish liberal establishment was evident in the attitude of the Aid Association of German Jews ( Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden) toward the phenomenon. This organisation was established in 1901 with the goal of providing assistance to Eastern European Jews emigrating overseas. In the wake of the Nazi rise to power, they began providing similar assistance to emigrating German Jews - with the exception of those emigrating to Palestine. After passage of the Nuremberg laws, there was a significant increase in the number of Jews turning to the Hilfsverein for information on emigration prospects. In Berlin alone, the number reached 4,000 per month. The organisation attempted to meet these needs by providing emigration candidates with thorough preparation - vocational training and language instruction - and cooperated with world-wide Jewish organisations such as the Joint Distribution Committee and HICEM. In spite of the increasing tide of pressure for emigration, the Hilfsverein , like other German Jewish establishments, continued to support gradual, organised emigration, and was opposed to hasty mass Jewish emigration without proper preparation.
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Number of Emigrants
Emigration of Jews from Germany, by Years: The Year, Number of Immigrants: 1933 37,000, 1934 23,000, 1935 21,000, 1936 25,000, 1937 23,000, 1938 40,000. Total 169,000'. Herbert A. Strauss, Jewish Emigration from Germany - Nazi Policies and Jewish Responses (I), in : Leo Beack Institute Year Book, p. 326, vol. 25 (1980).
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Union of Jewish Front Veterans (RjF) on Emigration
Even the Union of Jewish Front Veterans (RjF), who remained German patriots and declared their opposition to emigration began - in the wake of the Nuremberg legislation - to hold practical discussions regarding the possibility of emigration. Gestapo reports from various cities show that the Union's activists continued to oppose the Zionist solution of emigration to Palestine, but expressed interest in emigration to other overseas countries - British colonies and South American countries. SD II-112, Lagebericht fuer April-May 1936, p. 2, in: Otto Dov Kulka, The 'Jewish Question' in the Third Reich, Phd. Diss, HebreUniversity of Jerusalem, 1975, p. 159, vol. 2.
SCREEN THREE
The Impact Of Emigration On The Demographic Structure Of German Jewry
The strongest candidates for emigration were, naturally, to be found among the young. Young people felt that their options for advancement had been blocked and believed that they could start over in another country. Older people, by contrast, found it difficult to tear themselves away from the country, which they regarded as their homeland and to cope with the challenge of starting a new life at an advanced age. This process led to the aging of German Jewry: [Icons: Add diagram that substantiates the aging of German Jewry] ...Emigration involves mainly the younger age groups. The aging of German Jewry, a process, which was already evident in the last census, has therefore intensified in the past three years. The under 20 age group, which between 1925 and 1933 had already declined…is now probably down to approximately 16%. The 20 to 45 age group…is now approximately 33%…. Thus one half of the Jews in Germany are now people who are older than 45 years of age.' Michael Traub, Die juedische Auswanderung aus Deutschland. Westeuropa, Oebersee, Palestina, Berlin, 1936, p. 24.
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The Aging of German Jewry
Persons 60 Years and over, Year, Number %: 1933 81,444 16.30, 1938 (beginning) 96,200 27.49, 1938 (end) 90,500 30.17, September 1939 59,700 23.25, July 31 1941 60,941 36.44,' Herbert A. Strauss, Jewish Emigration from Germany - Nazi Policies and Jewish Responses (I), in : Leo Beack Institute Year Book, p. 318, vol 25 (1980).
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Internal Migration
Many people, especially the older ones, are unable to emigrate, or must wait long periods of time for their relatives to establish themselves in countries of immigration before they can join them. Unable any longer to remain in their present places of residence, they find new homes in Berlin, which offers a variety of facilities ([Jewish] old age homes, hospitals, rest homes).… This domestic migration is not limited only to movement to a small number of larger communities. Small local centers are created in various provinces and states, absorbing Jewish families from dissolving the small communities of the region.' Max Birnbaum, 'Umfang und Struktur der juedischen Binnenwanderung,' in Juedische Wohlfahrtspflege und sozialpolitik, vol 7 (1937), pp. 127-129.
Sub-Chapter
Jewish Economic Life Aand Social Welfare
SCREEN A
Nazi policies led to the dismissal of many Jews from their places of employment and to the economic expropriation of many others. These circumstances led to a significant expansion in the activities of the Jewish communities' own welfare agencies, and to the establishment of a national organisation to coordinate these operations. These relief activities were further expanded as the Jews of Germany grew increasingly isolated as a result of the Nuremberg Laws. In addition, the economic activity of a growing proportion of the Jews who remained in Germany took place within Jewish frameworks. As a result, a separate Jewish economic sector gradually took shape. ...The Jewish community must live now in its own framework and is increasingly taking on the character of a new type of ghetto. A ghetto, which is admittedly not surrounded by walls, yet which is cut off from economic as well as social and intellectual contact with the surrounding world.' Annual Report of the Council for German Jewry, London, Report 1937, p. 7.
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The Central Committee for Relief and Reconstruction
Almost immediately after the Nazis came to power, the German Jewish establishment recognized the urgent need for systematic organisation of economic assistance. On 13 April 1933, a few months before the formation of the National Representation (Reichsvertretung), a Central Committee of German Jews for Relief and Reconstruction ( Zentralauschuss der deutschen Juden fuer Hilfe und Aufbau ) was established. From the Committee's founding document: Our duty: The tasks facing the community of German Jews today are vast…. We are faced with new tasks of unprecedented magnitude. It is not enough to provide bread for those who do not know how they are to survive the next few days. This, of course, is our first task - to make sure that none of our people goes hungry or lacks a roof over his head.... But...we will not and may not think that we have done enough.... Our duty is to help [our brothers and sisters] to find a new basis for their existence...to give them once more a task and a meaning to their lives!… It will be the task of those responsible to carefully investigate where there may be employment opportunities for Jewish people, and to then offer them the opportunity to prepare themselves for such opportunities.' C.V Zeitung, 27 April 1933.
Part II: The Committee for Relief and Reconstruction was supported by funds transferred by the Joint Distribution Committee from the United States. In the mid 1930's, this aid amounted to up to one-third of the Committee's funding.' Yehuda Bauer, My Brother's Keeper ΓÇö A History of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 1929-1939 , Philadelphia, 1974, p. 127.
SCREEN
Occupational Restructuring
One method for the economic survival of German Jews was vocational retraining. The transformation of the community's occupational structure was in part a spontaneous development, which resulted from lack of choice. However, it was also supported by Jewish self-help institutions. Doctors became X-ray technicians and physiotherapists, lawyers and government employees became traveling salesmen, and others acquired various trades. Many members of the liberal professions found employment in the growing network of community institutions ΓÇô the expanding Jewish health-care system, Jewish legal aid, Jewish schools and more.
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Expansion of the Jewish Labour Market
Some Jewish businesses survived by becoming small family enterprises. Jewish merchants and workshop owners, who were no longer allowed to employ Christians, brought relatives - mainly women and youngsters who had left school - into the business. Some Jewish physicians' clinics and even law offices managed to carry on for some time thanks to their spouses' assistance. Under these circumstances, the Jewish public's attitude toward women's labour underwent a noticeable change. The Nuremberg Laws, which (among their other effects) forbade Jewish homes to employ German domestics, made it necessary to refer many Jewish women to this sector, too.
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Jewish Loan and Brokerage Societies [two parts]
Part One
Thousands of German Jews maintained themselves economically by means of cooperative credit associations, which operated in various parts of the country. These associations provided loans under comfortable terms to support businesses that had fallen into hardship. They also helped Jews in small rural communities move to large cities, where they hoped to re-establish themselves. At the same time, the community establishment and the press introduced brokerage services in order to mediate as efficiently as possible between supply and demand in the Jewish market, to help create partnerships, and to pursue other goals.
Part Two
The Jewish Employment Agency: Do you need workers?... Do you need someone to clean your carpet, to renew your floor, to carry coal? Call the Jewish employment Agency. Do not forget the Jewish employment Agency when you are looking for someone to clean your attic or cellar, when you have to transport something, when you need a waiter for a party, a chauffeur or someone to do any kind of job. We have people waiting for work, we are the agency that will send you the right person for the job…' C.V Zeitung, 19 December 1935.
Juedische Winterhilfe - 'Jewish Winter Aid'
Screen 1
The gradual disqualification of Jews from the support of German social services created a greater need for internal Jewish activity to support the needy. The peak of this activity was in the Juedische Winterhilfe (Jewish Winter Aid) program. The German Winterhilfe program, inaugurated in the winter of 1931/32 - under the Weimar Republic - continued to support 'non-Aryans' and to obtain donations from them until the passage of the Nuremberg Laws. This situation changed, however, in the winter of 1935/36. Officially deprived of the German 'winter aid,' Jews were allowed to organise 'Jewish Winter Aid' - another phase in their isolation, another stage in the creation of a Jewish economic sector.
Screen 2
As soon as the Juedische Winterhilfe (Jewish Winter Aid) had been set up, its heads made an appeal to Jewish public opinion. Their activities, like those of the German Winterhilfe , were based on fundraising from the community at large and grants to the needy during the winter. Activity focused on the local level, within the framework of community organisations throughout Germany. In its first two winters of activity, the Juedische Winterhilfe provided assistance to more than 80,000 needy Jews - nearly 20 percent of the German Jewish population at that time. The aid program also helped to promote internal solidarity among the Jewish community at large. From a pamphlet proclaiming the formation of the Juedische Winterhilfe : This year, Jews will have no share in the German people's Winter Aid campaign. They are neither obliged to make contributions nor will they receive donations.... The Jewish community hereby has the possibility of caring for its members in a manner similar to that of the general campaign. The needy rightly expect that this opportunity will be put into effect. The Jewish spirit of sacrifice and the efficiency of Jewish institutions will once again be put to the test.' Juedische Wohlfahrtspflege und sozialpolitik, Vol. 5, p. 145, 1935.
'Distress Creates Mutual Responsibility'
From the Memoirs of Max Nussbaum, Rabbi of the Berlin Community: It was a strange life we led, those last years in Germany: a very poor life in many ways, poor in material blessings, restricted in all activities other than Jewish, deprived of basic rights and freedoms...surrounded by a terror that grew more intense every day. And yet there was a redeeming feature: we lived a fox-hole existence, and like among soldiers in the trenches there arose in us a feeling of mutual responsibility as it had never existed within German Jewry before this time. Nourished by an ever deepening Jewish consciousness, human relations became warmer, friendships deeper, and our impoverished lives richer.' David Kramer, 'Jewish Welfare Work under the Impact of Pauperisation,' in Arnold Paucker, ed., The Jews in Nazi Germany 1933-1943, Tuebingen, 1986, pp. 185-186.
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Methods of advertising 'Winter Aid' in the Jewish community: Advertising for Jewish Winter Aid is carried out through: Speeches by rabbis and teachers in the synagogues. Appeal letters to members of the Jewish community. Regular reports and appeals for donations in the Jewish press. Promotional events including lectures, film presentations, artistic performances, donation-box collections at events in Jewish communities. Advertisement and appeals for donations at other events and through the Jewish cultural leagues.' Jewish Welfare and Social Politics - Journal of the Welfare Agency of German Jews and the Department for Economic Aid at the Reich's Representation of Jews in Germany, Vol. 5, p. 147, 1935.
