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978-0-521-88392-4 - Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany
Francis R. Nicosia
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Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany
This is a study of the ideological and political relationship between
Zionism and anti-Semitism in modern Germany from the nineteenth
century through the Third Reich, focusing on the Nazi years between
1933 and 1942. It considers this topic within the context of three
contentious issues in post-Holocaust historiography and debate: the
nature of modern German anti-Semitism, the decision-making process
leading to the Nazi mass murder of the Jews of Europe, and the nature
and role of German Zionism in German-Jewish history before the
Shoah. This study examines the assault of German anti-Semitism and
Nazi Jewish policy on the Jews of Germany, as well as the ideological
and political responses of some German Jews, the Zionists, to that
assault. It concludes that the approaches of German anti-Semitism and
National Socialism to Zionism and the Zionist movement in Germany
reflect a relatively consistent ideology that was applied in an inconsistent and often contradictory manner, one that in the end undermined
the efforts of German Zionism to achieve fundamental Zionist goals.
Francis R. Nicosia is Professor of History at Saint Michael’s College. He
is the co-author of The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust (2000) and
author of The Third Reich and the Palestine Question (1985 and 2000),
and he has co-edited several books, including Medicine and Medical
Ethics in Nazi Germany (2002) and Business and Industry in Nazi
Germany (2004). He has edited two volumes on the Central Zionist
Archives, Jerusalem, in the series “Archives of the Holocaust” (1990).
He was also a Senior Fullbright Research Scholar in Berlin from 1992 to
1993 and 2006 to 2007, and he was named the Carnegie Foundation’s
Vermont Professor of the Year in 2000.
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978-0-521-88392-4 - Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany
Francis R. Nicosia
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Zionism and Anti-Semitism
in Nazi Germany
F R A N C I S R . NICOSIA
Saint Michael’s College
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978-0-521-88392-4 - Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany
Francis R. Nicosia
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, n y 10013-2473, u s a
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Ó Francis R. Nicosia 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nicosia, Francis R.
Zionism and anti-semitism in Nazi Germany / Francis R. Nicosia.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-521-88392-4 (hardback)
1. Zionism – Germany – History – 20th century. 2. Jews – Germany – Politics and
government – 20th century. 3. Jews – Government policy – Germany – History –
20th century. 4. Antisemitism – Germany – History – 20th century. 5. Germany –
Ethnic regulations – History – 20th century. 6. Germany – Politics and
government – 1933–1945. 7. National socialism and Zionism. I. Title.
ds149.5.g 3n 53 2008
320.54095694–dc22
2007030617
i s b n 978-0-521-88392-4 hardback
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in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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Francis R. Nicosia
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For Ellen, Tim, and Alex
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Francis R. Nicosia
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Wir haben beide uns unser Volk nicht auserlesen. Sind wir unser Volk?
Was heibt denn Volk? Sind Christ und Jude eher Christ und Jude, als
Mensch?
(Neither of us has chosen his people. Are we our people? What does
“people” mean? Are Christians and Jews more Christians and Jews than
humans?)
Nathan to the young Knight Templar, from act 2, scene 5 of
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Nathan der Weise: Ein dramatisches
Gedicht in fünf Aufzügen (Stuttgart: Phillip Reclam, 1990), 50
Schmeibt hinaus die ganze Judenbande,
Schmeibt sie ‘naus, schmeibt sie ‘naus, aus unserm Vaterlande,
Schickt sie wieder nach Jerusalem,
Dann sind sie wieder unter sich bei ihrem Stamme Sem.
Schmeib hinaus die ganze Judenblase,
Schmeibt sie ‘naus mit ihrer krummen Nase,
Schickt sie wieder nach Jerusalem,
Dann sind sie wieder unter sich bei ihrem Stamme Sem.
(Throw out the entire band of Jews,
Throw them out, throw them out, out of our fatherland,
Send them back to Jerusalem,
Where they will again be among themselves and their tribe.
Throw out the entire gang of Jews,
Throw them out with their hooked noses,
Send them back to Jerusalem,
Where they will again be among themselves and their tribe.)
“Lied der Nationalsozialisten”; BArch: R1501, 26053,
Reichsinnenministerium, 1931
Die Antisemiten haben recht behalten. Gönnen wir es ihnen, denn auch
wir werden glücklich.
(The anti-Semites are right. If we grant them that, then we too will be
happy.)
Theodor Herzl’s Diaries, Book I, 17 June 1895; Theodor Herzl,
Theodor Herzls Tagebücher, Vol. 1 (Berlin: JüdischerVerlag,
1922), 209
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Francis R. Nicosia
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Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1
The Age of Emancipation in Imperial Germany
Zionism in Anti-Semitic Thought
Anti-Semitism in Zionist Thought
2
The Weimar Years
German Zionism and the First World War
German Zionism and the Nazi Threat
Early Nazi Views on Zionism
3
1933: Nazi Confusion, Zionist Illusion
In Search of Policy
Haavara
Between Illusion and Reality
4
Zionism in Nazi Jewish Policy, 1934–1938
State Agencies and Zionism
The Police and Zionism
A Jewish State
The SS and Zionism, 1938
5
German Zionism, 1934–1938: Confrontation with Reality
Optimism and Expansion
Economic Decline
Communal Relations
Disintegration and Isolation
page ix
xi
xiii
1
13
13
31
45
45
48
63
74
74
78
90
106
106
111
126
134
145
145
156
163
174
vii
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Francis R. Nicosia
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Contents
viii
6
Revisionist Zionism in Germany, 1934–1938
Unity Shattered
The State Zionist Organization
State Zionists, the ZVfD, and the Nazi Regime
7
Zionist Occupational Retraining and Nazi Jewish Policy
Jewish Occupational Retraining Programs
Nazi Policy and Jewish Occupational Retraining
8
From Dissolution to Final Solution
181
181
185
189
207
207
228
1938: Radicalization and Continuity
Emigration Continued
Zionism and Palestine
Resettlement, Emigration, Genocide
245
245
257
265
278
Conclusions
283
Bibliography
293
Index
309
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List of Illustrations
3.1 Heinrich Wolff, German Consul General in Jerusalem,
1932–1935
page 81
3.2 Kurt Blumenfeld, President of the Zionist Federation of
Germany, 1924–1933
97
4.1 Germans dressed as orthodox Jews ride through the streets
of Marburg on a float depicting Jews leaving for Palestine
in 1936
141
4.2 An anti-Semitic float in the 1934 Shrove Tuesday parade in
Singen features Germans dressed as stereotypical Jews riding
in a passenger railway car labeled “From Berlin to Palestine”
142
4.3 An anti-Jewish propaganda float alleging German Jewry’s
allegiance to the United States and Palestine moves along
the Rosenmontag parade route in Mainz in 1939
143
5.1 Prospective immigrants to Palestine seeking information in
the waiting room of the Palestine Office, Meinecke Strasse 10,
Berlin, 1935
147
5.2 “A Journey without a Certificate to Palestine,” 1935, Jüdische
Kunstler-Spiele, Vienna
154
5.3 Robert Weltsch, editor of the Jüdische Rundschau, 1919–1938
176
6.1 Georg Kareski, president of the State Zionist Organization
in Germany, 1934–1937
187
7.1 Zionist youths instructed in the use of agricultural machinery
at an occupational retraining (hachschara) camp in Germany
in 1935
213
7.2 A Jewish youth in agricultural training in 1933, preparing for
emigration from Germany to Palestine
214
ix
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x
List of Illustrations
7.3 Young German-Jewish women tend the chickens on
hachschara “Ellgut” as part of their agricultural training
in 1940 for life in Palestine
7.4 Members of the Habonim [Zionist youth] hachschara group
in Nuremberg, at Beit Halutz on Lindenast Strasse 6 in 1936
7.5 Jewish Gymnasium graduates train as carpenters under the
auspices of the Jewish community in Berlin in 1936
7.6 Jewish youths prepare for emigration by training as locksmiths
under the auspices of the Jewish community in Berlin in 1936
8.1 Arthur Ruppin’s last visit to Germany, seated in a synagogue
with Heinrich Stahl, Leo Baeck, Alfred Klee, and Josef
Schneidel, in 1938
8.2 Reinhard Heydrich, SS-Obergrüppenführer, Reich Protector
of Bohemia and Moravia, Head of the Reich Security Main
Office (RSHA), 1938–May 1942
8.3 Adolf Eichmann, SS-Obersturmbannführer, Head of the
Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna beginning
in 1938
8.4 At the Interior Ministry in Vienna, Adolf Eichmann and
the SS prepare for a raid on the offices of the Jewish
community in Vienna, 18 March 1938
8.5 Prospective Jewish emigrants line up at the Palestine Office
of the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Prague in 1939
8.6 The steamship Tiger Hill carrying illegal refugees lands on
Tel Aviv shore, 1939
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215
216
217
218
247
253
255
256
269
273
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Acknowledgments
I wish to express my appreciation for the support of the scholars, archivists,
librarians, and support staffs of the many research and archival institutions
at which I was able to do the research for this book. These institutions in
Germany, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and Canada were
indispensable in the long process of preparing this study. I am also particularly
grateful to the librarians and support staffs of the libraries at the Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at
the Technical University of Berlin; McGill University in Montreal; and Saint
Michael’s College, the University of Vermont, and Middlebury College in
Vermont for their kind assistance. My special thanks also go to Shallom and
Carol Lewin of Burlington, Vermont, for their help in translating documents in
Hebrew from the Haganah Archives in Tel Aviv.
But these institutions and individuals would not have been in a position to
help had it not been for the generous financial support I received for this
project from a variety of granting bodies in the United States and Germany.
I am indebted to the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars in
Washington, D.C., and the Fulbright-Kommission, formerly in Bonn, now in
Berlin, for a sabbatical year of research in Berlin and at various state archives
throughout the Federal Republic. The American Philosophical Society in
Philadelphia provided financial support for a brief research trip to Moscow to
examine captured German records at the Osobyi Special Archive in Moscow.
The Charles Revson Foundation and the Center for Advanced Holocaust
Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington,
D.C., generously supported me during a semester of research into its microfilm
collection of the German files housed in their original form at the Osobyi
Special Archive in Moscow. Finally, the Faculty Development Fund at Saint
Michael’s College provided generous financial support for several research
trips to the archives in Israel that I was able to use and for other technical
aspects involved in the preparation of this book.
xi
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xii
Acknowledgments
To friends and colleagues at all of these institutions, I am deeply grateful. I
also wish to thank the anonymous readers of this manuscript for the many
helpful and constructive suggestions they provided during the review process.
Finally, I am indebted to my wife, Ellen Oxfeld, an anthropologist, who
provided me with useful perspectives and constructive suggestions during the
process of manuscript revision.
For whatever may be positive about this study, all of these people deserve a
large share of the credit; for its shortcomings, the responsibility must rest
entirely with me.
Francis R. Nicosia
Middlebury, Vermont
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Abbreviations
ADAP
AJC
BArch
BArch/D-H
BHStA
BLHA
CAHJP
CJA
CU
CV
CZA
HA
HdJ
HOG
ICA
If Z
ISA
JI
JVP
Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik, 1918–1945
(Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945)
American Jewish Committee
Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives), Berlin
Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives), Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten
Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Bavarian Main State
Archives), Munich
Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv (Brandenburg Main
State Archives), Potsdam
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People,
Jerusalem
Centrum Judaicum Archiv – Stiftung Neue Synagoge (Archives
of the Judaica Center – New Synagogue Foundation), Berlin
Concordia University, Montreal
Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens/
Centralverein der Juden in Deutschland (Central
Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith/Central
Association of Jews in Germany)
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem
Haganah Archives, Tel Aviv
Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden (Help Association of
German Jews)
Hitachduth Olej Germania (Association of Immigrants from
Germany)
Jewish Colonization Association
Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary
History), Munich
Israel State Archives, Jerusalem
Jabotinsky Institute, Tel Aviv
Jüdische Volkspartei (Jewish Peoples Party)
xiii
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xiv
LAB
LBI
LHSA
LZRD
NARA
NZO
NHStA
NStA
Osb
PA
PRO
RjF
RSHA
RVt
RVe
SD
SStA
StAH
USHMM
VdZR
VnJ
VrJ
WZO
ZJHA
ZjW
ZVfD
© Cambridge University Press
Abbreviations
Landesarchiv (State Archives), Berlin
Leo Baeck Institute, New York
Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt (Main State Archives
Saxony-Anhalt), Magdeburg
Landesverband der Zionisten-Revisionisten in Deutschland
(State Association of Zionists-Revisionists in Germany)
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington,
D.C.
New Zionist Organization
Niedersächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Lower Saxony Main
State Archives), Hannover
Niedersächisches Staatsarchiv (Lower Saxony State
Archives), Wolfenbüttel
Osobyi Special Archive, Moscow
Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (Political Archives
of the Foreign Ministry), Berlin
Public Record Office, London
Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten (Reich League of Jewish
War Veterans)
Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office)
Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden/Reichsvertretung der
Juden in Deutschland (Reich Representation of German
Jews/Reich Representation of Jews in Germany)
Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich
Association of Jews in Germany)
Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service)
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Saxon State Archives), Leipzig
Staatsarchiv (State Archives), Hamburg
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
Verband deutscher Zionisten-Revisionisten (Association of
German Zionists-Revisionists)
Verband nationaldeutscher Juden (Association of NationalGerman Jews)
Vereinigung für das religiös-liberale Judentum (Association
of Religious-Liberal Jewry)
World Zionist Organization
Zentralausschuss der deutschen Juden für Hilfe und Aufbau
(Central Committee of German Jews for Assistance and
Construction)
Zentralstelle für jüdische Wirtschaftshilfe (Central Office for
Jewish Economic Assistance)
Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland (Zionist
Federation for Germany)
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Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany
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