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The Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin presents the year 1938 through the eyes of Jews, whose personal documents detail their experiences and the hardships they suffered as well as the growing tensions in Europe and diminishing hope for Jews in Germany and Austria.

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24

MONDAY

24

The Fifth Column

Antisemitic decrees in Romania

Foreign Minister Micescu declared in Geneva that the the Romanian government does not intend to bring the Jewish resp. the minorities problem before the League of Nations, since Romania is not in need of advice regarding its domestic politics from abroad, and that the Minorities Treaties refer only to those nationalities living in separate territories which used to be part of the Hapsburg Monarchy and do not apply to Jews residing in the Old Kingdom.

Geneva/Bucharest

In the 78th and last year of its existence, the orthodox weekly Der Israelit reports on measures of the anti-semitic, pro-German Goga-Cuza government in Romania: The country’s Jews were subjected to various chicaneries and occupational bans similar to those in Germany. As a result of gains in territory and population in WWI, about 30% of Romanians belonged to minority groups, who were seen as a “Fifth Column.” Jews especially were the object of fears and suspicions which easily turned into violent hatred.

TAGS: antisemitism, Bucharest, Geneva, January 24, Journalism, League of Nations, media coverage, persecution of Jewish professionals, politics, press article, Romanian Jews, WWI

SOURCE

Institution:

Compact Memory, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main

Collection:

“Die neue jüdische Lage in Rumänien.” Der Israelit (Frankfurt am Main)

Original:

Vol. 1938, No. 4: 6–7

17

MONDAY

17

Mixed marriage by special permit

Letter congratulating Hermann Hoerlin on his upcoming wedding with Käthe Schmid

I wish the two of you every blessing. There certainly is no more magnificent, nobler character, no human being more joyously equipped by nature than Käthe Schmid, and therefore it says a lot that she is, as it were, being bestowed upon you, dear Mr. Hoerlin, and this wholeheartedly, with no ifs or buts, without any reservations.

Salzburg/Stuttgart

An unidentified author congratulates the German mountain climber and physicist Hermann Hoerlin, based in Stuttgart, on his upcoming wedding with Käthe Schmid, who was considered a “Half-Jew” in Nazi parlance. The “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,” adopted in 1935, forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews. Despite the law, the couple Hoerlin-Schmid obtained a special permit and the wedding could go ahead.

TAGS: antisemitism, January 17, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, prominent people, Salzburg, Stuttgart

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kate and Herman Hoerlin Collection, AR 25540

Original:

Box 2, folder 13

16

SUNDAY

16

The noose tightens

The Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden appeals to the government

A considerable part of Jewry in Germany, in which older classes predominate, is incapable of emigrating and will end its days in Germany. If it is not to become a burden on the public welfare system, means for obtaining a livelihood must not be completely closed to it. Even the continuation of ordered emigration—and only that keeps the emigrating doors open—is possible only if the economic existence basis of Jews in Germany is not further curtailed.

Berlin

The “Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden” (Reich Representation of German Jews) was established in Berlin in September 1933 as an advocacy group. After the passing of the Nuremberg Laws, it had to change its name to “Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland” (Reich Representation of Jews in Germany). Its president was Rabbi Leo Baeck. As a result of the increasing pauperization of the Jewish population, whose possibilities to earn a living were systematically taken away, the Reichsvertretung appealed to the government in January 1938 to desist from additional limitations depriving Jewish professionals of their jobs. The Reichsvertretung argued that not only was the increasing unemployment a burden on the welfare system, but it also made emigration impossible.

TAGS: advocates, antisemitism, Berlin, economic persecution, emigration, impoverishment, January 16, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, rabbis, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

"Reich Jews Appeal to Government Against Further Economic Curbs"

Source available in English

4

TUESDAY

4

Unexpected allies

Words of Solidarity for German Jews from the US National Methodist Students Conference

“The National Methodist Students Conference has adopted a resolution protesting strongly against persecution of Jews in Germany and elsewhere.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

St. Louis, Missouri

While the Methodists constituted a minority in Germany, they were a major denomination in the English-speaking world. The Nazis began wooing Methodist leaders in Germany as early as 1933, hoping to use them to propagandize fellow Methodists in the United States. German Methodist leaders became willing tools of the Nazis; not only did Methodist bishops avoid criticizing the regime, they explicitly praised what they saw as its successes. Against this background, it is all the more remarkable that the US National Methodist Students Conference adopted a resolution in which it condemned the antisemitic policies of Nazi Germany.

TAGS: advocates, antisemitism, January 4, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi policies, religion, St. Louis MO

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

"Methodist Students Hit Persecution of Jews in Reich, Racial Bias in U.S"

Source available in English

3

MONDAY

3

Excellence in exile

The Shared Fate of German Jewish Emigrants: Albert Einstein and Lotte Jacobi

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” —Albert Einstein

Princeton, New Jersey

The people on both sides of the camera shared a fate that was common to many thousands of German Jews: shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933, Albert Einstein decided to immigrate permanently to the United States. He took the position of professor of theoretical physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where this picture was taken five years later. In light of the increasing difficulties after the Nazi seizure of power, the photographer Lotte Jacobi also left Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1935. Jacobi was unpersuaded by the Nazis’ offer to grant her the status of “Honorary Aryan.” She left behind a studio in Berlin which she had run together with her sister, Ruth, also an accomplished photographer. Among the many prominent figures Jacobi photographed were Marc Chagall, Martin Buber, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Mann, and Kurt Weill.

TAGS: antisemitism, artists, emigration, January 3, Nazi policies, photo, Princeton NJ, prominent people

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Jacobi, Lotte. "Albert Einstein in the Study of His Princeton Home," 1938. Albert Einstein Collection, AR 136

Original:

F 3136C

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