About Partners Education Contributors

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.

Curated by Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Website and exhibition design by C&G Partners

30

SUNDAY

No Reward for Patriotism

The Nazis suspend the newspaper of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith.

“The paper is the second Jewish organ to be suspended within a week.”

Berlin

The C.V.-Zeitung, Paper for German and Jewish Culture was the organ of the “Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith.” The Central Association’s political bent was liberal-conservative and it strove to represent the interests of all Jews, regardless of religious affiliation. The newspaper aimed to raise the self-confidence of German Jews as well as to deepen their love of “both German and Jewish culture.” (Jüdisches Lexikon 1927). January 30, 1938 was the last day of ordinary operations for the C.V.-Zeitung. On the 31st, the Nazis ordered its temporary suspension until February 24 with no reason given.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, January 30, Jewish Community, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi policies, persecution, politics

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“C.v. Zeitung Suspended”

Source available in English

27

THURSDAY

No hope in the East

The Polish Parliament discusses the removal of Jews

Speaker Walewski reported that in the years 1926 to 1936 an average of 18,000 Jews annually, i.e. 60% of the natural increase of the Jewish population, had left the country. However, he demanded the emigration of at least 100.000 Jews annually and estimated that at least 1 million annually needed to be coaxed to emigrate.

Warsaw

As the situation of Jews in Nazi Germany deteriorated from day to day, the anti-Semitic atmosphere in other countries became increasingly tense. In neighboring Poland, anti-Semitic voices became louder and louder. As the C.V.-Zeitung, the organ of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, reported, the Lower House of the Polish Parliament expressed its anti-Jewish sentiments in the form of a plan to remove Jews from the country: it called for the emigration of at least 100,000 Jews annually. Besides Palestine, Madagascar was discussed as a possible destination. The case of Polish Prime Minister Sławoj Składkowski shows how widely antisemitism was accepted: commenting on the “unpleasant events” (presumably, the numerous cases of physical violence against Jews), he claimed that Jews themselves were to blame, due to their lack of understanding of Polish peasantry, which, just as the Jews themselves, was striving for a higher standard of living.

TAGS: antisemitism, expulsion, January 27, Journalism, Madagascar, media coverage, Palestine, politics, press article, warsaw

SOURCE

Institution:

Compact Memory, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main

Collection:

"Polens Ministerpräsident über Wanderungsprobleme." C.V. Zeitung (Allgemeine) (Berlin)

Original:

Vol. 17, no. 4, January 27, 1938: 1

24

MONDAY

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

18

TUESDAY

Nowhere safe to go

Dramatic events in Palestine

Last Sunday in a Jerusalem suburb, one Jewish auxiliary police man, Samuel Levi, was killed and another injured. In front of a Jewish workers' restaurant on Ben Yehuda Street, a bomb was dropped, exploding without doing damage.

Jerusalem

When German Jews considered the various emigration options in January 1938, Palestine might have seemed a dangerous destination. As the Jüdische Rundschau reported, in the same month, attacks against Jewish inhabitants and clashes between Jews and Arabs occurred in numerous places in Palestine. Apart from local resistance, the paper mentioned Syrian terrorists, the smuggling of weapons from Libya, and the refusal of the Egyptian government to conduct direct Arab-Jewish negotiations. In light of these facts, emigrating to Palestine could appear to the prospective emigrants like jumping from the frying pan into the fire rather than finding a safe refuge.

TAGS: emigration, January 18, Jerusalem, Journalism, media coverage, Palestine, politics, press article, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Compact Memory, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main

Collection:

"Das Neuste in Kürze." Jüdische Rundschau (Berlin)

Original:

Vol. 43, no. 5: 4

Website and exhibition design by C&G Partners

The following organizations have offered their materials for inclusion in the 1938 Projekt:

The following organizations have offered their materials for inclusion in the 1938 Projekt: