The Representation of the Economic Persecution of German Jews in The New York Times, 1933-1938

The Representation of the Economic Persecution of German Jews in The New York Times, 1933-1938
Author: Sheila Solhtalab
Publisher:
Total Pages: 107
Release: 2011
Genre: Jews
ISBN:

From 1933 to the end of 1938, a series of events assisted in the successful elimination of Jews from the German economy. The Jewish boycott of 1933, the Nuremberg Laws, and Kristallnacht, all served as examples of the treatment Jews could expect in the years to come. In addition, these events provided the Nazi government a glimpse of reactions from the German public and the Western world, providing essential feedback required in developing Jewish policy. In this process, the press played a pivotal role. During this period of initial persecution, a great many German Jews were removed from their jobs, banned from business associations, had their shops boycotted to discourage sales, and ultimately excluded from their professions. In addition, with the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws, Jews would be eliminated as citizens of the Reich, resulting above all in the legal elimination of Jews from positions in civil service. By the end of 1936 Jews experienced the process of forced emigration and "voluntary" Aryanizations. As a result, their property was being systematically removed through a series of decrees and regulations. By the end of 1938, in post Kristallnacht Germany, successful emigration rendered Jews penniless - their wealth tied to blocked bank accounts, "penalties," and decrees. The so-called "voluntary" Aryanizations turned "forced," and any hope of economic survival for German Jews in Germany became non-existent. These, and other, events occurred in plain view of the German public and the international press. They were both privileged to speeches delineating the goals of the Nazis towards the Jews, to the sight of S.A troops blocking the entrances of Jewish businesses, and were even aware of the emergence of "Aryan" businesses from the remains of once prominent Jewish businesses. They both experienced first hand the violence and the financial destitution inflicted on the Jews. Where they differed, however, was in their ability to play a passive role as witnesses; the responsibility to accurately, and truthfully, describe the events in a clear and concise manner abroad fell upon the press. They held the power to inform. Their words could have meant the difference between life and death of German, and ultimately European, Jews. What was reported about the Jewish persecution reached millions of individuals in America and other Western nations daily. The New York Times carried this burden above all others, as arguably the most prominent and trusted newspaper of the United States. The questions remain: With their reputation following them, and with first hand knowledge of the unfolding events, how did The New York Times represent the ongoing economic persecution of the Jews in Germany? Was the developing persecution reported accurately, as presented by current historical facts?

Between Dignity and Despair

Between Dignity and Despair
Author: Marion A. Kaplan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 1999-06-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195313585

Between Dignity and Despair draws on the extraordinary memoirs, diaries, interviews, and letters of Jewish women and men to give us the first intimate portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany. Kaplan tells the story of Jews in Germany not from the hindsight of the Holocaust, nor by focusing on the persecutors, but from the bewildered and ambiguous perspective of Jews trying to navigate their daily lives in a world that was becoming more and more insane. Answering the charge that Jews should have left earlier, Kaplan shows that far from seeming inevitable, the Holocaust was impossible to foresee precisely because Nazi repression occurred in irregular and unpredictable steps until the massive violence of Novemer 1938. Then the flow of emigration turned into a torrent, only to be stopped by the war. By that time Jews had been evicted from their homes, robbed of their possessions and their livelihoods, shunned by their former friends, persecuted by their neighbors, and driven into forced labor. For those trapped in Germany, mere survival became a nightmare of increasingly desperate options. Many took their own lives to retain at least some dignity in death; others went underground and endured the fears of nightly bombings and the even greater terror of being discovered by the Nazis. Most were murdered. All were pressed to the limit of human endurance and human loneliness. Focusing on the fate of families and particularly women's experience, Between Dignity and Despair takes us into the neighborhoods, into the kitchens, shops, and schools, to give us the shape and texture, the very feel of what it was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Berlin Diary

Berlin Diary
Author: William L. Shirer
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2011-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0795316984

The author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers a personal account of life in Nazi Germany at the start of WWII. By the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Nazi Party, had consolidated power in Germany and was leading the world into war. A young foreign correspondent was on hand to bear witness. More than two decades prior to the publication of his acclaimed history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer was a journalist stationed in Berlin. During his years in the Nazi capital, he kept a daily personal diary, scrupulously recording everything he heard and saw before being forced to flee the country in 1940. Berlin Diary is Shirer’s first-hand account of the momentous events that shook the world in the mid-twentieth century, from the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia to the fall of Poland and France. A remarkable personal memoir of an extraordinary time, it chronicles the author’s thoughts and experiences while living in the shadow of the Nazi beast. Shirer recalls the surreal spectacles of the Nuremberg rallies, the terror of the late-night bombing raids, and his encounters with members of the German high command while he was risking his life to report to the world on the atrocities of a genocidal regime. At once powerful, engrossing, and edifying, William L. Shirer’s Berlin Diary is an essential historical record that illuminates one of the darkest periods in human civilization.

The Transfer Agreement

The Transfer Agreement
Author: Edwin Black
Publisher: Dialog Press
Total Pages: 715
Release: 2008-08-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0914153935

The Transfer Agreement is Edwin Black's compelling, award-winning story of a negotiated arrangement in 1933 between Zionist organizations and the Nazis to transfer some 50,000 Jews, and $100 million of their assets, to Jewish Palestine in exchange for stopping the worldwide Jewish-led boycott threatening to topple the Hitler regime in its first year. 25th Anniversary Edition.

The Guilt of Nations

The Guilt of Nations
Author: Elazar Barkan
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2001-10-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801868078

The author takes a sweeping look at the idea of restitution and its impact on the concept of human rights and the practice of politics. She confronts the difficulties of determining victims and assigning blame.

The Night of Broken Glass

The Night of Broken Glass
Author: Uta Gerhardt
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-09-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 150955260X

November 9th 1938 is widely seen as a violent turning point in Nazi Germany’s assault on the Jews. An estimated 400 Jews lost their lives in the anti-Semitic pogrom and more than 30,000 were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps, where many were brutally mistreated. Thousands more fled their homelands in Germany and Austria, shocked by what they had seen, heard and experienced. What they took with them was not only the pain of saying farewell but also the memory of terrible scenes: attacks by mobs of drunken Nazis, public humiliations, burning synagogues, inhuman conditions in overcrowded prison cells and concentration camp barracks. The reactions of neighbours and passersby to these barbarities ranged from sympathy and aid to scorn, mockery, and abuse. In 1939 the Harvard sociologist Edward Hartshorne gathered eyewitness accounts of the Kristallnacht from hundreds of Jews who had fled, but Hartshorne joined the Secret Service shortly afterwards and the accounts he gathered were forgotten – until now. These eyewitness testimonies – published here for the first time with a Foreword by Saul Friedländer, the Pulitzer Prize historian and Holocaust survivor – paint a harrowing picture of everyday violence in one of Europe’s darkest moments. This unique and disturbing document will be of great interest to anyone interested in modern history, Nazi Germany and the historical experience of the Jews.

Jewish Life in Nazi Germany

Jewish Life in Nazi Germany
Author: Francis R. Nicosia
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1845459792

German Jews faced harsh dilemmas in their responses to Nazi persecution, partly a result of Nazi cruelty and brutality but also a result of an understanding of their history and rightful place in Germany. This volume addresses the impact of the anti-Jewish policies of Hitler’s regime on Jewish family life, Jewish women, and the existence of Jewish organizations and institutions and considers some of the Jewish responses to Nazi anti-Semitism and persecution. This volume offers scholars, students, and interested readers a highly accessible but focused introduction to Jewish life under National Socialism, the often painful dilemmas that it produced, and the varied Jewish responses to those dilemmas.

Jewish Responses to Persecution

Jewish Responses to Persecution
Author: Jürgen Matthäus
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780759119086

A history of the Holocaust from 1933 to 1938 told from the Jewish perspective through period documents, annotations, and black-and-white photographs.

The Twisted Road to Auschwitz

The Twisted Road to Auschwitz
Author: Karl A. Schleunes
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1970
Genre: Germany
ISBN: 9780252061479

Going beyond the fanatical anti-Semitism of Hitler and his chiefs, Schleunes analyzes "the internal structure of the [Nazi] regime, the role of its bureaucracies, and the rivalries between competing power groups ... to trace the early stages of discrimination against Jews and their exclusion from public life that led ultimately to their deaths."--p.vii.

Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany

Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany
Author: Robert Gellately
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691188351

When Hitler assumed power in 1933, he and other Nazis had firm ideas on what they called a racially pure "community of the people." They quickly took steps against those whom they wanted to isolate, deport, or destroy. In these essays informed by the latest research, leading scholars offer rich histories of the people branded as "social outsiders" in Nazi Germany: Communists, Jews, "Gypsies," foreign workers, prostitutes, criminals, homosexuals, and the homeless, unemployed, and chronically ill. Although many works have concentrated exclusively on the relationship between Jews and the Third Reich, this collection also includes often-overlooked victims of Nazism while reintegrating the Holocaust into its wider social context. The Nazis knew what attitudes and values they shared with many other Germans, and most of their targets were individuals and groups long regarded as outsiders, nuisances, or "problem cases." The identification, the treatment, and even the pace of their persecution of political opponents and social outsiders illustrated that the Nazis attuned their law-and-order policies to German society, history, and traditions. Hitler's personal convictions, Nazi ideology, and what he deemed to be the wishes and hopes of many people, came together in deciding where it would be politically most advantageous to begin. The first essay explores the political strategies used by the Third Reich to gain support for its ideologies and programs, and each following essay concentrates on one group of outsiders. Together the contributions debate the motivations behind the purges. For example, was the persecution of Jews the direct result of intense, widespread anti-Semitism, or was it part of a more encompassing and arbitrary persecution of "unwanted populations" that intensified with the war? The collection overall offers a nuanced portrayal of German citizens, showing that many supported the Third Reich while some tried to resist, and that the war radicalized social thinking on nearly everyone's part. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Frank Bajohr, Omer Bartov, Doris L. Bergen, Richard J. Evans, Henry Friedlander, Geoffrey J. Giles, Marion A. Kaplan, Sybil H. Milton, Alan E. Steinweis, Annette F. Timm, and Nikolaus Wachsmann.