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Association of German National Jews

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The Association of German National Jews (German: Verband nationaldeutscher Juden) was a German Jewish organization during the Weimar Republic and the early years of Nazi Germany that eventually came out in support of Adolf Hitler.

It primarily attracted members from the anticommunist middle class, small business owners, self-employed professionals such as physicians and lawyers, national conservatives, and nationalist World War I veterans, many of whom believed that Nazi antisemitism was only a rhetorical tool used to "stir up the masses."[1][2][3]

In 1935, the organization was outlawed, and its founder and leader Max Naumann was imprisoned by the Gestapo.[4] Most other members and their families were murdered in the Holocaust.

Another, smaller group of Jews for Hitler was The German Vanguard.[5]

History, goals, outcome

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The Association of German National Jews (VnJ) was founded in 1921 by Max Naumann, who was its chairman until 1926, and, again, from 1933 to 1935, when the association was forcibly dissolved.[1] The association was close to the national conservative and monarchist German National People's Party which, however, refused affiliation to the association.[3]

The goal of the association was the total assimilation of Jews into the German Volksgemeinschaft, self-eradication of Jewish identity, and the expulsion from Germany of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.[4] Naumann was especially opposed to Zionists, Marxists and Eastern European Jews (Ostjuden).[3] He considered the former threats to Jewish integration, and carriers of a "racist" ideology serving British imperial purposes. He saw the latter as "racially" and spiritually "inferior".[4] The agitation carried out by the VnJ against the Ostjuden was particularly welcomed by the Nazis to point out the supposedly great dangers of Eastern Jewish immigration to Germany.[2]

The association's official organ was the monthly Der nationaldeutsche Jude, edited by Max Naumann. The magazine had a circulation of 6,000 in 1927.[6]

Among the activities of the association was the fight against the international anti-Nazi boycott of German products.[3] It also issued a manifesto that claimed that the Jews were being "fairly treated".

In 1934, the association made the following statement:[7]

We have always held the well-being of the German people and the fatherland, to which we feel inextricably linked, above our own well-being. Thus, we greeted the results of January 1933, even though it has brought hardship for us personally.

A reason why some German Jews supported Hitler was that they thought that his anti-Semitism was only for "stirring up the masses".[1] Also, they adhered to a kind of respectability politics that led many non-Jews in the German Reich to congratulate the VnJ with the phrase, "If only all Jews were like you."[2]

The seemingly ironic fact that a Jewish association advocated loyalty to the Nazi program gave rise to a contemporary joke about Naumann and his followers ending their meeting by giving the Nazi salute and shouting "Down With Us!".[8][9]

Despite the extreme nationalism of Naumann and his colleagues, the Nazi regime did not accept them. The Association of German National Jews was declared illegal and dissolved on 18 November 1935. Naumann was arrested by the Gestapo the same day, and imprisoned at the Columbia concentration camp. He was released after a few weeks, and died of cancer in May 1939.[4] Most other members and their families were exterminated in the Holocaust.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Sarah Ann Gordon, Hitler, Germans, and the "Jewish Question", p. 47
  2. ^ a b c "The Verband nationaldeutscher Juden 1921–1933" by Carl J. Rheins in the Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, Volume 25, Issue 1, p. 243-268.
  3. ^ a b c d Hambrock, Matthias (2003). Die Etablierung der Außenseiter: Der Verband der Nationaldeutschen Juden 1921-1935 [The Establishment of the Outsiders. The Association of National German Jews 1921-1935] (in German). Cologne: Böhlau Verlag. ISBN 9783412189020.
  4. ^ a b c d Robert S. Wistrich, Who's Who in Nazi Germany (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982), p. 177. ISBN 0-297-78109-X
  5. ^ "German Vanguard, German Jewish Followers" (PDF). www.yadvashem.org. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  6. ^ (in German) M. Zimmermann, Geschichte des deutschen Judentums 1914–1945, p. 32
  7. ^ N. Stoltzfus. Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany. p. 315.
  8. ^ Anonymous review of Robert Gessner's book Some of My Best Friends Are Jews in Literary Digest (New York), December 19, 1936, p. 81; M. Hambrock
  9. ^ Hambrock, M. "Der Verband nationaldeutscher Juden 1921–1935". Die Etablierung der Aussenseiter: 578. JSTOR 20741334.

Further reading

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  • Hambrock, Matthias (2003). Die Etablierung der Aussenseiter. Der Verband nationaldeutscher Juden 1921–1935 (in German). Köln: Böhlau. ISBN 3-412-18902-2.
  • Nicosia, Francis R. (1996). Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0521172981.
  • Stoltzfus, Nathan (1982). Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-393-03904-8.
  • Wistrich, Robert S. (1982). Who's Who in Nazi Germany. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78109-X.
  • Zimmermann, Mosche (1997). Geschichte des deutschen Judentums 1914–1945 (in German). München: Oldenbourg. ISBN 3-486-55080-2.
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