were not physically molested before November
- Nevertheless, the screw was being turned
more tightly year by year.
The notorious anti-Semitic Nürnberg Laws,
first proclaimed at the Nazi Party rally in 1935,
and in subsequent years constantly extended,
were but a logical step in the direction of the new
Nazi world that Hitler and his followers were cre-
ating. The persecution of the Jews was not an
accidental blemish of Hitler’s rule. Without
hatred of Jews and the relentless persecution
waged against them, the core of Nazi ideology
collapses.
In 1935 all Jews remaining in the civil service
were dismissed. The definitions of ‘full’ Jew, ‘half’
Jew or Mischlinge– ‘mixtures’ of various degrees
- were determined not by a man’s baptism or per-
sonal belief but by descent. Three Jewish grand-
parents made the second-generation descendants
all Jews. The ‘full’ Jews, or ‘non-Aryans’ as they
were called, felt the total weight of persecution
from the very start. The only temporary exception
was made in cases where Jews were married to
Aryans and there were ‘mixed’ children from the
marriage. Pressure was placed on the Christian
partner to divorce the Jewish spouse. Some did
so. Other German wives and husbands protected
their partner and children with the utmost
courage and loyalty throughout the years of per-
secution and so saved their lives; the war ended
before Hitler could take measures against them.
These brave people came from every walk of life.
Their behaviour alone should serve as a caution
against crude generalisations about the ‘German
character’, even though they formed, like the
active resistance, only a small minority of the pop-
ulation. The Nürnberg Laws made the German
Jews second-class citizens officially and forbade
further marriages between Jews and non-Jews and
any sexual relations between Aryans and Jews.
This latter crime was called Rassenschande and
severe sentences were passed where Jewish men
were accused. Over a period of time Jews were
removed from all professional contact with non-
Jews. Only in business activities were Jews per-
mitted to carry on until 1938, since it was feared
that their sudden removal would harm the
German economy. This concession was not due
to Hitler’s moderation – rather it is an indication
that he was prepared to countenance a tactical
delay while never deviating one inch from his ulti-
mate ideological goals.
This pressure on the helpless, small German
Jewish population in 1933 – there were about
500,000 racially defined as Jews – drove them
into increasing isolation and hardship. Even so
they did not emigrate to Palestine or elsewhere
fast enough. The majority of German Jews
wanted to stay in their homes and in their
country, whose cultural heritage they cherished.
German culture was their culture. Not in
moments of blackest nightmare could they
imagine that in the twentieth century in Western
Europe women and children would be murdered
in factories of death. Many Jews were still living
in reasonable comfort, and for the most part rela-
tionships with their fellow Germans were correct
and occasionally even friendly. But official dis-
crimination steadily increased; Jews were expelled
by the autumn of 1938 from all professions,
they could no longer study in universities, and
their shops were compulsorily purchased and
Aryanised. It was by then clear that there was no
future for young Jews, but the older generation
expected to live out the rest of their days in
Germany on their pensions and savings. During
the summer of 1938, however, the Nazi leader-
ship had decided to take far harsher measures
against the Jews. First, it was the turn of Jews
from Poland to be expelled brutally overnight.
Then concentration camps were readied inside
Germany. The German people would be given a
practical demonstration of how to treat their
Jewish neighbours as their enemies. Only a
pretext was needed.
It was provided on 7 November 1938 by the
fatal shooting of the third secretary of the
German Embassy in Paris. The perpetrator was a
half-crazed young Jew whose parents (of Polish
origin) had just been deported. Paradoxically, the
diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, was no Nazi. After
news of Rath’s death reached Germany on the
afternoon of 9 November, a pogrom all over
Germany was launched. Synagogues were set on
fire, Jewish shop windows smashed. With typical
black humour, Berliners dubbed the 9 November