Theodor Heuss and German-Jewish Reconciliation after 1945

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Jay Howard Geller
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
The West ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
German Jewish ◽  
Nazi Era

Since 1949, the Federal of Republic of Germany's titular head of state, the Federal President (Bundespräsident), has set the tone for discussion of the Nazi era and remembrance of the Holocaust. This precedent was established by the first Bundespräsident, Theodor Heuss. Through his speeches, writings, and actions after 1949, Heuss consistently worked for German-Jewish reconciliation, including open dialogue with German Jews and reparations to victims of the Holocaust. He was also the German Jewish community's strongest ally within the West German state administration. However, his work on behalf of the Jewish community was more than a matter of moral leadership. Heuss was both predisposed towards the Jewish community and assisted behind-the-scenes in his efforts. Before 1933, Heuss, an academic, journalist, and liberal politician, had strong ties to the German Jewish bourgeoisie. After 1949, he developed a close working relationship with Karl Marx, publisher of the Jewish community's principal newspaper. Marx assisted Heuss in handling the sensitive topic of Holocaust memory; and through Marx, Jewish notables and groups were able to gain unusually easy access to the West German head of state.

scholarly journals The Holocaust in Lithuania: The Key Characteristics of Its History, and the Key Issues in Historiography and Cultural Memory

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-279
Author(s):  
Stanislovas Stasiulis
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
The West ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Considerable Impact

This article is part of the special cluster titled Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine since the 1990s, guest edited by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe. The Holocaust is the darkest page of Lithuanian history: Nearly the whole Jewish community in Lithuania was destroyed, while a part of ethnic Lithuanians participated in this destruction. This article discusses three layers and periods of the Holocaust in Lithuania that have made a considerable impact on the perception of this traumatic period in Lithuanian society. The first period deals with the Lithuanian–Jewish relations during the German occupation in Lithuania (1941–1944). The second one is related to the Soviet reoccupation of Lithuania and discussions among Lithuanian émigrés in the West (1944–1990), which shaped the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania from the ideological (Soviet) and defensive (Lithuanian émigré) perspectives. The final part of this article discusses the historiography and Holocaust memory in independent Lithuania after the 1990s. Almost thirty years of independence mark not only the re-creation of some old myths and stereotypes in Lithuania, but also new groundbreaking and open discussions in society, concerning the perception of this dark page of Lithuanian history.

scholarly journals The reconfiguration of the European Archive in contemporary German-Jewish migrant-literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-54
Author(s):  
Jessica Ortner
Keyword(s):  
European Archive ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Migrant Literature ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Political Concern ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Jewish

A considerable number of Eastern European migrant authors of Jewish origin are currently lifting Holocaust memory to a new level. Writing in German about events taking place in remote areas of the world, they expand the German framework of memory from a national to a transnational one. By partaking in reconsidering what is ‘vital for a shared remembering’ of Europe, this branch of writing reflects the European Union’s political concern for integrating the memories of the socialistic regimes in European history writing without relativising the Holocaust. In Vielleicht Esther, Katja Petrowskaja consults various national and private archives in order to recount the history of the mass shooting of over 30,000 Ukrainian Jews at Babij Jar – a canyon near Kiev. Thus, she ‘carries’ a marginalised event of the Holocaust into the German framework of memory and uncovers the layers of amnesia that have not only concealed the event amongst the Soviet public but also distorted and for ever made inaccessible her family’s past.

scholarly journals A Renaissance of Jewish Studies in Contemporary Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Christina Von Braun
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Reform Judaism ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
German Jewish

This paper provides an overview of the development of Jewish studies in Germany since reunification. After a brief historical review of the subject in the nineteenth century with the development of modern Reform Judaism and the science of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums) created by Jewish religious and secular scholars, it focuses on the development of the past thirty years, in which not only the Jewish community but also Jewish studies have increased in importance. The growth of the Jewish community was largely due to immigration from the Soviet Union, but also partly to young Israelis who moved to Berlin. In line with these different backgrounds, a new interest in diaspora research emerged. The paper also deals with the difference between German Jewish studies (necessarily shaped by the Holocaust) and those of most other countries, where Jewish studies are mainly designed by Jewish scholars.

Strauss, Leo (1899–1973)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shadia B. Drury
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of Thought ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Philosopher ◽  
German Jewish

Leo Strauss was a German-Jewish émigré political philosopher and historian of political thought, who wrote some fifteen books and eighty articles on the history of political thought from Socrates to Nietzsche. Strauss was no ordinary historian of ideas; he used the history of thought as a vehicle for expressing his own ideas. In his writings, he contrasted the wisdom of ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle with the foolhardiness of modern philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke. He thought that the loss of ancient wisdom was the reason for the ‘crisis of the West’ – an expression that was in part a reference to the barbarities of the Holocaust. He therefore sought to recover the lost wisdom. He studied the classics and was a great devotee of Plato and Aristotle. However, he developed unusual interpretations of classical texts.

Deutsche und jüdische Ruinen der Erinnerung in Worms und Hamburg

Aschkenas ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Roemer
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Jewish ◽  
Memorial Sites ◽  
Second World ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractIn addition to being witnesses of a vanished past, ruins refer to the former building and tell the story of its destruction. Two ruins, which can also be described as memorial sites, can exemplify different strategies of dealing with these material remnants: the destroyed synagogue of Worms and the St Nikolai Church in Hamburg. The destroyed synagogue of Worms was rebuilt as a symbol of the history of the Jewish community prior to 1933 and as a memorial to the Holocaust. In contrast, the St Nikolai Church in Hamburg was left in ruins which constitute a memorial for the air raids as well as a reminder of the Nazi crimes. The following article will reflect on these different strategies and on the reactions and perceptions of the visitors. Furthermore it will try to reveal the different levels of meaning and the interconnectedness of the memories of the German-Jewish past, the Second World War and the Holocaust.

Despite the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Life in Germany after 1945*

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Andrea A Sinn
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Chief Editor ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Central Council ◽  
To Come ◽  
German Jewish ◽  
Second World

Abstract In 1945, the return of Jewish life to Germany was by no means a foregone conclusion. Aiming to understand the developments that laid the groundwork for a long-term continuation of Jewish life in post-Holocaust Germany, this paper discusses the difficult process of rebuilding Jewish institutions in ‘the land of the perpetrators’ during the first two decades after the Second World War. Particularly significant are the essential contributions of two high-profile representatives of this minority to the process of renewing Jewish life in Germany following the Holocaust. By creating a sense of unity among the different Jewish groups and securing financial and practical support essential to the revival of Jewish life in the Federal Republic, the first General Secretary of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany), Dr Hendrik G. van Dam, and the journalist and chief editor of the German-Jewish newspaper known today as Jüdische Allgemeine, Karl Marx, played a key role in establishing Jewish institutions. These helped to convey a sense of permanency—a central factor for ensuring a continuation of Jewish life in the years and decades to come.

scholarly journals The Collective Memory of the Holocaust Among Mountain Jews in Modern Israel: Sderot (Case Study)

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-183
Author(s):  
Mateusz Majman
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Access To Knowledge

This paper discusses the preliminary findings of a historical, sociological, and anthropological study of the Mountain Jewish community currently living in the Israeli city of Sderot. It is part of a broader study being conducted in Israel for the purpose of my doctoral dissertation. Its aim is to explore what Marianne Hirsch refers to as "the generation of post-memory" among members of the target group by examining their access to knowledge, the memory of trauma, and its intergenerational transmission among the Post-Soviet aliyah generation. The study focuses on the evolution of attitudes among this group, as well as the growth and consolidation of awareness about the Shoah in contemporary Israel. The work examines the transmission of Holocaust memory from generation to generation and the influence of both independent and dependent factors on its course. A distinction is made between people whose ancestors were direct victims and survivors and those whose families managed to escape the sphere of the German occupation.

Performing the Hyphen

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Feldman ◽  
Anja Peleikis
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
German History ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Special Events ◽  
Memorial Landscape ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Performative Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Jewish ◽  
Guided Tours

The Jewish Museum Berlin (JMB) is a dynamic, performative space that negotiates between representing the Jew as an integral part of German history and as ultimate Other. While this tension has been documented through the political history of the museum (Lackmann 2000; Pieper 2006; Young 2000), we focus on the dynamics of guided tours and special events. We claim that guiding and festival events at JMB marginalise Holocaust memory and present an image of Jews of the past that promotes a multicultural vision of present-day Germany. In guiding performances, the identity of the guide as German/Jewish/Muslim is part of the guiding performance, even when not made explicit. By comparing tour performances for various publics, and the 'storytelling rights' granted by the group, we witness how visitors' scripts and expectations interact with the museum's mission that it serve as a place of encounter (Ort der Begegnung). As German-Jewish history at JMB serves primarily as a cosmopolitan template for intercultural relations, strongly affiliated local Jews may not feel a need for the museum. Organised groups of Jews from abroad, however, visit it as part of the Holocaust memorial landscape of Berlin, while many local Jews with weaker affiliations to the Jewish community may find it an attractive venue for performing their more fluid Jewish identities – for themselves and for others.

Grandparents Reveal Their Secrets: A New Holocaust Narrative for the Young ‘Third Generation’ in Israel

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Darr
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Master Narrative ◽  
Safe Distance ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
New Type

Since the 1990s, a new type of Holocaust story has been emerging in Israeli children's literature. This new narrative is directed towards very young children, from preschool to the first years of elementary school, and its official goal is to instil in them an authentic ‘first Holocaust memory’. This essay presents the literary characteristics of this new Holocaust narrative for children and its master narrative. It brings into light a new profile of both writers and readers. The writers were young children during the Holocaust, and first chose to tell their stories from the safe distance of three generations. The readers are their grand-children and their grand-children's peers, who are assigned an essential role as listeners. These generational roles – the roles of a First Generation of writers and of a Third Generation of readers – are intrinsically familial ones. As such, they mark a significant change in the profile of yet another important figure in the Israeli intergenerational Holocaust discourse, the agent of the Holocaust story for children. Due to the new literary initiatives, the task of providing young children with a ‘first Holocaust memory’ is transferred from the educational authority, where it used to reside, to the domestic sphere.

Searching for Justice After the Holocaust

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Bazyler ◽  
Kathryn Lee Boyd ◽  
Kristen L. Nelson ◽  
Rajika L. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Slave Labor ◽  
Insurance Policies ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
Property Restitution

The Nazis and their cohorts stole mercilessly from the Jews of Europe. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, returning survivors had to navigate unclear and hostile legal paths to recover their stolen property from governments and neighbors who often had been complicit in their persecution and theft. While the return of Nazi-looted art and recent legal settlements involving dormant Swiss bank accounts, unpaid insurance policies and use of slave labor by German companies have been well-publicized, efforts by Holocaust survivors and heirs over the last 70 years to recover stolen land and buildings were forgotten. In 2009, 47 countries convened in Prague to deal with the lingering problem of restitution of prewar private, communal, and heirless property stolen during the Holocaust. The outcome was the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues, aiming to “rectify the consequences” of the wrongful Nazi-era immovable property seizures. This book sets forth the legal history of Holocaust immovable property restitution in each of the Terezin Declaration signatory states. It also analyzes how each of the 47 countries has fulfilled the standards of the Guidelines and Best Practices of the Terezin Declaration. These standards were issued in 2010 in conjunction with the establishment of the European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI), a state-sponsored NGO created to monitor compliance. The book is based on the Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study commissioned by ESLI, written by the authors and issued in Brussels in 2017 before the European Parliament.

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