chum

Was it real overflow of jews in Germany as nazi propaganda says?
Was the jewish immigration to Germany after WW1 a kind of islamic imigration we can see today in Europe?

gaius valerius

Hardly, jews had always lived in Germany and they were fully integrated in the cultural fabric of European society. You wouldn't know the difference between an average protestant and average jewish German if they lived next to one another, the jewish adherents in Europe ever since the days of the French Revolution had been integrated in the wider fabric of society, eastern Europe was a different story still.

redcoat

It's Nazi Propaganda...of course it was a lie.
There had been an increase in Jewish immigration to Germany during the 19th century leading to a population of 587,000 in 1900, but by January 1933 this had fallen to 525,000.
This was less than 0.75 per cent of the population of Germany in 1933.

By the outbreak of war in 1939 the Jewish population had fallen even further to around 220,000 for the whole of Greater Germany (Germany plus Austria)

beorna

in 1910 circa 610,000 jews lived in germany. in 1925 this number declined to 560,000 and in 1933 circa 500,000 jews lived in germany. reasons for this decline were the cession of territories after 1918 and a decreasing birth rate of jews, as well a conversion to christianity. What changed the situation was the immigration of eastern european jews to Germany. So while the number of western jews was declining, the number of "strange looking" eastern jews rised.

chum

"strange looking" eastern jews.

What was strange? Their appearance? Their language? Their behavior?

beorna

That was not the way the Jews looked like in Germany. they were more western-like. Like the Löwenstein family e.g.

Kevinmeath

As I understand it many German Jews were very hurt by the idea that they were not 'German' or were disloyal to Germany. Most viewed themselves as Germans who just happened to be of the Jewish faith, many served in WWI as bravely (or not) as any other German.

Jews in Western Europe (unlike the 'East') were well intergrated into western society, if anything the Jews who had moved to Western countries from the East were 'more patriotic' because they had moved from persecution to countries were they were (on the whole accepted).

A British example is members of Cardiff's Jewish community joined up in 1914 in the 'Cardiff Pals battalion' desperate to show how loyal they were to Cardiff, Wales and the King because they came from Eastern Europe and had been accepted into the city and it community.

gaius valerius

Eastern Europe and such still basked in the backwardness of the 19th century whereas in northern and western Europe the triumph of the Enlightenment ideas and the bourgeoisie prompted the succesful integration of the jews into society. Eastern Europe was a farcry away from this, antisemitism was rife and pogroms were more casual, in essence it lacked the socio-political framework the rest of Europe had and this has roots reaching back centuries (in the failure to establish a working state with a working socio-political fabric).

beorna

Yes, around 12,000 jewish germans gave their lives on the battle fields of WWI. A Jew from my village was one of the medal decorated jews who survived. he was absolutely shocked about what happened after 1933. But it doesn't helped him to be not arrested in 1938. But as it seems were the medals the reason why he was released already in 1938 from Buchenwald. But in the end he was brought to Riga in decembre 1941 where he probably was shot.

pugsville

The Jews in Germany and Austrian Empires had on the whole been pretty exemplary citizens enlisted in good numbers ( in Germany IRC enlisted greater than the rest of the population), productive members of society, often leaders in business, education and science.

A lot of them were not particularly stand outs, they either were not devout or made little of their religion/ethnic origin, they generally wanted, and believed themselves to be German and strongly identified themselves as such. They did not promote separatism, or hold themselves particularly different, to large degree they were a valuable, settled , pretty perfectly integrated and productive members of society.

It just makes what followed all the more gruesome, loathsome and horrible.