Table Of ContentTh e Germans and the Holocaust
Vermont Studies on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
General Editor:
Alan E. Steinweis, Miller Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies and
Director of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies, Uni-
versity of Vermont
Editorial Committee:
Jonathan D. Huener, University of Vermont
Francis R. Nicosia, University of Vermont
Susanna Schrafstetter, University of Vermont
Th e University of Vermont has been an important venue for research on the
Holocaust since Raul Hilberg began his work there in 1956. Th ese volumes
refl ect the scholarly activity of UVM’s Miller Center for Holocaust Studies.
Th ey combine original research with interpretive synthesis, and address research
questions of interdisciplinary and international interest.
Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices, Legacies
Edited by Francis R. Nicosia and Jonathan Huener
Business and Industry in Nazi Germany
Edited by Francis R. Nicosia and Jonathan Huener
Th e Arts in Nazi Germany: Continuity, Conformity, Change
Edited by Jonathan Huener and Francis R. Nicosia
Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Dilemmas and Responses
Edited by Francis R. Nicosia and David Scrase
Th e Law in Nazi Germany: Ideology, Opportunism, and the Perversion of Justice
Edited by Alan E. Steinweis and Robert D. Rachlin
Th e Germans and the Holocaust: Popular Responses to the Persecution and Murder
of the Jews
Edited by Susanna Schrafstetter and Alan E. Steinweis
T G
HE ERMANS AND
H
THE OLOCAUST
R
Popular Responses to the Persecution
and Murder of the Jews
Edited by
Susanna Schrafstetter
and
Alan E. Steinweis
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
©2016 The Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Germans and the Holocaust : popular responses to the persecution and
murder of the Jews / edited by Susanna Schrafstetter and Alan E. Steinweis.
pages cm
“The contributions to this volume are based on lectures delivered at a sympo-
sium on The German People and the Persecution of the Jews, which took place
at the University of Vermont on April 22, 2012.”—Preface.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-78238-952-1 (hardback : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-78238-953-8 (ebook)
1. Jews—Persecutions—Germany—History—Congresses. 2. Antisemitism—
Germany—History—19th century—Congresses. 3. Antisemitism—Germany—
History—20th century—Congresses. 4. Germany—Jews—Public opinion.—
Congresses. 5. Public opinion—Germany—Congresses. 6. Germany—Ethnic
relations—History—Congresses. I. Schrafstetter, Susanna, editor. II. Steinweis,
Alan E., editor.
DS134.25.G46 2015
940.53’18—dc23
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper.
ISBN: 978-1-78238-952-1 Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-78238-953-8 Ebook
CONTENTS
Preface vii
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Figures x
Introduction: Th e German People and the Holocaust 1
Susanna Schrafstetter and Alan E. Steinweis
1. Anti-Semitism in Germany, 1890–1933: How Popular Was It? 17
Richard S. Levy
2. German Responses to the Persecution of the Jews as Refl ected
in Th ree Collections of Secret Reports 41
Frank Bajohr
3. Indiff erence? Participation and Protest as Individual Responses
to the Persecution of the Jews as Revealed in Berlin Police Logs
and Trial Records, 1933–45 59
Wolf Gruner
4. Babi Yar, but Not Auschwitz: What Did Germans Know
about the Final Solution? 85
Peter Fritzsche
5. Submergence into Illegality: Hidden Jews in Munich,
1941–45 107
Susanna Schrafstetter
6. Where Did All “Our” Jews Go? Germans and Jews in
Post-Nazi Germany 131
Atina Grossmann
– v –
Contents
Appendixes
A. Proclamation of the Alliance against the Arrogance of
Jewry, 1912 155
B. Reports from American Diplomat George S. Messersmith
to the State Department (Excerpts), 1933 157
C. Police Precinct Report, Berlin, 1938 159
D. Social Democratic Party (SoPaDe) Report on the
November 1938 Pogrom (Excerpts), 1938 160
E. Report from the Mayor of Amt Borgentreich to the
Gestapo in Bielefeld (Excerpt), 1938 163
F. SD Reports on German Popular Opinion during
World War II (Excerpts), 1943–44 165
G. Statement by Benno Schülein (Excerpt), 1946 167
H. Statement by Dr Sophie Mayer (Excerpts), 1946 168
I. Moses Moskowitz, “Th e Germans and the Jews: Postwar
Report” (Excerpts), 1946 170
Index 179
– vi –
PREFACE
This volume grew out of a symposium titled “Th e German People
and the Persecution of the Jews,” which took place at the University
of Vermont on 22 April 2012. Organized by the Carolyn and Leonard
Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont, this
was the sixth symposium bearing the name of Carolyn and Leonard
Miller, generous supporters of the center’s work and great friends of the
university.
Established to honor the legacy of Raul Hilberg, who served on the
faculty of the University of Vermont for more than three decades, the
Miller Center for Holocaust Studies is committed to furthering research
and education about the Holocaust and to serving as a forum for the
presentation and discussion of new perspectives on the subject. Hilberg’s
pioneering scholarship remains a model and a standard for scholars and
is an inspiration for the center’s programming and for publications such
as this book. Th e Miller Symposia have contributed signifi cantly to the
center’s eff orts to explore insuffi ciently charted areas in the history of the
Th ird Reich and the Holocaust. Our goal in organizing them has been
to address topical, or even controversial, themes in that history, relying
on the expertise of some of the most accomplished scholars and other
authorities in the fi eld.
Th e fi rst Miller Symposium, held in April 2000, convened some of
the world’s leading scholars in the history of eugenics and the German
medical establishment during the Th ird Reich. It resulted in the an-
thology Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Prac-
tices, Legacies, published by Berghahn Books in 2002. Th e second Miller
Symposium, with its focus on German business and industry under
Nazism, took place in April 2002. It brought together scholars who are
among the most respected and innovative analysts of German business,
industry, and fi nance in the years of the Th ird Reich. Th e resulting vol-
ume, Business and Industry in Nazi Germany, was published by Berghahn
– vii –
Preface
Books in 2004. Th e third Miller Symposium in 2004 featured some of
the most important scholars in the history of the arts in Nazi Germany.
Th eir contributions to the volume Th e Arts in Nazi Germany: Conti-
nuity, Conformity, Change, published by Berghahn Books in 2006, ad-
dress, among other subjects, the activities of artists, writers, musicians,
fi lmmakers, and Jewish cultural institutions during the Nazi era. Th e
fourth Miller Symposium brought some of the world’s leading scholars
of the history of German Jewry to the University of Vermont in 2006.
Th eir papers addressed research and controversies in the tragic history of
German Jews from Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in January 1933
to the initiation of the “Final Solution” in 1941. Th e volume was pub-
lished by Berghahn Books in 2010 under the title Jewish Life in Nazi
Germany: Dilemmas and Responses. Th e fi fth Miller Symposium, held in
April 2009, was devoted to “Th e Law in Nazi Germany.” Th e volume
with the identical title was published by Berghahn Books in 2013, rep-
resenting a collaboration between historians and practitioners of the law.
Th e present volume deals with one of the most important and emo-
tionally charged questions to have arisen out of the Nazi years: the re-
sponses of the German people to the persecution and mass murder of
the Jews. It addresses this subject in a manner that is at once scholarly
and accessible to students and non-expert readers. In this respect, the
volume fulfi lls one of the key elements of the mission of the Miller Cen-
ter, namely to promote “public awareness about the events that brought
about, comprise, and continue to issue from the Holocaust.”
– viii –
ABBREVIATIONS
DAF Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Front)
DP Displaced person
Gestapo Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police)
HJ Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth)
JDC Joint Distribution Committee
NS National Socialist
NSKK Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps (National
Socialist Motor Corps)
NSDAP Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National
Socialist German Workers Party—the Nazi Party)
SA Sturmabteilung (Storm Detachment—the Nazi
Brownshirts)
SD Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service)
SPD/Sopade Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social
Democratic Party of Germany)
SS Schutzstaff el (Protection Squadron—the Nazi
Blackshirts)
UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration
– ix –
FIGURES
Figure 1. Members of the Hitler Youth building a snowman
with features based on anti-Semitic stereotypes. Bildarchiv
preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin/Art Resource, NY. xii
Figure 2. Anti-Semitic caricature adorning the cover of a
German satire magazine, early 1920s. Bildarchiv preussischer
Kulturbesitz, Berlin/Art Resource, NY. 16
Figure 3. Jewish men who had been placed under arrest after
the Kristallnacht pogrom being marched through the streets
of Baden-Baden, 10 November 1938. Bundesarchiv, Berlin. 40
Figure 4. Policemen on patrol in Berlin after the Kristallnacht
pogrom, November 1938. Bundesarchiv, Berlin. 58
Figure 5. “He is to blame for the war!” A propaganda poster
holding the Jews collectively responsible for the Second World
War, 1943. Bundesarchiv, Berlin. 84
Figure 6. Bernhard K., who survived the Holocaust in hiding,
with his protector, his neighbor Kathi S., Munich 1942.
Courtesy of Bernhard K. 106
Figure 7. Jewish displaced persons protesting the publication
of an anti-Semitic letter in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper,
Munich, August 1949. Bildarchiv preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Berlin/Art Resource, NY. 130
– x –
