Deutschkron’s Outcast was a beautiful read. I want to point out that the original title “Ich Trug den Gelben Stern,” “I Wear the Yellow Star,” is worth mentioning.
Professor Ertman was right to have said that this book was on a similar level as the Anne Frank diaries. It was great to read a first-hand account of the Jewish experience in wartime Berlin. One of the many accounts that struck me was the situation of Jewish emigration from Germany. It is fascinating to see how strict the immigration laws became. I do not have the book on me, but I recall there being some ~800 slots for accepted immigrants out of a pool of either 10,000 or 100,000 applicants. Either way, that is a serious limitation that I cannot comprehend. What was the justification for this? The narration of families surrounding the radio secretly listening to BBC broadcasts confirming what happens at Auschwitz and at the other concentration camps tells us that foreign countries were indeed aware of what the Nazis were doing with their “deportation” of Jews and the sending of them to KZs. Whether or not they realized what was being done to the Jews who were sent there (mass murders)--if they were aware that human rights were being violated on a fundamentally racist agenda, why did they not open up their borders to the Jews? The requirement of Jewish applicants to either have previous relations abroad or have been released from concentration camps to immigrate to certain countries does not seem like a humane reaction.
The reactions to the deportations not only abroad, but also domestically, are also shocking to me. The narration of her walking down the street with the star on her jacket, met by dodging eyes as well as looks of disgust is quite enlightening as to how successful Nazi propaganda was in ostracizing this entire group of people. And Ingebon Deutschkron’s courage at such a young age, of how she was able to openly work in a shop, is highly commendable given the state of wartime Berlin
I am also surprised that there was not an uprsing after Kristallnacht, but I suppose by this time, to question or criticize Gestapo coordinations would leave you as an enemy of the state, and in a concentration camp. Given this state of perpetual fear where the Jews had no one to look to for help, other than within their own secret communities, is fascinating. Sure, there were people like Weidt who could do so much. Small family friends who would let you stay for a while. But there is no organization of sorts to actively help the Jews from this situation. Again, the lack of help from the outside, from foreign countries, is incomprehensible to me. If the BBC was reporting, they knew about these happenings. They could have helped facilitate some secret emigration for a people that was clearly suffering.
Much like Angela I was astounded from this week's reading about the response (or lack thereof) from other European and western nations. Obviously they were concerned about the effect war with Germany would have on their people and state, but I cannot fathom why there was not some kind of greater outcry and attempt to help the persecuted Jews. It was even more difficult to grasp this irresponsibility as seen through the personal, individual perspective As she mentioned it was openly broadcast and many people were aware of the atrocities being committed yet these other countries did not open their doors to those trying to flee. Occupation and war certainly did not come without struggle for many of these countries, yet until the very end they left the Jewish population to fend for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI was also unhappy by the fact that the British did not do more. However, I think that, at the time, anti-semitism was much more pervasive than we believe now. It has been mentioned multiple times that Churchill, for example, was an anti-semite of sorts. Most of this anti-semitism probably would not have called for the extermination of Jews and indeed this shocked many people. However, I think that considering them as an "inferior people" would not have been so radical compared with many people's perception at the time.
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