Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland
Encyclopedia
The Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (for clear disambiguation also called the new Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, Reich's Association of the Jews in Germany) was an administrative branch subject to the Reich's government, represented by its Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA). It was established on 4 July 1939 by the Tenth Ordinance of the Reich's ministry of the Interior and assumed the so-called old Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, which was the name, under which the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden
(Reich's deputation of German Jews) had been operating since February 1939.
The new Reichsvereinigung assumed the staff, installations and buildings of the old Reichsvereinigung. The RSHA subjected the new Reichsvereinigung to its influence and control, and confirmed Rabbi Leo Baeck as president, who had been elected as president of the old Reichsvereinigung. By the end of 1939 the RSHA appointed Adolf Eichmann
as its Special Referee for the Affairs of the Jews , officiating in a bureau in Kurfürstenstraße #115–116, Berlin. Eichmann had come to dubious fame for expelling 50,000 Jewish Austrians and Gentile
Austrians of Jewish descent within the first three months after the Anschluß. Thus he was commissioned to expel Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent from within the old Reich borders. The local supervision of the Reichsvereinigung was commissioned to the local Gestapo
branches.
and the Racial policy of Nazi Germany
) were compulsorily enlisted as members. Mainstream Nazi anti-Semitism
considered that Jewry formed a group of people bound by close, so-called blood ties, forming a unit which one could neither join or secede from. Jewish influence was declared to have had a detrimental impact on Germany. To be spared the discrimination and persecutions visited upon Jews, affiliation with the so-called Aryan race had to be proved. It was paradoxical that racial features never determined one's affiliation, although the Nazis often discussed physiognomy: the only decisive factor was the religious affiliation of one's grandparents. While grandparents at an earlier date were able to choose their religion, their grandchildren in the Nazi era were compulsorily categorised as Jews, if three or four grandparents were registered as members of a Jewish congregation, regardless of the Halachah. According to Halachah, one was Jewish by being born of a Jewish mother, or by conversion.
The Nazi categorisation of Jews, and thus compulsory membership, comprised
Not included were persons, who observed no or another than the Jewish religion, who had only up to maximally two grandparents, who were enlisted in a Jewish congregation (so-called Mischling
e). Also those persons, with three or four Jewish grandparents were excluded, who were married with a person classified as a so-called Aryan in a so-called racially mixed marriage (the couple did not necessarily have to be an interfaith marriage, because only the grandparents' religious affiliation counted, not the possibly common faith personally confessed by both partners). Later this exception was restricted to persons living in a so-called privileged mixed couple, characterised by the fact, that either the Gentile partner was the husband, having no children or children, who were brought up as Gentiles. Or that in a couple, where the Gentile was the wife, they had children, who were brought up as Gentiles. A male spouse, classified as a Jew, in a childless couple, suffered all discriminations.
All persons included as compulsory members had to pay contributions for the maintenance of the bureaucracy and its tasks. They also all underlay the full discriminations and persecutions imposed by the Nazis and were publicly labelled by the Yellow badge
from 1 September 1941.
The new Reichsvereinigung had no internal autonomy. Members of its executive board were not elected, but appointed according to the wishes of the Gestapo. The Reichsvereinigung made the Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt its press organ, since all the other 64 papers of Jewish alignment had been forbidden after the November Pogroms in 1938.
The government agencies occupied with the discrimination and persecution of German Jews (and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent), learnt their lesson from the public unease following the open terror during the November Pogroms. In order not to evoke unease among the general German population, the Reich government preferred to hide its activities.The Reichsvereinigung was charged with announcing the ever-growing number of anti-Semitic ordinances to its persecuted members, and supervising their obedience.
The decision to murder the Jews was taken at the Wannsee conference
(January 1942). Government agencies involved were concerned about the acceptability of their actions. A huge logistical effort was made to transport the deportees over long distances to the East, instead of killing them by mobile squads – as practised in the occupied East – wherever they would find them.
Repeated deportations of German Jews to the East started on 18 October 1941.
After the Gestapo announced the date and the number of deportees, the Reichsvereinigung sometimes had to choose who was to be deported. Gestapo officials then collected the deportees from one of its premises, before loading them onto a train for transport. This could take up to a week of waiting. It is claimed by some Germans today that the Holocaust was carried out far away from the eyes and ears of the general German population and that therefore they had no idea of what was going on.
After most of its members had been deported, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt forcibly dissolved the new Reichsvereinigung in June 1943 and its remaining employees were deported to Theresienstadt.
The only Jewish organisations still in existence at that time were the few hospitals such as the Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin and the Israelitisches Krankenhaus Hamburg , mostly care for Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent, who were not deported because of their status of Mischling (privileged mixed marriage) to a so-called Aryan spouse.
Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden
The Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden was founded on 17 September 1933. It established as the umbrella organisation, which for the first time ever united all the quarrelling Jewish organisations and religious bodies on a nationwide range. It was organized to represent Jewish interests at a...
(Reich's deputation of German Jews) had been operating since February 1939.
The new Reichsvereinigung assumed the staff, installations and buildings of the old Reichsvereinigung. The RSHA subjected the new Reichsvereinigung to its influence and control, and confirmed Rabbi Leo Baeck as president, who had been elected as president of the old Reichsvereinigung. By the end of 1939 the RSHA appointed Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
as its Special Referee for the Affairs of the Jews , officiating in a bureau in Kurfürstenstraße #115–116, Berlin. Eichmann had come to dubious fame for expelling 50,000 Jewish Austrians and Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
Austrians of Jewish descent within the first three months after the Anschluß. Thus he was commissioned to expel Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent from within the old Reich borders. The local supervision of the Reichsvereinigung was commissioned to the local Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
branches.
Compulsory Membership
While its corporate members, such as Jewish congregations and Jewish associations in all areas of interest and endeavour were gradually dissolved, and their tasks partially incorporated into the new Reichsvereinigung, it comprised also natural persons. All persons identified as Jews according to the arbitrary Nazi practice (cf. the Nuremberg LawsNuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
and the Racial policy of Nazi Germany
Racial policy of Nazi Germany
The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the "Aryan race", and based on a specific racist doctrine which claimed scientific legitimacy...
) were compulsorily enlisted as members. Mainstream Nazi anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
considered that Jewry formed a group of people bound by close, so-called blood ties, forming a unit which one could neither join or secede from. Jewish influence was declared to have had a detrimental impact on Germany. To be spared the discrimination and persecutions visited upon Jews, affiliation with the so-called Aryan race had to be proved. It was paradoxical that racial features never determined one's affiliation, although the Nazis often discussed physiognomy: the only decisive factor was the religious affiliation of one's grandparents. While grandparents at an earlier date were able to choose their religion, their grandchildren in the Nazi era were compulsorily categorised as Jews, if three or four grandparents were registered as members of a Jewish congregation, regardless of the Halachah. According to Halachah, one was Jewish by being born of a Jewish mother, or by conversion.
The Nazi categorisation of Jews, and thus compulsory membership, comprised
- mostly Jews and apostates of Jewish descent, but also many
- Gentiles of Jewish descent, such as Catholics, irreligionists, and Protestants, who happened to have three or four grandparents belonging – according to the records – to a Jewish congregation.
- all persons of Jewish faith were included, as indicated by their membership of a Jewish congregation as of 1935 (passing of the Nuremberg Laws), even if they had fewer than three Jewish grandparents.
- persons with one or two Jewish grandparents, who were married with an enrolled member of a Jewish congregation (the latter two were called GeltungsjudeGeltungsjudeGeltungsjude was the term for persons that were considered Jews by the first supplementary decree to the Nuremberg Laws from November 14, 1935. The term wasn't used officially, but was coined because the persons were considered Jews rather than exactly belonging to any of the categories of the...
n; literally in Jews by legal validity).
Not included were persons, who observed no or another than the Jewish religion, who had only up to maximally two grandparents, who were enlisted in a Jewish congregation (so-called Mischling
Mischling
Mischling was the German term used during the Third Reich to denote persons deemed to have only partial Aryan ancestry. The word has essentially the same origin as mestee in English, mestizo in Spanish and métis in French...
e). Also those persons, with three or four Jewish grandparents were excluded, who were married with a person classified as a so-called Aryan in a so-called racially mixed marriage (the couple did not necessarily have to be an interfaith marriage, because only the grandparents' religious affiliation counted, not the possibly common faith personally confessed by both partners). Later this exception was restricted to persons living in a so-called privileged mixed couple, characterised by the fact, that either the Gentile partner was the husband, having no children or children, who were brought up as Gentiles. Or that in a couple, where the Gentile was the wife, they had children, who were brought up as Gentiles. A male spouse, classified as a Jew, in a childless couple, suffered all discriminations.
All persons included as compulsory members had to pay contributions for the maintenance of the bureaucracy and its tasks. They also all underlay the full discriminations and persecutions imposed by the Nazis and were publicly labelled by the Yellow badge
Yellow badge
The yellow badge , also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order to mark them as Jews in public. It is intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism...
from 1 September 1941.
Reichsvereinigung controlled as a creature of the RSHA
Different from the old Reichsvereinigung, which had been an umbrella of all different kinds of Jewish associations and congregations, representing their interests and organising self-help for Jews and Jewish organisations, the new Reichsvereinigung was meant to be a device to better control and discriminate against German and Austrian Jews and Gentiles of Jewish descent.The new Reichsvereinigung had no internal autonomy. Members of its executive board were not elected, but appointed according to the wishes of the Gestapo. The Reichsvereinigung made the Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt its press organ, since all the other 64 papers of Jewish alignment had been forbidden after the November Pogroms in 1938.
The government agencies occupied with the discrimination and persecution of German Jews (and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent), learnt their lesson from the public unease following the open terror during the November Pogroms. In order not to evoke unease among the general German population, the Reich government preferred to hide its activities.The Reichsvereinigung was charged with announcing the ever-growing number of anti-Semitic ordinances to its persecuted members, and supervising their obedience.
The decision to murder the Jews was taken at the Wannsee conference
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
(January 1942). Government agencies involved were concerned about the acceptability of their actions. A huge logistical effort was made to transport the deportees over long distances to the East, instead of killing them by mobile squads – as practised in the occupied East – wherever they would find them.
Repeated deportations of German Jews to the East started on 18 October 1941.
After the Gestapo announced the date and the number of deportees, the Reichsvereinigung sometimes had to choose who was to be deported. Gestapo officials then collected the deportees from one of its premises, before loading them onto a train for transport. This could take up to a week of waiting. It is claimed by some Germans today that the Holocaust was carried out far away from the eyes and ears of the general German population and that therefore they had no idea of what was going on.
After most of its members had been deported, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt forcibly dissolved the new Reichsvereinigung in June 1943 and its remaining employees were deported to Theresienstadt.
The only Jewish organisations still in existence at that time were the few hospitals such as the Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin and the Israelitisches Krankenhaus Hamburg , mostly care for Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent, who were not deported because of their status of Mischling (privileged mixed marriage) to a so-called Aryan spouse.