Jewish Life Before The Holocaust
KEY POINTS
- In 1933, there were communities of Jewish people living in every
European country.
- Before 1933, German Jews were largely assimilated (welcome
and accepted group) into German society.
- There was huge diversity across European Jewish communities in
terms of culture, political views, language and religion practices.
JEWISH LIFE IN EUROPE BY 1933
When Hitler came to power in 1933, there were communities of Jewish
people living in every European country. These communities were very
diverse, with people having lots of different political opinions, cultures and
difference in how they practices their religion.
In total, there were approximately 9.5 million Jews living in Europe.
The largest Jewish communities were in Eastern Europe, with more than 3
million Jews living in Poland, more than 2.5 million in the Soviet Union and
980,000 in Romania. Many Polish Jewish communities, particularly in more
rural areas, were very religious and many were extremely poor. As the
Jewish population of Poland was so large, its communities made a huge
contribution to Polish life and culture.
JEWISH LIFE IN GERMANY BY 1933
Before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, many Jews were
assimilated into German life.
There were approximately 500,000 Jews living in Germany by 1933,
representing just 1% of the total population.
During WW1, 100,000 Jewish people had fought for the German army.
12,000 lost their lives. The Nazis tried to categorise all Jewish people as the
same, but this wasn’t the reality. Many Jews identified themselves as
German first and foremost. Lots of Jewish people were secular, which meant
that they were not actively practicing their religious faith.
ANTISEMITISM IN PRE-WAR GERMANY
Though Jewish people were largely assimilated in Germany in 1933, there
had been cases of antisemitism in the years before the Nazis came to
power. As the Jewish community was such a small minority of the German
population, it was a target for persecution.
They falsely claimed that the army had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by a
government that was being controlled by Jews. They called the
government the ‘November Criminals’ for their unconditional surrender on
11 November 1918. This feeling was made worse following the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which heavily punished Germany for their defeat
in the war.