Savior of Jews

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Jewish rescuers , silent heroes , Jewish helpers and, in the post-war period, possibly also honored as “ Righteous Among the Nations ” by Israel's Yad Vashem memorial , are named people who tried to recruit fellow Jews during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945, and especially during the Holocaust in Germany and in the part of Europe occupied by Germany from deportation . Sometimes they only gave shelter for a few days, but in many cases for months. There are cases of helpers where more and more people gathered in an apartment because they could no longer find any further refuge.

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Unused terms

Since these actions of the people often referred to as “our / my savior” are usually to be understood as resistance or rejection of the Nazi regime, they are often referred to as rescue resistance .

Some of the help consisted of obtaining ration cards or false papers . It was about survival in the home country itself as well as crossing a green border , for example to Austria or Switzerland .

Over 1700 of the estimated 7000 people who went into hiding in Berlin alone are said to have survived as "illegals" until the end of the war. Most of them within the German borders. Anyone who went into hiding or was hidden in Berlin had to change their hiding place very often afterwards. The end of the war may have been experienced outside of Berlin, if the escape succeeded at all. The Nazi authorities criminalized the helpers as "Jewish beneficiaries" of the fugitives and had them also persecuted. The exact number of those persecuted who escaped the Gestapo's access can hardly be determined for Germany today. Between 1941 and the end of the war there were an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people, of whom up to 5,000 survived in this way in Germany. But that also means that the number of "silent helpers" moves in this dimension. In the countries occupied by Germany, the numbers are likely to have been higher in percentage terms. This form of survival and resistance is seen as particularly successful in Belgium .

The two terms Judenretter and Judenhelfer differ only slightly in content. With Judenretter, the success of the action resonates, which is not necessarily included in the word Judenhelfer . The term “ Judenfreund ” is sometimes used by anti-Semites , but in the same way - but with the appearance of scientific and education - occasionally also the synonymous terms philosemitic or philosemitic , such as Heinrich von Treitschke first .

"What I could and was allowed to do to you and your friends was not just a matter of course, but far too little, considering the terrible situation in which they all found themselves at the time."

- Quote from a helper from 1948 to a survivor

The period from 1933 to 1939

This was preceded by the persecution of Germans labeled as Jewish, which was increasingly threatening their existence, since the boycott of the Jews on April 1, 1933. Between 1933 and 1938, most of them gradually lost their jobs, their economic existence, many of their homes and since the Nuremberg Laws from 1935 all access to public life. There was a wave of emigration . Nevertheless, many Jews in Germany remained confident in the culture of their home country, which had changed compared to the Middle Ages. Thus, Wolfram Wette out that the Kristallnacht of 9 to 10 November 1938 for many drew an almost unbelievable record of Jewish life in Germany: 1,406 synagogues and prayer houses were burned down in Germany or completely destroyed. The NSDAP and SS troops and the police deported around 30,000 people of Jewish faith to the concentration camps .

Commemorative plaque at the synagogue in Wittmund

Around 400 people were immediately murdered across the country; another 400 people died in the days that followed and several hundred persecuted people are believed to have committed suicide for fear of this development. Overall, the act of violence staged by the NSDAP leadership ( euphemistically called Reichskristallnacht ) is said to have claimed more than 1,300 lives. By then, thousands had emigrated or fled illegally from Germany, leaving behind a so-called Reich flight tax . But even the optimists who remained behind (“it can't be long before another government comes up”) now had to accept that Hitler and his party comrades were bitterly serious about the final solution to the Jewish question . Holding still and hiding in public no longer offered any protection. There is almost nothing to report about open protest from the population against the attacks and murders. With the wave of Aryanization , followed by the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War , the pressure of persecution was massively increased. Became known z. For example, during the factory action at the end of February 1943, a hunt for Berlin Jews in the armaments factories, around 4,000 of the German Jews wanted were just able to evade arrest - initially.

The hiding of those who fled Nazi persecution

This disappearance / hiding of residents who were persecuted as Jews from their usual public life in order to save them from the impending deportation led to the designation that the fugitives live like a submarine.

Without shelter, someone on the run could hardly hide for long. Any luggage that was carried with you would immediately arouse suspicion during controls on the street. A long stay in a restaurant, library or cinema could trigger questions about identity. Some of the people in hiding, who were also called “illegals” or “submarines” at the time, had planned their disappearance, agreed with helpers , found accommodation and a credible legend for the neighborhood and hoarded food.

This immersion of a person in a country marked by a war economy for many weeks and months was very difficult. Without valid papers, an alleged sublease could not be legalized. Above all, groceries were only available on the free market against portions of grocery cards that required purchase authorization. The fixed rations were so tight that a helper could hardly give anything to someone in hiding. Regular purchases on the black market could attract attention and lead to discovery, and they also required substantial funds or valuables for exchange. In the countryside it was easier to get food and there was usually more space available for hiding, but strangers were more easily noticed due to the lack of anonymity.

Forged identity documents or falsified ID cards were hardly available for the unrelated fugitives.

A chance meeting with people who knew about the disappearance and who were at the same time potential supporters of the Nazi government had to be avoided as much as possible. The Gestapo tried to smuggle spies into such networks. In Berlin from February 1943 a. a. Stella Goldschlag worked as a "grabber" and in the Netherlands the so-called Kolonne Henneicke earned money by apprehending Jews.

For helpers and people in hiding, the cramped living conditions, the scarce food and the fear of being discovered were an unbearable burden. Often new helpers had to be sought and alternative quarters found. New studies assume that “for every person who went into hiding, up to ten, sometimes considerably more, non-Jewish helpers were active in order to enable survival underground.” In addition, there were usually numerous confidantes who deliberately looked the other way and kept silent.

Motives of the helpers

Contrary to an earlier hypothesis that all helpers ideally have an altruistic personality structure, different motives for providing help can be demonstrated in the description of specific cases, possibly simultaneously. Some helpers stepped in out of charity or religious conviction, others because of their opposition to the Nazi regime and still others did not want to let friends down. Some also tied their aid pledges to cash payments and work, or they hoped for advocacy after the foreseeable end of the war. Some helpers got into the situation by pure chance and acted spontaneously without weighing the consequences. So erred z. For example, a Jewish woman wandered aimlessly through Berlin and followed a woman who was completely unknown to her to her apartment. There she described her desperate situation and threatened to take her own life. The complete stranger promised to take her in for one night and then kept the fugitive in her apartment for three years and later supported another Jewish woman who had gone into hiding.

Occasionally, small, conspiratorial networks of helpers formed. Such networks have partly emerged from the persecuted political parties and organizations or from Christian groups.

Individual people

According to uncertain estimates, 10,000 to 15,000 Jews went into hiding between 1941 and the end of the war, more than 5000 of them in Berlin. 3000 to 5000 managed to survive. Almost 3,000 helpers were known by name in Germany. Since ten or more helpers often helped one after the other when placing a person in hiding, it can be concluded that a large proportion of the helpers remained unknown to the public.

Many of the helpers were “ordinary” Germans in the sense that they were not distinguished from the population by an office or social position. They came from all social classes; there was no particular focus on the participation of people of a particular denomination or political direction. Historian Beate Kosmala noted that most of them were between the ages of 40 and 50. Almost two thirds of the (known) people providing aid were women, although it should be remembered that most men had to do military service and were at the front. The following are some of the names of people whose actions are recorded:

Punishment of helpers

There was no legal provision that expressly forbade aid for Jews. Shortly after the introduction of the Jewish star , however, on October 24, 1941, a circular was issued by the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) threatening those “ German-blooded citizens” with “ protective custody ” for three months who revealed “friendly relations with Jews in public”. The "German-blooded Volksgenossen" was given a leaflet with the wording of this decree when they picked up the ration cards.

Any supporter who helped with food could expect to be sent to the concentration camp. Those who had given shelter were arrested for “illegal contact with Jews” and interrogated by the Gestapo. Often the case was handed over to the public prosecutor's office because of other offenses such as forgery of documents, broadcasting crimes , violations of the War Economy Ordinance or foreign exchange offenses . Prison sentences of more than 24 months were seldom pronounced unless there were additional charges under the People's Pest Ordinance or high treason .

In contrast to Poland, “Jewish rescuers” in the German Reich did not have to expect a death penalty. But even imprisonment in a concentration camp was associated with unforeseeable consequences for health and life. The additional punishment to be expected remained unpredictable, thus conveying the “subjective feeling of fear in an atmosphere of total legal uncertainty”, which had a deterrent effect.

Rehabilitation and remembrance

After the war, helpers were not entitled to compensation under the Federal Compensation Act and their assistance was not recognized as an act of resistance unless they were detained. An exception was the honor initiative of the Berlin Senate initiated by Interior Senator Joachim Lipschitz , during which 738 people were publicly honored as helpers between 1958 and 1966 and also financially supported if they were in need.

According to the interpretation of the historian Dennis Riffel , the "Jewish helpers" fell out of the collective remembrance and commemoration because the "majority of Germans did not want to be reminded of their own, often inglorious role".

The following institutions research or document the acts of people who helped Jews in Germany:

The case of the suspension of Paul Grüninger in Switzerland is a special case. He was a police captain in St. Gallen who, in the period immediately before the Second World War, killed several hundred, maybe several thousand Jews and other refugees from Nazi persecution and Annihilation saved lives by allowing them to enter Switzerland illegally according to Swiss standards . As early as 1939 he was suspended for this offense and convicted in 1940 for breach of official duties. It was not until 1995, 23 years after his death, that the St. Gallen District Court overturned the judgment against him and acquitted Paul Grüninger.

The industrialist and general manager Eduard Schulte saved not only a friendly family, Rudy Boyko and his relatives, through personal commitment. His case is also noteworthy because, although military leader and supplier of goods essential to the war effort (zinc), he tried to go beyond individual rescue by passing on authentic and conclusive information about the entire Holocaust in Silesia and Poland, in particular the incipient industrial "gassings" , To get the Allies to intervene at this point early on - as is well known, in vain.

Situation in Poland

With a total population of 33 million, around 3.5 million Jews, mostly non-assimilated, lived in Poland at the beginning of the war, who had been granted minority status and who mostly stood out through language, clothing and culture. Relations between the ethnic groups were not without problems. Since 1936, anti-Semitism had also increased in Poland . Jews who lived or fled to the eastern part of Poland , which was occupied by the Soviets in September 1939 and who had welcomed the Red Army joyfully, were considered disloyal collaborators by nationally conscious Poles .

Solidarity and indifference

When the Jews were forced into the so-called “ ghettos established by the SS (Jewish residential areas) ” by the German occupiers , the rest of the Polish population reacted rather indifferently. The historian Beate Kosmala judges:

“Anti-Semitic cultural traditions, the anti-Semitic stereotypes that were reinforced or generated during the war through massive and targeted propaganda, demoralization through oppression and hardship, evidently did not create a general climate of compassion for the Jews threatened with extermination, but rather dull indifference in broad circles towards them the fate of strangers. "

A German ordinance of October 15, 1941, threatened fleeing Jews and their helpers with the death penalty: “Jews who leave the residential area assigned to them are punished with death. The same punishment applies to those who knowingly shelter such Jews. Instigators and accomplices are punished like the perpetrator, the attempted act is punished like the accomplished one. "

Nevertheless, there were numerous helpers: From Poland - following the strict criteria of Yad Vashem - about 6532 “ Righteous Among the Nations ” come. With this number, Poland ranks first among all nations. One of them is Irena Sendler , who, together with helpers, smuggled around 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto , which was cordoned off by the SS .

Żegota

Since there were criminal informers ( Szmalcowniki ) who extorted hush money from refugees and helpers, forged birth certificates and ID cards were almost indispensable for survival. From 1942 onwards, the Council for the Support of the Jews (Polish: Rada Pomocy Żydom ) provided for numerous people in hiding . This organization with the cover name Żegota was under the patronage of the Polish government in exile . She produced false documents, worried about accommodation and regularly distributed sums of money for food. The estimates of how many refugees were financially supported by Żegota are far apart: The figures for Warsaw vary between a few hundred to four thousand.

Military underground

The Home Army ( Armia Krajowa / AK) only accepted Jewish volunteers if their origin was not obvious. Jewish partisan groups were not supported, but even attacked by AK units in the summer of 1943. Arms deliveries to the Jewish resistance were not stopped solely because of a lack of material: the Jewish fighters were assumed to have a benevolent attitude towards the Soviets. The AK also did not sustainably support the armed uprising in the Warsaw ghetto .

In contrast, underground communist organizations, which, however, found little support from the population, accepted refugee Jews without reservation and worked together with Jewish partisans.

Salvation in monasteries

During the German occupation, the Catholic Church in Poland, as the bearer of the national idea, was exposed to surveillance and persecution. The high representatives of the Catholic Church usually did not campaign publicly for the Jews; the attitude in the lower clergy was inconsistent.

Sisters who looked after orphanages, day nurseries and boarding schools became important for the rescue of Jewish children . Between the spring of 1942 and the summer of 1943 - already in the face of the impending death penalty - Catholic nuns took in numerous Jewish children, veiled their identities and withdrew them from deportation. It is certain that at least 1,500 Jewish children survived in monasteries and church institutions.

Interpretations

The information on the total number of refugees, rescued and rescuers vary widely. Some estimates put 300,000 Jews who survived through the help of Polish rescuers . New studies, however, consider even a figure of 50,000 to be too high.

In the eyes of many Jews, the amount of aid in Poland was small and, in retrospect, is overshadowed by experiences with blackmailers and informers ; They describe the attitude of the majority of the population as "indifferent". A discussion of aid during the occupation and of Polish-Jewish relations, which also became problematic in the post-war period, did not begin in Poland until the late 1980s, largely triggered by the documentary Shoah by Claude Lanzmann .

“ Shoes on the Danube Bank ”, memorial in Budapest in memory of the pogroms against Jews by Arrow Cross members in Hungary

Other countries

Belgium and the Netherlands are considered to be relatively successful examples of the rescue: 25,000 Jews survived in the Netherlands. This is the highest number among the Yad-Vashem awards and means that one in 1,800 Dutch people was involved. In Lithuania it was one in 3,600. In Assisi , Italy , Colonel Valentin Müller of the Wehrmacht , the mayor, Bishop Giuseppe Placido Nicolini and his authorized representative, Franciscan Father Rufino Niccacci , were involved in the rescue of Jews.

See also

literature

research

  • Susanne Beer: The banality of the good. Assistance for persecuted Jews 1941–1945. Metropol , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86331-396-8 , 385 pp.
  • Bernward Dörner : Justice and the murder of Jews. Death sentences against Jewish workers in Poland and Czechoslovakia 1942–1944. In: Norbert Frei (Ed.): Exploitation, destruction, public. New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. Saur, Munich 2000, pp. 249-263, ISBN 3-598-24033-3 .
  • Heike Drummer: Against the current. Solidarity and help for persecuted Jews in Frankfurt and Hesse. Fritz Backhaus / Monica Kingreen (eds.), Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-9809814-9-1 , 80 pp.
  • Beate Kosmala, Claudia Schoppmann (ed.): Survival in the underground. Help and rescue for Jews in Germany 1941–1945. Series: Solidarity and Help for Jews during the Nazi Era. Volume 5, Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-932482-86-7 ( review ).
  • Beate Kosmala: Unequal Victims in Extreme Situation - The Difficulties of Solidarity in Occupied Poland. In: Wolfgang Benz, Juliane Wetzel (ed.): Solidarity and help for Jews during the Nazi era. Volume 1: Regional Studies. Metropol, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-926893-43-5 .
  • Ad van Liempt: bounty. Paid denunciation of Jews in the occupied Netherlands. Siedler, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-88680-801-7 .
  • Arno Lustiger : Rescue Resistance. About the rescuers of Jews in Europe during the Nazi era. Wallstein, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0990-6 .
  • Samson Madievski; Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation e. V. (Ed.): The other Germans: Rescue resistance in the Third Reich. Shaker Media, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-940459-36-7 ; English edition: The Other Germans: Rescuers' Resistance in the Third Reich. Shaker Media, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-86858-059-4 .
  • Bob Moore: Survivors: Jewish self-help and rescue in Nazi-occupied Western Europe. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-920823-4 .
  • Brigitte Ungar-Klein : Shadow Existence - Jewish U-Boats in Vienna 1938-1945. Picus-Verlag, Vienna 2019, 376 pages, ISBN 9783711720795 .
  • Wolfram Wette : moral courage. Outraged, helpers and rescuers from the Wehrmacht, police and SS. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-15852-4 .

Self-reports and biographies

  • Else R. Behrend-Rosenfeld: I wasn't alone. Experiences of a Jewish woman in Germany 1933–1944. 3rd edition, EVA, Cologne Frankfurt am Main 1979 (first edition Hamburg 1949), ISBN 3-434-00412-2 .
  • Franz Severin Berger, Christiane Holler, Holly Elder: Survival in hiding. Fates in the Nazi Era. Ueberreuter, 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3836-6 .
  • Alexander Bronowski: There were so few. Savior in the Holocaust. (1st edition 1991) Hänssler, 2002, ISBN 3-7751-3811-0 .
  • Eugen Herman-Friede : Submerged! As a submarine in the resistance. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-8067-5072-6 .
  • Norbert Giovannini, Ingrid Moraw, Reinhard Riese, Claudia Rink: Silent helpers. A search for traces in Heidelberg 1933-1945. Kurpfälzischer Verlag, 2019, 364 pages, ISBN 978-3-924566-71-5 . (over 27 people)
  • Dennis Riffel: Unsung heroes. Metropol, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-938690-22-4 .
  • Diana Wang: The hidden children. From the Holocaust to Buenos Aires. From the Argentine Spanish by Sylvia Carmen Degen. Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-942271-72-1 .

Others

Movies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Forbidden help . (PDF; 220 kB) Bonn 2004 (Ed .: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung), p. 9.
  2. ↑ wrote K. Plagge to one of the rescued Jews in 1948, cit. faz.net; accessed May 17, 2015.
  3. ↑ Beate Meyer; Life-saving help for Jews in Germany - a project report. In: Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (Ed.): Help or Trade? Rescue efforts for victims of Nazi persecution. Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-874-5 , p. 207
  4. ↑ What is meant by underground here is illegality, not necessarily an organized underground movement. Beate Kosmala, Claudia Schoppmann: Survival in the underground - interim balance of a research project. P. 22; ISBN 3-932482-86-7
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Benz, Juliane Wetzel : Possibilities and forms of help for persecuted Jews. In: Solidarity and Help for Jews during the Nazi Era, Vol. 1, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-926893-43-5 , p. 15
  6. ↑ Isabel Enzenbach: On the problem of the term "savior". S. 244. In: Beate Kosmala, Claudia Schoppmann (ed.): Solidarity and help for Jews during the Nazi era . Volume 5. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-932482-86-7
  7. ↑ Claudia Schoppmann: Rescue of Jews ..., p. 114. In: ISBN 3-932482-86-7
  8. ↑ Der Freie Zahnarzt , No. 2, 2010, p. 8
  9. ↑ Ruth Schneeberger: Survival in hiding . About the exhibition “Children in Hiding” - Persecuted. Submerged. Rescued? in the Berlin House of Representatives. Ruth and Walter Abraham and their daughter Reha, born in 1943, now married Reha Sokolow, owe their survival after 1942 to Maria Nickel in particular. The rest of the family was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp and then murdered. South German Updated October 31, 2013
  10. ^ Israel Gutman , Daniel Fraenkel, Jacob Borut: Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations: Germans and Austrians . Wallstein Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-900-3 , p. 194.
  11. ↑ Wolfram Wette , Savior in Uniform. Scope for action in the war of extermination of the Wehrmacht, Frankfurt am Main 2002, pp. 122–141
  12. ↑ Die Jüdin und der Hauptmann, Documentation, FRG 1994, 16mm, b / w + color, 92 min. Script and direction: Ulf von Mechow. Hessian radio
  13. ↑ Born on July 16, 1903 in Escherningken, East Prussia. Lawyer. Joined the NSDAP in 1931. Drafted when war broke out. “Decision point on the reporting obligation from VO 6/41” in the General Commissioner for Administration and Justice. Joh. Winter: Fictional natural fathers . In: taz , July 12, 2003.
  14. ↑ Peter Longerich: We didn't know anything about that ... Munich 2006, ISBN 3-88680-843-2 , p. 181
  15. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Goldfasane" and "Daffodils". The NSDAP in the formerly "red" district of Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-9808126-3-4 , p. 104.
  16. ↑ cf. Beate Kosmala: Unsuccessful help and its consequences: The punishment of "favoring Jews" by Nazi prosecution authorities. In: ISBN 3-932482-86-7 .
  17. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Missglückte Hilfe ..., ISBN 3-932482-86-7 , p. 220.
  18. ↑ Dennis Riffel: Unsung Heroes. Metropol, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-938690-22-4 .
  19. ↑ Denis Riffel: 'Unsung Heroes': Dealing with 'Salvation' in post-war Germany. In: Beate Kosmala, Claudia Schoppmann (Hrsg.): Survival in the underground. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-932482-86-7 , p. 334.
  20. ↑ gedenkstaette-stille-helden.de.
  21. ↑ Who was Paul Grüninger? In: Paul Grüninger Foundation , short portrait.
  22. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Unequal victims in an extreme situation - The difficulties of solidarity in occupied Poland. In: Wolfgang Benz , Juliane Wetzel (ed.): Solidarity and help for Jews during the Nazi era . Volume 1: Regional Studies . Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-926893-43-5 .
  23. ↑ <Beate Kosmala: Uneven victims ... ISBN 3-926893-43-5 , p. 96.
  24. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Unequal victims ... , p. 40
  25. ↑ year 2007; Beate Kosmala gives outdated figures on p. 91
  26. ↑ On the Righteous - Statistics on the Yad Vashem website
  27. ↑ a b Beate Kosmala: Uneven victims ... , p. 43
  28. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Unequal victims ... , p. 66
  29. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Unequal victims ... , p. 91
  30. ↑ Beate Kosmala: Unequal victims ... , p. 92
  31. ↑ fpmedia.club.officelive.com ( Memento from April 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  32. ↑ Statistics | www.yadvashem.org. Retrieved September 13, 2019 .