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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

How German Jews Became Stateless and Tattooed, in Holocaust of 6 Million Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
Chaim  Weizmann was quoted in The Manchester Guardian as saying: "The world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."

German Jews were being persecuted by Hitler who called Jews "criminals" when the Nuremburg Laws of 1935  came out making Jewish stateless refugees in their own country.  No one thought they weren't at home in Germany.  German Jews had been soldiers and had fought for Germany.  My uncle's father put on his uniform when he was forced to clean the streets, he, a Jewish sausage maker.  I've traced his family back to 1830 and they were probably there sooner than that.  Jews were in Germany as early as 321 CE in Cologne and elsewhere on the Rhineland.  There had even been Jewish soldiers in the Roman garrisons in Germany.  In the 8th and 9th century the Carolingian royal house had a pro-Jewish policy encouraging the settlement of Jews with the object of developing trade.  So Jews never expected to suddenly be expelled one day.  

By 1938, 450,000 of the 900,000 German Jews had fled to Palestine, held by the British who had the mandate.  Then the White Paper of May 23, 1939  by Neville Chamberlain came out barring most Jews from entering all during WWII.  Only 75,000 were allowed to enter from 1940-1944, the major part of the war.  They had it fixed so only 10,000 could come each year and the extra 25,000 was only for emergencies.  Jews already there were kept from buying land in Palestine.  

March 1938 was when Germany annexed Austria and 200,000 more Jews became stateless.
September 1938 was when Britain and France let Germany occupy Czechoslovakia and by the next year, March 1939, 200,000 more Jews found themselves stateless.  

Doesn't this sound familiar?  "In February 1939, the British held a conference  in London to negotiate an agreement between the Arabs and the Zionists. The Palestinian Arab delegates would only attend on condition that there were no direct meetings with Zionist representatives since this would be recognition of the legitimacy of Zionists claims over Palestine. So the British government held separate meetings with the two sides. The conference ended in failure on March 17, 1939.

"According to David Wyman, "The United States and its Allies were willing to attempt almost nothing to save the Jews."  Anti-Semitism was rampant in the 1920's and even worse in the 1930's.  By 1940 Jews were 3.7% of the national population.  Today there are about 5 to 6 million Jews in the USA making Jews under 2% of the USA population.  About 100,000 German Jews arrived in the 30's.  My uncle was one of the last who arrived  about May 12, 1939 from Boppard Germany through Hamburg's port.  These Jews had strings attached.  They had to be backed by someone in the states who took economic responsibility for them and had to get them jobs first before they could come here.

"The Holocaust was largely ignored by America media as it was happening  We didn't have internet then.  Newspapers didn't report on it.  Our government knew and didn't tell us.  Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, a Reform Jew himself, "kept issues of concern regarding Jews off the editorial page and burying stories about Nazi atrocities against Jews in short items deep inside the paper. In time he grew increasingly out of step with the American Jewish community by his persistent refusal to recognize Jews as a people and despite obvious flaws in his view of American democracy.  Hollywood films and radio with few exceptions avoided questioning Nazi persecution of Europe's Jews prior to Pearl Harbor. Jewish studio executives did not want to be accused of advocating Jewish propaganda by making films with overtly antifascist themes."  Oh, the webs we weave.  By deceiving themselves and not caring for their Jewish brothers they helped Hitler to kill off 6 million by their over-zeal at being an American.

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian_Conference
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurlaws.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: Germany

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