Antisemitism in East Germany

East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR),German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) was a Soviet communist puppet state that existed from 1949 to 1990. There were a few hundred Jews in East Germany, mostly Holocaust survivors who had lived in pre-war eastern Germany or had been Marxist before the 1933 Nazi takeover. 

Overview

Between the 1950s and 1980s, Jews in East Germany were persecuted for following Judaism or being seen as agents of Zionism over their Jewishness. The persecution coincided with Soviet Union's persecution of her own Jews. 
 Etinger, Iakov (1995). "The Doctors' Plot: Stalin's Solution to the Jewish Question". In Yaacov Ro'i, Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union. London: Frank Cass. , pp. 103–6.









Just as in the Soviet Union, the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism in East Germany was virtually non-existent. The East German communist regime often excused its antisemitism as "anti-Zionism", despite its extensive use of antisemitic tropes in state propaganda and hostile policies towards Jewish citizens.

History

1950s

Support for antisemitic executions

On December 20, 1952, the Central Committee of East Germany's ruling party declared support for the execution of Rudolf Slánský and another ten high-ranking communist officials in Czechoslovakia,Tagung des Zentralkomitees der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands 13–14 May 1953, 48–70Translation of the declaration: "Sailing under the Jewish nationalistic flag, and disguised as a Zionist organization and as diplomats of the American vassal government of Israel, these American agents practiced their trade. From the Morgenthau-Acheson Plan that was revealed during the trial in Prague it appears unmistakably that American imperialism organizes and supports its espionage and sabotage activities in the people's republics via the State of Israel with the assistance of Zionist organizations" who were accused by the Czechoslovak communist leaders of being "Zionists" over their Jewish origin. Helfant, Audrey L. (1991). The Slánksý trial reconsidered. Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University.
 Blumenthal, Helaine. (2009). Communism on Trial: The Slansky Affair and Anti-Semitism in Post-WWII Europe. UC Berkeley: Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies. (Read online)
 Wein, Martin J. A History of Czechs and Jews: A Slavic Jerusalem. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Limited, 2019, pp.145-184 including a detailed table of all trial participants and their fates, before, during and (if so) after the trial.
 Ahlbäck, Anders, & Kasper Braskén (eds) Anti-fascism and ethnic minorities: history and memory in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge Studies in Fascism and the far right. London ; New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2024.

Holocaust denial

The East German communist regime refused to take responsibility for the Nazi genocide of Jews and supported the antisemitic Arab states 


  that repeatedly invaded Israel.J. H. Brinks, "Political Anti-Fascism in the German Democratic Republic", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 32, No. 2, 1997, pg. 207-17. East German military advisers were active in Libya, Syria and South Yemen, all of which were systemically antisemitic. Friedman, Saul S. (1989). Without Future: The Plight of Syrian Jewry. Praeger Publishers. 





When West Germany made an agreement with Israel to pay Holocaust survivors reparations, 



  the East German ruling party newspaper Neues Deutschland published the article Reparations - For Whom? in which the agreement was dismissed as "a deal between powerful West German and Israeli capitalists"State and Minorities in Communist East Germany – the antisemitic trope of Jews being "capitalists" was invoked. 



East German official history emphasized communist resistance rather than Jewish suffering in the Holocaust. The fact that Nazism is fundamentally antisemitic was rarely mentioned, so were the stories of Holocaust survivors. 

In history textbooks, Nazi death camps were often discussed without their antisemitic background, with the Jewish victims generalized as "inmates from all European countries" or misclassified as "the resistance". East German communist leaders did not officially commemorate the Kristallnacht 



  until 1988, two years before East Germany ceased to exist. 





Anti-cosmopolitan campaign

Following its Soviet overlord's anti-cosmopolitan campaign, the East German communist regime harassed, detained, and interrogated several Jews on charges of "cosmopolitanism" and "spying for the West", causing many East German Jews to flee to West Berlin in 1953.

1970s

Without regard for Germany's Nazi past, the East German communist regime sent Syria 75,000 grenades, 30,000 mines, 62 tanks and 12 fighter jets to support her invasion of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.Marc Fisher. "E. Germany Ran Antisemitic Campaign in West in ’60s", The Washington Post, February 28, 1993 

In 1972, the East German communist regime labelled Zionism a "reactionary-nationalist ideology of the Jewish big bourgeoisie",Timm 1997, p. 248. which invoked the antisemitic trope of Jews being "capitalists". On September 18, 1973, Yosef Tekoah (1925–1991), Israel's ambassador to the UN General Assembly, said:Israel's struggle in the UN.

In 1975, the East German communist regime supported the now-withdrawn United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 that condemned Zionism as a form of racism.Nations United: How the United Nations Undermines Israel and the West.

1980s

Jewish cemeteries in East Germany were often vandalized, especially by Neo-Nazi groups that arose in the 1980s. These were ignored by the East German communist regime. Instead of protecting its Jewish citizens, the regime devoted more effort to distributing antisemitic propaganda and demanding ordinary Jews to condemn Israel. 

Issues

Proliferation of antisemitism

Antisemitic broadcasting was common in East Germany and increased whenever Israel clashed with the Arab states. Those broadcasting often recycled materials from Nazi propaganda, equated Jews with Zionism, accused Jews of serving American imperialism, and blamed all of them for Israel's policies. 

Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, said that East German state propaganda was far more hostile to Jews than that of other communist countries. Meanwhile, Mike Dennis, a professor of modern German history, wrote:

The same propaganda was widespread in the Soviet Union and her puppet states. In his book A History of the Jews in the Modern World, American historian Howard Sachar stated that "anti-Zionism" in the Soviet Union and her puppet states was not much different from Nazism:Howard Sachar, A History of the Jews in the Modern World (New York: Knopf, 2005) p.722


Obstruction of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice

In a 1991 interview with Jack Koehler, Simon Wiesenthal said that his efforts to track down Nazi war criminals hiding in East Germany were sabotaged by the antisemitic East German communist regime.John Koehler, The Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, page 27, 414. Footnote 35. Wiesenthal noted that East Germany was "the most antisemitic and anti-Israel in the entire Eastern Bloc", adding that:

Related pages

 German Jews
 Secondary antisemitism
 Anti-Judaism and antisemitism

References

Category:Communism
Category:East Germany
Category:Jewish history
Category:History of Germany
Category:Antisemitism in Germany