Language:
English
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
New German Critique
Angaben zur Quelle:
46 (1989) 129-140
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Describes the Jewish community in West Germany after 1945, emphasizing conflicts between German Jews who returned and Eastern European DPs who remained. Discusses psychological reasons for survivors remaining in Germany - emigration implied the ability to accept what had happened in the process of extermination, while staying guaranteed never forgetting. For the German state, the renewed Jewish community played a symbolic role as living memorials and proof of the break with the Third Reich. Some saw the Jews as victims exalted through suffering; others pointed out Jewish "criminals, " "speculators, " or "Israeli racists" in order to escape their guilt feelings. Despite Israeli disapproval of their decision to remain, West Germany's Jews were devoted Zionists until recent actions of Israel forced them to search for their own identity, in some part based on a common history of persecution.
URL:
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