Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
Angaben zur Quelle:
65 (2020) 71-87
Keywords:
Zweig, Stefan,
;
Jewish children History 20th century
;
Jewish children in the Holocaust
;
Jewish refugees Social conditions 20th century
;
Jewish authors Biography
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
In late 1933, Stefan Zweig stood before a committee to aid German Jews, and pleaded for immediate action to help German-Jewish children find new homes abroad. This article examines Zweig’s call to accept refugees within his larger quest to promote a humanist and universalist Europe. His goal was not merely intended to help individual Jewish children enjoy happier childhoods in other parts of the world, but a collective task to combat hatred. Stefan Zweig’s humanism and cosmopolitanism expressed themselves in a pedagogic and educational mission that was based on a particularly Jewish commitment to Bildung and took two major forms—a literary one (as seen in his historical-biographical writings) and an activist one (in his speeches, interviews and newspaper writings). The two expressions worked in tandem and reflected the same message and concerns. Moreover, both reflected his general aim to promote and help realise an alternative, humanist Europe; one in which the healthy and happy future of Jewish youth (and others) would be ensured.
DOI:
10.1093/leobaeck/ybaa004
URL:
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