Language:
German
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
Bios; Zeitschrift für Biographieforschung, Oral History und Lebensverlaufsanalysen
Angaben zur Quelle:
11,1 (1998) 76-102
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jewish refugees
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Analyzes the memoir of a German refugee in the U.S., Heinrich Kromayer, submitted to a competition sponsored by Harvard University in 1940. A humanist and socialist with connections to the anti-Nazi underground, in 1933 he joined the Nazi cell in his workplace and later reluctantly accepted a series of minor party posts in order to allay suspicion. Quite late in the memoir he mentions that he was also at risk because of his half-Jewish wife, and describes Nazi persecution of Jews, minimizing its gravity and claiming that it did not have the support of the people. The authors connect this belated mention with Kromayer's very belated and partial recognition of the central role played by antisemitism in his fate under the Nazis; he is thankful that it hastened his emigration (in February 1938), but still describes his motivation as mainly political.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
