Language:
English
Year of publication:
2003
Titel der Quelle:
Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
Angaben zur Quelle:
48 (2003) 135-162
Keywords:
Rathenau, Fritz
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Jews History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Recounts the career of Rathenau, a jurist and an official in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior during the Weimar Republic, and a cousin of Walther Rathenau. During all of his career he tried to combine his German identity and deep patriotism with his Jewish identity. Paradoxically, he adopted ethnic prejudices, especially against Eastern European Jews, influenced by his non-Jewish milieu. Regarding these Jews as an out-group, and eager to distance himself from them, Rathenau tried to curb the immigration of "Ostjuden." He added discourses on "Ostjuden" to the contemporary anti-Slavic discourse. However, he sometimes tried to protect Jews and he himself suffered from antisemitism. In 1933 he was forced to resign from the Ministry of Interior; in 1935 he was dismissed from other administrative positions. In 1939 Rathenau and his wife followed their sons who had emigrated to the Netherlands; in 1943 they were deported to Theresienstadt, where they were liberated in 1945.
DOI:
10.1093/leobaeck/48.1.135
URL:
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