Abstract

The removal of German, Austrian, and Czechoslovakian scholars from their academic posts by the Nazi regime due to racial and political reasons, and the settlement of some of them in Turkey at the invitation of the Turkish government, has been a topic of interest in a number of recent studies. In this study, the Jewish identity of 95 German scholars who according to the Nazi Regime were deemed to be of Jewish origin will be analyzed. Various questions can be raised on this issue. How interested were they in Judaism? What was their relationship to the local Jewish community? How can we relate their socio-religious behavior in Turkey with their German cultural background? What about the Turkish policy vis-à-vis the émigré scholars? Did their Jewish origin have any significance for the Turkish government? Was Turkish policy motivated by raison d'état or by humanitarian causes? The fact that about 39% of these scholars decided to return to Germany will be discussed.

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