Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany, 1945-1953 (review)

In this study of the reemergence of Jewish communities in Germany after the Holocaust, Jay Howard Geller focuses on the period 1945–1953—the critical years in the reconstruction of German Jewish life. The analysis of this period provides essential insights into subsequent political and social developments in postwar Europe. In light of Allied policies and the beginning of the Cold War, both Germanies were eager to establish their legitimacy within the family of nations. Confronting National Socialism and the Holocaust was a way to demonstrate that they were coming to terms with the past. Willingness to discuss the subject of the annihilation of the Jews thus became something of an acid test for political elites.

As Geller notes in his introduction, the chapters on West Germany are based on his Yale doctoral thesis "Jewish Organizations and West German Politics after the Holocaust" (2001), while the chapters on East Germany originated from a later article.¹ Six chapters deal with developments in West Germany. Three of these focus on the re-establishment of Jewish communities, on their conflicts and attempts to unify, and on German politicians' and political parties' approaches to Jewish issues. The other three chapters on West Germany deal with the Luxembourg Agreement, which was signed in 1952 by representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany. The remaining two chapters are dedicated to the eastern part of Germany—the Soviet Occupation Zone and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The book leaves off in 1953, by which time "after the near total extirpation of German Jewry by the Nazis, the land of Mendelssohn, Heine, and Einstein had an established, diverse Jewish community" (p. 296). The next phase in German-Jewish relations began when the West German Bundestag ratified the Luxembourg Agreement just as many Jews were leaving the GDR because of antisemitic purges initiated by Stalin and carried out by Walter Ulbricht.

Geller's research is based on published and unpublished primary sources, including archival material from the Jewish communities in East and West Germany, and Jewish periodicals, including Der Weg, Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt, and Allgemeine Wochenzeitung der Juden in Deutschland. The author conducted his research in, among other repositories, the Federal Archives in Berlin and Koblenz, archives of German political parties, the Central Archive of the Jewish communities in Germany, the American Jewish Archive in Cincinnati, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York. Unfortunately, he did not take advantage of the archives of the various German regions (Länder), with the exception of the Berlin City Archive. These archives contain rich material on the establishment of Jewish communities as well as on the German administration's approach to Jewish restitution and compensation claims. For instance, important files on Jewish issues are available in the Main State Archives of the five East German Länder that existed until 1952: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. While the author mentions almost all relevant secondary literature in his study, any critical discussion of other researchers' findings on the same subject is missing.

Geller's most interesting chapters deal with relations between Jewish organizations and German political institutions. The author documents the establishment in 1950 of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland), and is among the first historians to address in a systematic way the relationship between Jewish community leaders and German politicians. He clarifies the manner in which politicians and political parties in East and West Germany addressed issues related to the Jews. The book contains interesting sections on the personal involvement of certain Jewish leaders in the politics of the so-called Wiedergutmachung (program of restitution, compensation, and reparations) as well as in the fight against antisemitism. Some questions, however, remain. Were German politicians merely instrumental in their approach to Jewish issues? That is, did they use the discussion of such questions as a means to improve their public image? To...