Fatal Balancing Act

Beate Meyer is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg, Germany and is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Hamburg. She has been a Fellow at the International Institute of Holocaust Research in Yad Vashem/Jerusalem (2000/2001) and the USHMM (2010). Recent publications include Jews in Nazi Berlin: From Kristallnacht to Liberation (co-edited, University of Chicago Press 2009).

“One of the more remarkable things about Meyer’s study is her almost total lack of criticism of the various Jewish leaders in the RJD and the RR.… Meyer sees the work of the RJD and the RR in a very different light. She argues that these Jewish leaders worked continuously through various phases of Nazi Germany’s ever-changing policies on the “Jewish Question” to find ways to ameliorate such policies…a masterful study of a phase of the Shoah that needs further exploration.” • Holocaust and Genocide Studies“The strength of the book lies in the sophisticated and nuanced analysis, the encyclopedic detail she provides of the challenges the functionaries faced, and of the organizational changes and constraints during Nazi rule… this is an excellent book, meticulously researched, and it will be a major contribution to the field.” • German History“Meyer has written a highly informative and fascinating study. She discusses complicated topics in a very balanced way, describing without judgment the dilemma in which both the organization and Jewish functionaries found themselves. This book is a masterpiece.” • American Historical Review“The book should be required reading.” • Czech Historical Journal“The author grounds her analysis in an imporessive array of sources unearthed in dozens of archives in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic…Meyer’s work is a much needed addition to the fields of German-Jewish and Holocaust history and deserves a broad readership beyond specialists.” • German Studies Review“…an extremely well researched and meticulously-documented study, relying heavily on original source material to document the history of the Reich Association of Jews… during WWII…This is an excellent addition to a Holocaust studies program or library.” • Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews“[The author] keeps the focus on the individual without ever losing sight of the overall crime. This book…can be considered as an essential contribution to the history of the extermination of the German Jews.” • Bulletin of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt“Beate Meyer succeeds in producing a nearly complete picture of procedures and decisions within the organization. In addition she describes openly but not without empathy the diverse, often narrow perspectives and possibilities of responsible individuals in their respective situation.” • Sehepunkte“The attraction of the book lies not only in the clearly presented results of wide ranging archival material, Meyer also offers a reconstruction of the eventual tragic-political entanglement of the Reich Association with the NS-regime. The study is impressive with its highly informative and factual presentation.” • Jüdische Zeitung

• Abbreviations in the Text and NotesList of TablesAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: From “Forced Emigration” to Assisting with the DeportationsChapter 1. Created in ChaosPogrom as Prelude: November 1938Looking Back at the History of the Reich Representation of German Jews, 1932-1938Between Reich Representation and Reich Association: Adaptation Under DuressChapter 2. “Forced Emigration”Orderly Emigration or Flight at Any Cost? Legal or Illegal?  Emigration to Palestine (Aliyah)To Emigrate or Stay On? Functionaries Between Duty, Responsibility and Self-Overestimation”Losing sight of the big picture for the sake of something smaller” The Conflict over Rescuing the Polish Jews 1939/40Chapter 3. The “Territorial Solution”: “Reservations for Jews” and Early Deportations“Jewish Reservation Lublin”The Madagascar PlanThe Deportation of the Jews from Baden and SaarpfalzChapter 4. Welfare Interim SummaryPart II: Walking on a Thin Line  – The Participation of the Reichsvereinigung and the Berlin Jewish Community in the Time of the DeportationsChapter 1. Decision on a Basic Principle: Avoid Hardship, Participate in “Partial Operations” Clinging to a Lost Life WorldStraying from the path or “legal work in the underground”32(Baeck)? Preparatory Tasks Executed by the RVChanges in Tasks and Structures (1941-1943)New Task: Compilation of Personal Data and Card File Systems A New Imposed  Challenge: Setting Up and Maintaining Assembly Camps for DeportationsAnother New Task: “Collecting Deportees”Other Supplementary Assistance – Postal ServicesSocial Work as Exemplified in Care for ChildrenThe Limited Possibilities of the Reichsvereinigung  to Influence the DeportationsThe Reichsvereinigung as Employer and a Protective Space for Functionaries and StaffChapter 2. “Every Day More Terrifying News”  – The Year 1942Repercussions of the Arson Attack on the Nazi Propaganda Exhibition ”The Soviet Paradise”Socially Acceptable Deportations? Destination TheresienstadtThe Daily Round of Work under Threat of ArrestThe ‘Community Operation’ in October 1942The “Time of Brunner” Chapter 3. The Stepwise Liquidation of the Reichsvereinigung (1943)Deportation of the Leading Functionaries The “great inferno.” The Factory Action(Temporary) Closure of the Business Offices Chapter 4.  Theresienstadt  as a New Field of Activity of the German-Jewish FunctionariesA Veritable Army of OfficialsThe Bitter End of Activity by Functionaries in TheresienstadtKnowledge among the German-Jewish Functionaries about the Murder of the Jews Interim SummaryPart III: The “Psychological Environment” (Hilberg) in the Countryside. Latitude for Action by Jewish Functionaries in the District BranchesChapter 1. The District BranchesStructure and Motivation of the Jewish FunctionariesThe Tasks Mitigating the Plight, Dissemination of Prohibitions and Social Disciplining“Judenhäuser” and Barracks SettlementsPreparatory Arrangements for the DeportationsChapter 2. A Troubled Relationship: The District Branches and the RV Central Office Chapter 3. The District Branches and the DeportationsBrief Digression: Preparations for Deportation by the GestapoChapter 4. A Comparative Look at District BranchesFrankfurt am Main.  The System of Organized Arbitrary ActionMunich. Hatred of Jews in the Gau of Nazi TraditionNuremberg. Uninhibited HordesMainz. “Reliable” Relations?Hamburg.  “Easier Going” than Elsewhere?Final ThoughtsChapter 5. Strategies for Dealing with the Authorities. Chapter 6. The Fate of the District Branch DirectorsLiquidation of the District BranchesInterim SummaryPart IV: The Residual ReichsvereinigungChapter 1. The Last Compulsory Members: Jews in Mixed MarriagesChapter 2. Structure and Tasks of the Residual ReichsvereinigungDirector Dr. Dr. Walter LustigOrigin and Motivation of the IntermediariesWork under the Conditions of the Bombing RaidsIntermediaries in Conflict with the Central OfficeLethal OfficeChapter 3. Vertrauensmänner, Gestapo and Jews in the Final Phase of the WarChapter 4. The War is Over – Liberation and/or a Horrible End?Interim Summary Part V:  A Look at Later Developments: The “Strategy of Cooperation” as an Incriminating Legacy for a New StartChapter 1. Proceedings Before a Court of Honor and Employment Bans in BerlinChapter 2. Under Suspicion: Former Jewish Functionaries in the Western Occupation Zones and the Fledgling Federal RepublicChapter 3. “Gestapo Collaborators”: Former Jewish Functionaries in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDRChapter 4. AftermathThe Conflict Surrounding Recha Freier’s  Let The Children ComeSurviving Functionaries in Jewish OrganizationsSummaryBibliographyArchival materials citedLiterature and printed sourcesIndex