German Jewry, Crushed, Faces Life in Psychological Ghetto

The Jews in Germany are being driven by Nazi persecution into a psychological ghetto, in many ways more terrible than the geographical ghettos of yore.

They shrink from streets and squares and public resorts where Germans congregate, to escape the insult to their pride which lurks for them everywhere. They avoid the restaurants and theatres they once frequented; not because they are barred but because in their own hearts and minds they have become outsiders and no longer feel at ease in such places.

I was in Germany in the first months after Hitler and his brown-shirt army came to power. The Jews were stunned and bewildered by the turn of events. I saw in them signs of smoldering sullenness.

But now, less than a year later, I find them in a peculiar way adjusted to the new conditions, almost apathetic. The hopelessness of their position seems so complete, the struggle so uneven, that they have retired from the fray–retreated into the psychological ghetto of which I speak.

HOLDS TIME FOR MAJORITY

No such generalization, of course, can be entirely true. I know that many are far from reconciled to the shameful status being enforced upon them, and that others have reacted in a new and unsuspected pride in their Jewish blood. But that it holds true in large measure is too obvious to be questioned.

I mixed much with Jewish intellectuals and businessmen in Germany. Many of them have not yet felt too sharply the economic pinch of their new position in society. Some of them have saved enough in the wreck to feel financially secure for some time to come; a few have not yet been seriously disturbed in their jobs or professions. Yet without exception they avoid their German neighbors and acquaintances, even their German friends. They go to cafes and restaurants catering almost exclusively to Jews. A few of them have begun to read Jewish newspapers.

WEIGHT OF HUMNILIATION

Whether they are conscious of the process or not, it is a fact that they are huddling together for spiritual warmth and courage. The weight of official legalized humiliation, piled on them every minute of the day, is too heavy to be borne alone.

The ghetto attitude is being in every way encouraged by the Hitler government. Under the cynical pretense of making liberal concessions, it gives Jews the right to conduct cultural and social work of different types. They are permitted to arrange concerts, organize charity affairs and run theatres.

The sole condition–far more insulting than any outright suppression or prohibition could be–is that these enterprises be limited to Jews. Through a system of membership, non-Jews are rigidly excluded from all such undertakings, so that the “Aryan” culture may not be polluted by Hebraic influences. In some instances even the Gentile spouses of Jews are not allowed to accompany their husbands or wives to these affairs Thus every seemingly generous concession by the authorities is but another wall sundering the Jew psychologically from his non-Jewish neighbors, confining him more closely in his spiritual ghetto.

BEST WORK ON JEWISH STAGE

The Berlin Jewish theatre is a case in point. It is under talented guidance and has several gifted actors and singers in the organization. Those in control of the theatre declare that Nazi officials have been broad-minded in passing the repertory and in removing obstacles to work. Some of the best drama and opera in Germany today is being put on at the Jewish theatre.

Yet its atmosphere is tragic, stifling. However fine its productions, the theatre is an outlaw institution, whose very existence is a sort of badge of shame. It is as distinctly a ghetto institution as anything the Middle Ages could show.

I had occasion to observe the preparation of a concert for the benefit of poverty-stricker. Jews. The artists were Jewish and the tickets were being sold only among Jews. With the tickets always went a gentle caution from the arrangements committee.

“DON’T DRESS”

“Please let’s not dress up,” the caution ran. “No jewels and that sort of thing. You understand, of course, how it is. We don’t want to attract too much attention.”

And indeed, when the concert night came, I found that the warning had had its effect. I had attended such functions before and had rather resented the tendency towards display. There was nothing of the sort to disturb me now; no evening gowns or diamonds or show-off manners. Both in outward appearance and in psychological mood, this middle-class Jewish crowd was subdued and somber. It has learned a new and bitter modesty.

Unless political conditions in Germany change or (faint hope!) the Nazi regime revises its anti-Semitic course, German Jewry at this writing seems doomed to a slow degeneration. There is no use pretending that a minority group can come out unscathed in the essence of their being from the systematic and unbroken degradation to which the Jews are now being subjected. A few may heroically keep the spark or culture and self-assurance alive. The mass cannot help being crushed and deformed by the burden of discrimination, disability and insult heaped on them.

PROPAGANDA TAKING EFFECT

The sad truth is–or so at least it seems to me–that a feeling of inferiority, almost of guilt, is spreading in ever widening circles among German Jews. The anti-Semitic propaganda that fills the land is slowly permeating even the minds of Jews. The pressure is too terrible for anyone but the exceptional persons to withstand. Deprived of their habitual channels of expression, living always in fear, is it to be wondered that healthy self-esteem finds it hard to survive among Jews?

Especially pathetic is the situation of Jewish youth here. It was almost entirely patriotic, devoted to Germany and sharing to the full in the national resentments against Versailles. Suddenly it finds itself without a fatherland, without economic perspectives, completely blocked on every side.

With the professions and government jobs and business careers closed to them, where are they to turn? The son of a storekeeper may work in his father’s business. But what of the son of a Jewish ex-lawyer, ex-teacher or ex-surgeon? Even unskilled labor is not for him–there are too many unemployed “Aryans” in line ahead of him.

DIGNITY DEPRESSED

This problem is certain to grow more acute as time goes on. Jewish standards of living will inevitably be driven lower and lower, just as their human dignity is being depressed lower and lower. The ancient ghetto was at least a stable way of life. Its denizens were born into the limitations and had definite means of subsistence with-in the legal and social restrictions. Moreover, they had no roots in the surrounding non-Jewish world which must be pulled up in blood and pain.

They were better off than this new generation of Jews, thinking itself German, suddenly left without country, livelihood or hope.