Germans, Jews, and Antisemites

The ferocity of the anti-semitic Nazi attack upon the Jews took many by surprise. This book tries to explain why. The history of the Jews in modern Germany is usually told as the tale of outstanding individuals, completely immersed in German society and disproportionately contributing to its culture. This book focuses, however, on the story of "ordinary" German Jews, concerned not merely with being like other Germans, i.e. "assimilated," but with upward social climbing and achievements as well. Although they did not seek to abandon Judaism, they tried to reformulate and reinvent it to fit their newly upgraded status. Thus, despite continuous antisemitism, Germany "seemed" to accept the Jews on these terms until World War II.

First sentence: In his autobiography, From Berlin To Jerusalem, Gershom Scholem described how he had found himself isolated among his Jewish friends when he began to take interest in the antisemitic literature of the time.

Year

2005

Language

English

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Editions

2

Pages

326

ISBN

9780521609593

Data source: Wikidata