Is there any evidence of Jewish people voting for Hitler in 1932/1933?

Question

When times get very hard, as they did in Germany in the early 1930s, people look around desperately for a change from failed political parties. Perhaps this may lead them to vote for parties massively against their interests - a Jewish person voting for Hitler would arguably be the ultimate example.

It would be of contemporary help to know the answer to this question because of cases where politicians deny being racist by instancing people from ethnic minorities who say they have voted for the extremist party concerned.

P.S. Lyn, I'm glad you find the question interesting. The very sad thing, though, is that the families would not be around to cover up the record if they had all been killed in a concentration camp. I think a historian looking at this issue would have to find documents from 1932/1933 e.g perhaps a Jew writing to the Nazis and asking why are they treating him or her so badly when (s)he voted for Hitler. Of course, the historian has to work with the fragments that survive. Or perhaps a Jewish refugee might have left a recollection outside Germany

P.P.S. OK, strictly speaking Hitler was appointed Chancellor. But there were Reichstag elections in 1932/1933, and a referendum to suspend (i.e. kill) the Weimar constitution, as a result of which Hitler came to power. Effectively, people who voted for the Nazi party in these were voting for Hitler.

Answer 1

I doubt it, since his largest political platforms were nationalism and anti-Semitism.

Hitler was not elected - he was appointed Chancellor by the President of Germany. On 2 August 1934, President Paul von Hindenburg died and the position of Chancellor and President was combined that gave Hitler complete control in the country.

Once again I sincerely doubt that any Jews voted for him when he ran for President and was defeated - He was openly anti-Semetic and had written the book Mein Kampf that openly blamed all of Germany's problems on the Jews.

Would you have voted for this man that was openly anti-Semetic if you were a Jew?

Look at it this way - in the 1933 elections the Nazi's got about 44% of the vote (the Nazis won 288 seats in the Reichstag - and alot of these votes came from harassment and intimidation) that leaves about 56% of votes for other parties. At this time the Jews in Germany made up about 1% of the population. I highly doubt there was a vote for the Nazi party from a Jew.

The Nazis won their support primarily from the lower middle class and the peasantry. These voters were strongly nationalistic in their political views and feared that the depression would deprive them of their standard of living. In religion, most of the Nazis' supporters were Protestants.

In April 1933 (One month after the March 5, 1933 elections), Jews were deprived of their positions in the civil service. Jews were also barred from the universities, and restrictions were imposed on Jewish physicians and lawyers. The Nazis organized a nationwide boycott of shops and other businesses owned by Jews. I would suspect that the Jews were quite aware of this possibility way before the March 5, 1933 elections.

Answer 2

I doubt that any evidence would exist today even if it ever did.

Yes Hitler was undoubtedly anti Semitic from the very beginning, and the Jewish people of Germany would be well aware of this.

However you cannot dismiss the possibility that some may have voted for him. Recently a conference in Iraq convened to deny the Holocaust was given some legitimacy by the attendance of some Rabi's. Admittedly they where pursuing their own narrow agenda, but still this seems as ridiculous as a Jew voting for Hitler.

Some Jews may have voted for Hitler, hoping that he was not as bad as he seemed, and that he could bring order to a country in relative chaos. Sadly he was a deranged lunatic.

I doubt that you will find any surviving evidence proving that this happened.

Answer 3

I would have to agree with what was said above in the main-but it is interesting to note that there is evidence of Jews voting for Mussolini in the 1920s even though he was anti Semitic. As you say many people in Italy thought he might be able to sort out the unstable political conditions and economic disasters. I'm sure that at the time very few people realised how horrific was the destination of Fascism....

Answer 4

I have to say that I agree with Mightyt100, that it's unlikely. Hitler had made no secret of his anti-Semitism in 1924 (well, earlier, really, when he took control of policy for the NSDAP). A Jew voting for the Nazis would be a bit like a rabbit loading a gun for the hunter.

Answer 5

What an interesting question. My educated guess is that in a "yes" situation, any Jewish family by now would have gone to great lengths to eradicate any evidence of having voted for Hitler. And now you make me wonder whether the German government kept such records at that time and if they are published somewhere.

Answer 6

NOPE! Hitler would always give lectures in bars (before and during the election) against Jews, and such things. They resented each other since the second he was known to the public.

(8D

Answer 7

Probably not