My great-grandmother was from Germany and she was also jewish. However, unlike most of the jews in europe, she did not speak yiddish, she spoke high german. In germany would they have considered her and ethnic german with the jewish religion, or an ethnic "middle-eastern" jew living in Germany?
2007-02-15 06:55:05 · 4 answers · asked by ihaveissues 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
It depends on who you would have asked, an antisemite or someone else. As far as I know most of the German Jews considered themselves German. German Jews fought for Germany in World War I like everyone else. Most of the Jews in Germany were German nationals and spoke German as their native language (there were also Jewish immigrants who were e.g. Polish nationals and spoke other languages). They lived among the other people and not in ghettos or something like that.
But you know that as soon as the Nazis came to power the Jews lost their rights step by step and were excluded from the society. The Nazis and other antisemites who regarded the Jews as an "impurity in the German people" and "foreign race" of course already existed before 1933. In the Weimar Republic there was already a lot of antisemitic agitation, by Hitler and the NSDAP as well as by other groups. The difference was that in the Weimar Republic these people didn't have the power yet. I don't know what percentage of the population was antisemite, but it was a significant number, after all Hitler could win an election. Regarding the Jews as a "foreign race" and "impurity in the German people" was one of the most important aspects of German antisemitism and antisemites would have never considered a Jew to be German.
2007-02-16 07:28:43 · answer #1 · answered by Elly 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Nazis knew pretty much where Jews were, where they worked and lived, along with the Catholics and Protestants, just in case any of them did anything against the Nazis. I don't know that they went into places looking for Jews unless they had reason to suspect them of hiding Jews. Just like today in America, if a fugitive is hiding they might check the relatives homes, but unless it is a desperate houae to house chase for a murder suspect, they would not go into anybody's house. But if they did even suspect, I'm sure they searched anywhere they could and the concept of search warrants probably did not exist in Nazi Germany.
2016-05-24 04:10:28 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jewish was considerd to be a religion, not a nationality.
In fact the jews fightet in WWI as any other German did.
2007-02-15 11:14:35 · answer #3 · answered by markus0032003 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
german. period.
2007-02-15 07:13:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋