The Lion and the Star: Gentile-Jewish Relations in Three Hessian Towns, 1919-1945 / Edition 1

by Jonathan Friedman

Overview

The Lion and the Star not only offers an informed glimpse into the intricacies of daily German life but also confirms the continuing danger of making sweeping generalizations about German Jews and non-Jews. In the aftermath of World War II, many viewed the Third Reich as an aberration in German history and laid blame with Hitler and his followers. Since the 1960s, historians have widened their focus, implicating "ordinary" Germans in the demise of German Jewry.

Jonathan Friedman addresses this issue by investigation everyday relations between German Jews and their Gentile neighbors. Friedman examines three German communities of different sizes—Frankfurt am Main, Giessen, and Geisenheim. Symbolized by the Hessian heraldic lion, these communities represent a cross-section of both Gentile and Jewish society in Germany during the Weimar and Nazi years. Researching in the United States, Germany, England, and Israel, he gleaned information from interviews, memoirs, diaries, letters, newspapers, church and synagogue records, censuses, government documents, and reports from Nazi and resistance organizations. Friedman's comparative analysis offers a balanced response to recent scholarly works condemning the entire German people for their complicity in the Holocaust.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813120430
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	05/14/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	iv
	List of Maps	vii
	Preface	x
	Introduction	1
1.	Jewish Emancipation to 1919	15
2.	Demography and Socioeconomic Structure	25
3.	The Liberal-Jewish Model: Under Attack from Within	47
4.	Gesellschaft vs. Gemeinschaft: Gentile-Jewish Relations before 1933	63
5.	Jew-Hatred or "Arbeit und Brot!" Antisemitism and the Electoral Rise of the Nazis	103
6.	Close to the Edge: Relations during the Early Years of the Third Reich	125
7.	Relations during the "Final Solution"	153
	Epilogue	181
	Conclusion	185
	Notes	187
	Bibliography	271
	Index	285

Editorial Reviews

Uses a detailed examination of Gentile-Jewish relations in three quite different German localities to shed light on the still heavily contested issues of German Gentiles' attitudes toward Jews, Nazis, and Nazi anti-Jewish policy.

Church History

Presents us with a wealth of statistical data, interviews, quotes from memoirs, diaries, letters, lengthy newspaper quotations, church and synagogues records, government documents and the reports of Nazi and Resistance organizations.

Jerusalem Post Magazine

Evinces truly sound scholarly research.

History

Friedman's conclusion is sober and astute: most Germans has no interest in tormenting Jews, but the 'moderate' forms of Judeophobia that had helped make Hitler acceptable to them in the first place also opened them to complicity in genocide as the Nazi leaders eliminated one option after another.

American Historical Review

Demonstrates a thoughtful mastery of the literature of twentieth-century German and German-Jewish history, a prudent incorporation of oral histories and memoirs and a solid familiarity with German archival material.

Shofar

Friedman's well-written and thoroughly researched study gives readers a good sense of the complexities of Gentile-Jewish relations in Weimar and nazi Germany.

Choice

"Friedman's conclusion is sober and astute: most Germans has no interest in tormenting Jews, but the 'moderate' forms of Judeophobia that had helped make Hitler acceptable to them in the first place also opened them to complicity in genocide as the Nazi leaders eliminated one option after another." — American Historical Review

"Friedman's well-written and thoroughly researched study gives readers a good sense of the complexities of Gentile-Jewish relations in Weimar and nazi Germany." — Choice

"Uses a detailed examination of Gentile-Jewish relations in three quite different German localities to shed light on the still heavily contested issues of German Gentiles' attitudes toward Jews, Nazis, and Nazi anti-Jewish policy." — Church History

"Evinces truly sound scholarly research." — History

"Presents us with a wealth of statistical data, interviews, quotes from memoirs, diaries, letters, lengthy newspaper quotations, church and synagogues records, government documents and the reports of Nazi and Resistance organizations." — Jerusalem Post Magazine

"Demonstrates a thoughtful mastery of the literature of twentieth-century German and German-Jewish history, a prudent incorporation of oral histories and memoirs and a solid familiarity with German archival material." — Shofar

From the Publisher

Distrusting the conventional view that the Third Reich was an aberration in Germany's history, Friedman explores relations between Jews and Germans in the towns of Frankfurt am Main, Giesen, and Geisenheim early in the 20th century. Emphasizing key issues of assimilation, he considers the history and social makeup of the Jewish communities; the socioeconomic challenges they faced at the time; and the political, social, and familiar contact between the two groups. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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