Israelitisches Familienblatt - History

History

Herbert Strauss characterised Israelitisches Familienblatt "as the gemütliche, middle-brow journal written for the average petit-bourgeois family in city and country, the Sunday paper that wants to edify, educate and comfort, the Jewish equivalent to the (antisemitic) Gartenlaube." The Lessmanns kept the Familienblatt out of the controversies on assimilation or Zionism, as fought between the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (literally: Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, founded in 1893) with its C.V.-Zeitung (founded in 1922) and the Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland (founded in 1897 and chaired by Pinchas Rosen in 1920-1923) with its Jüdische Rundschau.

The Familienblatt provided broad scale information and news about life in the Jewish communities, Jewish celebrities, Jews around the world, Judaism, Jewish traditions and history, recipes for kosher cooking. In its cultural insert the Familienblatt presented music, performing and visual art by examples of creative works by Jewish artists. Esriel Carlebach, since 1931 permanently appointed to the Familienblatt, went to the theatre on four to five evenings the week and afterwards composed his reviews, dictating them - freely phrasing - to his assistant Ruth Heinsohn, who right away typed them. Over time the Familienblatt spread and specific editions appeared for Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and one Reich's edition for the rest of Germany. In 1933 the circulation amounted to 25,000, which meant that about one fourth of all Jewish families in Germany had subscribed to the Familienblatt.

Education and pedagogics took up much space in the Familienblatt. Another editorial emphasis was to strengthen Jewish identity and self-confidence by taking a positive attitude to Jewish matters. The Familienblatt covered the establishment of a Jewish museum in Berlin. In 1905 Albert Wolf (* 1841-1907* ), a jeweller from Dresden, donated his collection of Jewish art, at that time the biggest of its kind in Germany, to the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin (founded in 1671). The community further enriched the art collection by its own possessions, acquisitions and donations and showed it the first time in 1917 and then with irregular frequency. In November 1929 an association established to found a Jewish museum. On January 24, 1933 Jüdisches Museum zu Berlin (1933–1938), run by the community, opened in Oranienburger Straße 31.

Later confronted with growing anti-Semitism the Familienblatt worked towards resolving and enlightening as to Jewish matters. Carlebach had unveiled that Joseph Goebbels, who so vehemently defamed Jews and their alleged detrimental influence, had studied with Jewish professors, to whom he owed his scholarship at that time. In the beginning of the 1930s the general atmosphere grew more aggressive. In November 1932 to January 1933 the Familienblatt published a series named 'Sowjetjudäa' (Soviet Judea) on Jewish life under communist reign, a report written by Carlebach on his journey through the USSR in summer 1932. He came to the conclusion that there were neither the possibilities nor an adequate milieu for a genuine Jewish life.

Albert Einstein occasionally brought the Sowjetjudäa series up for discussions, so that they had a much broader response than usual. Especially adversaries of Hitler, who relied on the USSR and who naïvely or willfully downplayed the crimes there, were incited to rimunate or to be angry with Carlebach. "The articles brought forth a flurry of anonymous threatening letters and a vile pamphlet attack upon him from Hamburg's 'Jewish Workers' Study Group.'" The camouflage name of this group (in German: Arbeitsgemeinschaft jüdischer Werktätiger, Hamburg) aimed at rather disguising the harassing of Carlebach, the avowed Jew, by the Communist Youth Federation in Hamburg.

On the night of January 3, 1933, the harassment culminated in an assassination attempt. A gunshot cut through his hat just luckily missing him. Carlebach fell over, got concussed and lost consciousness. The police found him later senseless. Israelitisches Familienblatt offered a reward of 2,000 Reichsmarks for the capture of the person who did it. By February he had recovered so far that he could resume his work for the Familienblatt.

In January 1933 the Familienblatt still assumed, that the German citizenry in its majority would refuse anti-Semitism. On January 30, 1933 Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler, only since recently German after his seventh attempt to get naturalised finally succeeded on 25 February 1932, chancellor of a coalition government of rightist forces. On February 2, the Familienblatt declared, that it can hardly stand the idea, that an outspoken anti-Semite is appointed head of government, and expressed its hope, that once in office the anti-Semitic movement of National Socialism will have to come to terms. The Nazis had eaten boiled crow, so that the situation looked better than it was.

After the fire in the Reichstag on February 27, Hindenburg could be persuaded that this, and not his appointment of Hitler, caused an emergency situation, and that he thus needed to decree the partial suspension of the Reich's constitution, which he did. After the Prussian Coup the Nazis in the Reich's government, with Hermann Göring holding simultaneously the Reich's and Prussian ministry of the interior, could command executive forces of Prussia's police. Thus the Nazis could start to arrest political opponents. Also Carlebach, the Familienblatt's editor, was arrested. He attributed his arrest to Goebbels, who resented Carlebach for unveiling facts from the times, when Goebbels was still studying.

Carlebach was lucky, since the prison guards had not yet been brought into dictatorial line and still clung to constitutional practices. He was released from custody because no judicial warrant existed. Just out of prison, Carlebach had to go into hiding, for the Nazis meanwhile noticed that he had been released, and started to search for him. He found aides, who provided him with a hideout and forged papers and smuggled him out into Poland.

The last genuine election under Nazi rule on 5 March 1933 took already place under open terror. All elected communists and many elected social democrats and liberals were arrested or hiding, so that the number of Nazi-opponent members of the Reichstag, able to attend the decisive sessions of parliament, was sufficiently reduced in order to create a parliamentary majority for the Nazi party, which it could not gain in the election itself. A law, Ermächtigungsgesetz, was passed, only opposed by the few unarrested social democrats, who dared to attend the session, that empowered the Reich's government to rule without parliamentary legislation. As to anti-Semitism the Nazi government now showed its true colours. Violent atrocities accompanied the Boycott of Jewish shops on April 1, 1933. On April 7 the Reich's government decreed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which allowed to cleanse the public service from all unwelcome persons, such as liberals, social democrats, communists and persons of Jewish descent.

This law became the first official expression of the Nazi definition of Jewishness. The Nazis did not bother about halakhic definitions and the individual creed of the concerned persons. The Nazis declared Jewishness in their view being a matter of inheritance, thus persons were discriminated against as Jews, if they had three or four grandparents, who were registered after their birth as members of a Jewish congregation. This was easy to detect, because mostly religious bodies were busy with the recording of births, marriages and deaths, before official recording became obligatory in 1875. Thus it happened that Gentiles, completely unaware of their Jewish descent, suddenly figured out that the Nazi government regarded them as Jews. The cleansing wasn't restricted to the public service only, but included also the withdrawal of public permissions or approvals for lawyers, physicians and professors.

In view of this development the Familienblatt aimed at new objectives. The paper now sought to collect Jewish Germans, converted by the Nazi government into a community of fate, to build up support for the new Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (Reich's Deputation of German Jews seated in Berlin), the umbrella organisation established on 17 September 1933, which for the first time ever united all the quarrelling Jewish organisations and religious bodies on a nationwide range. The Reichsvertretung helped Jewish Germans to organise self-help, established central welfare organisations, occupational retraining for dismissed officials, preparation for emigration, built up schools and institution of elementary to higher education open for Jewish students and pupils. The Familienblatt promoted these activities, searched for employers still employing Jewish Germans, gave hints and tips to cope with discriminations and restrictions, reported on opportunities to emigrate.

Especially emigration was difficult, not only because after the Great Depression many countries restricted immigration, but because in 1931 the German government had introduced the Reichsfluchtsteuer, a tax at prohibitive tariffs against capital outflow. This tax made many German and foreign investors very hesitant to withdraw their capital from Germany. But in 1932 the Reichsfluchtsteuer did not really shy away German and foreign investors from withdrawing their capital from the country any more, so that the German government banned free marketing in foreign exchange in late 1932. From then on every sale and purchase of foreign exchange was subject to government approval. A great release was then the Ha'avarah Agreement initiated by Arlosoroff, which enabled about 50,000 Jewish German investors to withdraw capital at all, if they emigrated to Palestine, even though under the very costly prerogatives of the Reichsfluchtsteuer. The Familienblatt informed its readers about this little loophole in the German entrenchment against capital flight. Until 1935 the Familienblatt could increase its circulation to 36,500.