140
l'AltTISAN IUVIEW
wi thout ever saying so-lends credence to the historians who argue that
there was method in the madness, as well as to those who Illailltain that one
ordinance led to another and th,lt what h;lppt'ncd in Lkrlin was not neces–
sarily true f()r l3adcn or l3reslau . Thc "dc-jcwificltioll" of the arts
proceeded apace, even though confi.lsions arosc whcn ,I pcrt()rmallce was
callcelled because a perfClrI
11
er W;lS thought to be jewish and then went on
when this was provcn f:,lsc. That a non-jewish writer such ,IS Thomas Mann,
who then was outsidc the country, nevcr rcturncd (yet did not immediatcly
make anti-Nni statcments) and that
;1
jcwish writer such as Franz Werfel
could protest to thc authoritics-as a Czcchoslovak C1tizell, a resident of
Vienna and a non-political individual-is logiCllly c:\plaincd. And so
Oil.
Then, the leaders of most jcwish organiz;ltions, though cautious, did not
panic and the Association ofjewish War Veteram hopcd to be illtegrated into
the new order. Moreover, Cerman jews werc not ccrtain that thc Nazis would
stay in power. During these fIrst mollths, thcy werc ,Igitating primarily against
the Communist threat-even though the
R('irilsl(~!!
tIre actually had laid it
to
rest. But anti-jewish violence sprcad after
till'
M,lrch elections. The story of
vandalism and of the boycotts and harassmcilt of jewish businesses is in the
details, that is, in the execution by local im"iividu,ds and entities of directives
fi'olll top-level Nni org;lIliz;ltions-which rL';lCilcd their c1inLlx in the
pogrom of
Krislollllorill.
Throughout, :lIlti-jewish legislation, lXlsed on defInitions of who was ;1
jew or a
i\ Iisrldi,(!!
of the first or second degrec, was lx-ing "refIned" and inter–
preted on a case by case basis. Abroad,jewish leaders, mainly in the United
States and Palestine, were unsurc whether to org,lIlizc protests. Either way.
Coebbels' propaganda machinery triumphed- "proving" jewish world dom–
ination or conspiracy or the disinterest (and thus agrccment) of the rest of the
worlc."i in the discrimination against the jews. As thcir delegitimation pro–
ceeded, very few Cerman jews sensed thc IOllg-range implications of, fCJr
instance, the marginalization and then c:\clusion ofjnvish lawyers, physicians
and businesses. Thcy, as well as fixeign observcrs, tendcd to blame Hitler's
fanaticism for thc allti-jcwish policies which ultinlately bccamc ";1 political
religion comnlanding the total commitmcllt owcd to a religiOUS Elith."
Friedlander cardi.dly cxamines thc ambivalcnt attitudcs by the churches
and their leaders. He meticulously integratcs and diHcrciltiatcs the extent
to
which religious dogma and individu;11 church f:lthtTs' hUlllane values mayor
may not have dominated. Hc poillts out that Pope Pius XI,:I st;)unch critic of
the Nazi regime, had rcquested a draft of
Hlllllil/ii CCllcri.' Ulli{dS
("the unity
of humankind"), in which racism was dcnounccd and COlldt'llllled . l3ut his
staff procrastinated and he died ill the illterilll. "His SLlCCCSSor, Pius
XII,
was
probably illforllled of the projcct and prob:lbly took the decisioll
to
shelve
Humani Ceneris Uiliras."
