Why Did Jews Stay So Long in Nazi Germany?

READERS OF MY HISTORICAL NOVEL, Immigrant Soldier, have asked me why the two main characters remained in Germany after Hitler came to power. Indeed, along with a few kind words, one reader wrote in a review, “I really didn’t like Clara, because she stayed too long in Germany. Why didn’t she leave earlier?”

This is a good question . . . and not simply regarding Clara, who is featured more fully in my upcoming novel, Ashes and Ruins. Why did countless German Jews linger in Nazi Germany until the last minute. Many less fortunate than Clara were caught there by the declaration of war and the final October 1941 German law that prohibited their emigration.

Why did these thousands stay so long? The most obvious answer is that they were not clairvoyant. They did not foresee the future. In the early years of the Nazi regime, Hitler was far more concerned with arresting and incarcerating Communists than Jews. One of my father’s cousins, a young man about the same age, was imprisoned in Dachau soon after it opened, not because he was a Jew, but because he had participated in a Communist demonstration. A year later, in 1934, he died there due to the harsh conditions.

German Jews were not the only ones who were naive. People around the world could not begin to imagine what would happen when the Nazi’s Final Solution was officially initiated in 1942. Today, with hindsight to help us, waiting even a couple of years after Hitler established the Third Reich seems reckless. But we must be careful about blaming the victims of the Holocaust for a lack of foresight shared my most of the world.

Besides lack of soothsaying powers, Jews lingered for a wide spectrum of reasons.

• They felt themselves to be German. They were proud of being German citizens and had never lived anywhere else. Many Jewish men, like my grandfather Hugo, served in the German army in WWI. In the early years of the Reich, Jewish veterans were given a few dispensations, such as permission for their children to attend certain schools though their attendance exceeded the Jewish quota. Families like my relatives were so assimilated that they no longer participated in the Jewish community or practiced the religion. Many, like my family, celebrated Christmas as a cultural holiday complete with a tree, gifts, and a feast. They no longer thought of themselves as Jewish until Hitler labeled them according to how many Jewish grandparents they had.
• Emigration was extremely expensive. Poor or impoverished Jews could not afford the travel expenses or the financial requirements for getting a visa. Train and steamship tickets, visas fees, travel incidentals ‒ the cost of all these things were accessible only to middle-income Jews (successful businessmen, academics, doctors, lawyers, and professionals) and the wealthy (bankers, industrialists, and well-known writers and actors). For tradesmen, factory workers, and laborers, the costs would have been prohibitive even in the best of times, and in the 1930s, Germany still suffered economically from unemployment and rampant inflation. Even for the wealthy, fleeing Germany became ever more difficult financially as the Nazis deprived Jews of their property and restricted the amount of money they could transfer to foreign banks.
• The prohibitions and persecutions were incremental. Antisemitic laws escalated gradually over the eight years between 1933 and 1939. Each new restriction affected some segments of the Jewish population but not others‒first civil servants, students, and government employees, later lawyers, then doctors, and still later, shop keepers and tradesmen. The laws were not enacted all at once and often they were not uniformly enforced. Jews learned to live with new restrictions telling themselves each new prohibition was “not too bad” and always hoping it would be the last. Some restrictive laws were city specific, enacted by strong Nazi leadership, and did not affect Jews who lived elsewhere. Dealing with the changes on a day-to-day basis, it was difficult for Jews to evaluate the risk.
• High departure taxes were prohibitive. Taxes known as Reich Flight Tax (Reichsfluchtsteuer) were demanded by the German government and constantly escalated. Initiated in 1931 to dissuade wealthy citizens from moving overseas, the Nazi government turned the “Flight Tax” into legalized theft to confiscate Jewish assets. First, the taxable asset level was lowered by Hitler, greatly expanding the number of people targeted by the tax. The percentage of a person’s funds confiscated also increased over time. In 1933, exit taxes were assessed at 20% of an emigrant’s financial worth, but by 1939, the “Flight Tax” had reached 96%! Even after paying the tax, Jews leaving Germany were permitted to only take with them 10 ℛ︁ℳ︁ (the equivalent of $75 US today) and their bank accounts were frozen.
• They would not leave infirm or disabled family members. Such relatives who, for one reason or another, could not be uprooted, still needed the loving care of their family. In my novel, Ashes and Ruins, Albert, Clara’s beloved, refuses to leave his ailing, elderly mother and flee to safety. He continues to cling to the hope that after his mother dies, he will be able to join Clara in England.
• Seniors were reluctant to face the problems of immigration. Older Jews were far less likely to leave than the young. Moving to a new country, perhaps learning a new language, and establishing a meaningful life in a new place is always more difficult for the middle-aged and the elderly. The idea of traveling to America was exciting for my father when he left Germany at the age of nineteen. However, for my grandmother Clara, who was almost fifty in 1939, leaving her homeland must have been wrenching despite the growing dangers.Besides the inherent problems of starting a new life, those over sixty in the 1930s (born in 1880 or before) would remember the restrictive life of Jews before the turn of the 20^th century. In their youth, elderly Jews experienced the unification of Germany, the expansion of democratic and liberal ideals, and the relaxing of earlier restrictions, all things that greatly enhanced the quality of their lives. One could not blame them for thinking Nazi antisemitism was simply a temporary step backward and, like many before it, would not last.
• Getting a visa for anywhere in the world was difficult. One of the greatest obstacles to leaving Germany was finding a place to go.

The United States, a preferred destination for many, had a country-by-country quota system that limited the number of German citizens who could be issued visas each year. The list of documents needed for a US visa was long and complicated. It included having two sponsors living within the US. Those seeking a visa often stood in lines day after day, and if a visa was promised, it could take years for the assigned number to become activated. Sadly, with so many applicants, too many requirements, and masses of paperwork, the US quotas were not always filled. Despite these problems, the United States took in more Jewish refugees than any other country besides Palestine.

In the early 1930s, travelers from Germany and Austria could visit England without a visa, a policy that changed within weeks of Germany’s annexation of Austria. By the end of May 1938, German and Austrian citizens needed a visa to visit England for even a few days. Though permanent settlement was unlawful, Great Britain did offer transit visas which permitted refugees to stay while waiting for a visa from another country. This is the type of visa that allowed my grandmother to live with her daughter in London from 1939 to 1943. The UK also issued and extended visas for domestic workers, a policy that enabled my Aunt Edith to come to London in 1936. Most countries had an equally dismal record of saving refugees before and during World War II.

Based on economic protectionism, antisemitism, and a fear of foreign radicals, Canada enforced far more restrictive laws than Britain. South Africa tightened its immigration policies during the pre-war period rather than relax them. In Europe, The Netherlands initiated severe restrictions against Jewish refugees, even turning back some at the border. The Swiss government persuaded Germany to begin stamping Jewish passports with the red J so Jews could be more easily stopped at the border as they attempted to cross. France, though initially liberal, tightened its policy after 1933, requiring work permits to stay.

Latin America was as bad as Europe. Cuba generally denied entry to refugees. This policy led to the turning away of the refugee ship, MS St. Louis, in 1939, tragically forcing many Jews back to Europe. Argentina’s immigration policy shifted from relatively open to restrictive, especially for Jewish refugees. Antisemitism and anti-communism resulted in secret orders to Argentinian consular officials to deny visas outright. Brazil, like the US, established country-based quotas, allowing some persecuted Jews to be cleared for visas through a complicated process. Several of my father’s cousins made it into Brazil and lived there the rest of their lives. Uruguay was somewhat better than its neighbors. This small country did not ban entry to Jews, though they did require a certificate of good conduct, a document that had to be issued by the immigrant’s local German police authority.

Shanghai was the only place totally open for Jewish refugees. The International Settlement of this Chinese city had no visa requirement, though the long expensive voyage from Europe and the exotic culture were daunting for many refugees. One of my father’s uncles, a bachelor and an influential judge, found refuge in Shanghai. His wealth allowed him to bring his twenty-year-old niece with him and thus save her life.

There was no place in the world that was an easy haven for Jews fleeing conditions in Germany. Finding any place to settle was a matter of luck and determination, often hidden money and jewels, and perhaps aid from relatives already living abroad or an organization like the Quakers.

LEAVING GERMANY as the Nazi noose tightened was a difficult choice and, at best, it was a complicated and constantly shifting endeavor. The fight or flight response is a well-known phenomenon. Additionally, there is a third type of reaction to danger that is often forgotten: freezing. This response is characterized by an inability to take decisive action. For Jews in Germany during the Third Reich, fighting the government was almost impossible and could lead to incarceration or death. I have listed above the many difficulties involved in fleeing. Perhaps, freeze-and-wait can be viewed as a reasonable, if involuntary, response to the mounting stress and fear. Fortunately, many Holocaust survivors, including most of my family, reacted with flight in time to escape with their lives.