East German Communists and the Jewish Question

The Case of Paul Merker

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10076496
AutoresJeffrey Herf (0000-0003-0178-8250, autor correspondente)
Ano1994
Volume29
Fascículo4
Páginas627-661
Data de publicação1994-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200949402900404
OpenAlexW2077097348
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11

Before 1945 most German communists, and after 1945 most East German communists, viewed 'the Jewish question', that is, the whole complex of anti-semitism, the Holocaust and the place of the Jews in Germany and Europe, as peripheral to the main drama of class struggle and anti-fascism.' Before and after 1945, there existed a minority communist tradition in which the Jewish question was central. By January 1953, following Paul Merker's arrest the previous month, the East German dictatorship had crushed this tradition. As the East German communists sought, after 1945, to establish their legitimacy as German leaders, they rejected association with the Jews, still the great 'other' and pre-eminent outsider of German nationalism

Ancient history · Archaeology · German · Jewish question · Judaism · Classics · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Philosophy · Religious studies