Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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and snowballing effects of exclusion and by the Nazi desire for Jewish emigration.
All policies and measures affected all avenues of daily life, or had the potential to
do so, by virtue of the fact that by November 1938 the lives of all Jews were
completely regulated by Nazi policy. This exclusion from the ‘Volksgemeinschaft’
was most noticeable in the public domain where Jews were easy and obvious
targets. In the hostile climate of Magdeburg, daily life in the public domain for
Jews was oppressive. However, owing to the initiatives of local authorities and the
local branch of the Nazi Party the Jews of Magdeburg were subjected to even
greater humiliation on a day-to-day basis 58 as will be discussed in the following
section.
Daily Life and Exclusion
The implementation and application of Nazi policy toward the Jews affected them
in all avenues of their lives. Daily life in the public domain became increasingly
onerous as the years progressed. The phases marking their situation and the reality
of their exclusion mirror those previously discussed. For Jews, experiences in the
public domain in 1933 were marked by shock, confusion, adjustment and a broad
range of both supportive and antagonistic behaviours from non-Jews. For the
period from 1933 up until the months preceding the Nuremberg Laws, Jewish
citizens were either subjected to or witnessed a broad range of antisemitic
behaviours in public, ranging from the standard antisemitic signage, boycotts, the
singing of defamatory songs, to occasional street violence. However, during this
phase the thrust of the antisemitic behaviour Jews experienced was largely
58 Kurt Sabatzky, Meine Erinnerungen an den Nationalsozialismus, undated, File ME
541; MM65, LBIA NY, op. cit., p. 26.