Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

president were Rabbi Dr Wilde and Georg Schäfer, respectively. 113 No record has
been located detailing the actual detention of the office-bearers of the Magdeburg
lodge.
An interesting memorandum from the Magdeburg Gestapa dated 30 March
1938, concerns the activities of the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten and its
sporting association, Der Schild. 114 This memorandum sheds light on and
highlights the inconsistency of some Nazi policies. The memorandum reinforced
the position that the activities of the veterans’ association were to be restricted. 115
However, it informed officials that whilst in the past, numerous activities of the
sporting association had been prohibited, the Gestapo did not wish to hinder the
sporting activities of the association and thereby granted approval for its
continued operations, under police surveillance. 116 Oral history confirms that this
was the case. Beyond this period limited activities of both organisations continued
until they were forcibly incorporated into the Reichvereinigung der Juden in
Deutschland in 1939. 117
The ‘Staatszionistische’ organisations were the final group to be dissolved by
a decree authored in Berlin on 25 July 1938 and instituted in Magdeburg on 3
113 Auflösung des ‘Unabhängigen Ordens Bne Briss’, 10. April 1937, Bestand Rep. C
20 I. I b, Signatur Nr. 1831, Band IV, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 36.
114 Betätigung des Reichsbundes jüdischer Frontsoldaten, 30. März 1938, ibid., p. 103.
115 The activities and reactions of the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten under
Nazism have been dealt with extensively in numerous articles in the Leo Baeck
Institute Year Book. For a detailed discussion on the subject see Ruth Pierson,
“Embattled Veterans – The Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten,” Leo Baeck Institute
Year Book, vol. XIX, 1974, pp. 139–154.
116 The reactions of the youth sporting association Der Schild (Sportbund der
Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten) to Nazism are discussed in Schatzker, op. cit.
117 Avraham Barkai, “In a Ghetto Without Walls,” in Meyer, ed., op. cit., p. 355.
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