Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

Jüdische Bezirksdarlehnskasse on 5 December 1939, 130 which was subsequently
forced into liquidation.
The memorandum from Werner Best in May 1935 explains the change in pace
of the dissolution of communal organisations in Magdeburg. Organisations which
espoused any links between Germanness and Jewishness and a sense of German
nationalist identity for Jews were dissuaded from doing so and ultimately
disbanded. The ‘Ring’, Bund Jüdischer Jugend is a good example. The
organisation was forced to rename itself from the ‘Ring’, Bund deutsch-jüdischer
Jugend in 1936 to the abovementioned name, deleting the reference to ‘German.’
The notable exception to this was Der Schild of the Reichsbund jüdischer
Frontsoldaten. The various exemptions from a number of antisemitic decrees
given to war veterans and their families have been well documented, and this
skewed sense of honour on the part of Nazi bureaucracy and policy appears to
have played a vital role in the allowing the continued operations of both Der
Schild and the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten. 131
In contrast to the situation of the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, any
organisation or institution which contained philosophies the regime deemed
‘hostile to the state’ were dissolved. In Magdeburg the most documented case of
this situation was that of B’nai B’rith. This institution had always been viewed
suspiciously by the regime, which believed it to be a Jewish version of
Freemasonry. The Magdeburg lodge was dissolved in April 1937.
Unaffiliated, local organisations were at greater risk of dissolution than local
branches of national organisations, which had a greater support system, but which,
130
Jüdische Bezirksdarlehnskasse zu Magdeburg, Bestand Rep. C 129, Signatur Nr.
2235, LHASA MD, p. 50.
131
Levy, op. cit., 4 August 1997.
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