Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

These dissolutions led to a number of ramifications and responses from
community members. Perhaps the most notable psychological ramification of the
dissolutions for those former members of the community interviewed was the
beginning of the destruction of their identities as Germans of the Jewish faith and
the (re-) emergence of their identities as Jews. This effect of the Nazi policy of
separation was most noticeable for young Jews. There existed also an
overwhelming sense of social isolation. The most obvious physical ramification
was that Jews were slowly deprived of their communal space and services and
began relying more on trusted social networks. In addition, the synagogue became
the fulcrum of the community and through it the various welfare agencies. The
Jews of Magdeburg gravitated to their synagogues for all their needs and, as such,
the religious life of the community at the time provides a further insight into the
structural framework of the community.
The Religious Congregations
In 1933 the religious community of Magdeburg was not one homogenous body.
Liberal Judaism existed side by side with the Orthodoxy of the Shtibl. The
congregants of the Synagogen-Gemeinde generally possessed German-Jewish
pedigrees and the members of the Shtiblech were of Eastern European origin. It
cannot be established when the Shtiblech were dissolved. 133 However, the only
official congregation to survive into the war years until the Reichsvereinigung der
Juden in Deutschland was dissolved on 10 June 1943 was the Synagogen-
Gemeinde in its modified form. Oral history supports the assumption that the
133
No documentation concerning the operations and dissolutions of the Shtiblech has
been located.
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