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Conversion to Judaism After the Shoa

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Conversion to Judaism After the Shoa Barbara J. Steiner Between Guilt and Repression – Conversion to Judaism after the Shoa Conversion to Judaism and the subsequent acceptance of Jewish converts are topics that are still discussed at length among Jews in Germany today. Is it actu- ally possible to become a Jew? How should a Jewish convert conduct herself or himself? And the most significant question of all: Why do non-Jewish Germans convert to Judaism, and what connection might this phenomenon have with Ger- many’s most recent past, the persecution of and murdering of Jews? Do Jewish converts simply want to change sides in order to belong to the victims and their successors, thereby distancing themselves from their own possibly disreputa- ble family histories? Do they simply want to make everything all right again? Do Germans who convert to Judaism do so because they feel guilty?¹ These are the questions that I will thoroughly investigate in my dissertation, which deals with the conversion of Germans to Judaism after 1945.² I intend to illustrate how German converts deal with the Shoa, and how far they integrate this into their biographies as ‘New Jews.’ From a religious perspective, it is possible for anyone to become a Jew. According to Halacha (the law of Judaism), a Jew is a person who is either born of a Jewish mother, or a person who has been converted to Judaism before a Beit Din (a Rabbinical court) after a period of religious instruction. Giur (the process of conversion) can take years, and is considered by many converts to be tiring and arbitrary.³ The conversion process is a test of the seriousness of the candidate; he or she must learn about the Jewish religion and Jewish history and make every effort to fit into the community. One is only allowed to become a Jew after passing an examination administered by a rabbinical court and immersion in a mikvah (a water bath, large enough for a grown human being); men must also be cir- cumcised. The requirements of Halacha are quite clear. One gets the impression, however, that the affiliation of Jewish identity is tenuous: if, for example, a new rabbi is appointed within the community, one can lose everything. Even within 1 See also, for instance, Brumlik, Micha; Kiesel, Doron, Unter Gleichen: Wer zum Judentum übertritt, gehört genauso zur Gemeinschaft, wie einer, der hineingeboren wurde. Jüdische Allgemeine, 22nd Oktober, 2009. Broder, Henryk, M., Zur Hölle mit den Konvertiten! In: Nicht durch Geburt allein: Übertritt zum Judentum, Homolka, Walter; Seidel, Esther (Eds.), 22-28. Munich: Knesebeck, 1995. 2 I intend to submit this dissertation to the University of Potsdam by end of 2012. 3 See the interviews in my dissertation “When I noticed I was Jewish…” – Conversion of Germans to Judaism post 1945. DOI 10.1515/9783110265132.123, ©2017 Barbara J. Steiner, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs3.0 License. 124 Barbara J. Steiner the convert’s own community, where the convert has been accepted, the validity of the conversion – even generations later – can be put to the test.⁴ Orthodox Judaism does not accept, on principle, conversions to Judaism that have been carried out by Liberal rabbis. Even within different groups of Orthodox Jews there are differences of opinion concerning the validity of completed conver- sions. The State of Israel recognizes all conversions, but the Orthodox Rabbinates of Israel do not. It is possible as a Liberal Jewish convert to emigrate to Israel, but to the Orthodox Rabbinates of Israel, one remains non-Jewish. There is no guarantee that one will be recognized as a Jew, even though one commits to a life governed by commandments and prohibitions. It is not easy to become a Jew, to be a Jew, or even to remain a Jew.⁵ Initially, the conversion to Judaism after the Shoa seems an unlikely option for Germans – especially those without any Jewish family connections. For decades, Jews were looked upon as victims and the majority of Germans were consid- ered perpetrators, who, if not actively involved in murdering Jews, had tacitly approved such actions. After 1945, Germans continued to convert to Judaism and were taken in by the Jews as members of their community, which – in the shadow of recent German history – was not always easy for either side. Jews and Jewish converts had to learn how to relate to each other. Jews accepted that there were people who wanted to belong to their religion. Germans who had converted to Judaism not only had to live with distrust concerning their origins, but also with the suspicion that many of them only wanted to convert in order to be “on the right side of history.”⁶ After the Shoa, it was nevertheless desirable – for various reasons – to be Jewish. In 1950, Nathan Peter Levinson, then Rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin, received some 6,000 applications for conversion to Judaism; a special commission was then established in order to check all applicants for possible involvement in National Socialism. Among the applicants were people who hoped to gain advantages from their conversion to Judaism; for instance, they hoped to receive a Care-Paket (a gift of emergency supplies from the American allies) or to gain financially in the form of compensation payments. Many former Nazis also wanted to become Jews – whether from genuine regret and the desire 4 See www.welt.de/regionales/berlin/article1868431/Juedische_Gemeinde_feuert_ Rabbiner.html. [Accessed 4th March 2011], and also: www.hagalil.com/archiv/2000/09/ lauder.htm. [Accessed 4 March 2011]. 5 See also, for instance, Trepp, Leo; Wöbken-Ekert, Gunda, Dein Gott ist mein Gott: Wege zum Judentum und zur jüdischen Gemeinschaft. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2005, or Lamm, Maurice. Becoming a Jew. New York: Jonathan David Publishers, 1991. 6 Broder, 23. Between Guilt and Repression 125 to put things right, or with the intention of disappearing unnoticed by taking cover in the Jewish community. Many people wanted to belong to Judaism for reli- gious reasons, but just as many Germans, who, horrified by the crimes committed against Jews, wanted to convert out of solidarity with the Jewish people.⁷ It was not easy for Germans to convert to Judaism after the war. Applicants had to prove they were genuinely religious, and above all, that they had moral integrity. All applicants were considered suspect on principle; the communi- ties and personnel who were responsible for conversion quite rightly reacted with distrust, which they also extended to Jews who had abandoned their reli- gion during the Nazi regime, but after 1945 wanted to return. It should not be made easy for those who had survived persecution, but had turned their backs on Judaism in horrific times, to return.⁸ After 1945, mixed marriages, especially between German Jewish men and Christian women, were still relatively common. Therefore the majority of people who wanted to convert were women who were married to Jewish men and had stood by them throughout National Socialism. Women who had met a survivor after 1945 and had married or wanted to marry him, were also accepted. After the war, most applicants without Jewish family members were still rejected.⁹ Even today, the proportion of women converts is much greater, which is due, above all else, to the requirements of Halacha that state that a child inherits its Jewish birthright from the mother. Although from a rabbinical perspective a conversion should be permitted primarily as a result of religious conviction, ‘love conversions’ have long been a part of Jewish everyday life. Jewish converts frequently state that reflection upon the extermination of the Jews was the starting point that led them to Judaism.¹⁰ That is not to say, however, that Germans feel guilty about their past; if one studies the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, it is only natural that one concerns oneself with the Jewish reli- 7 Levinson, Nathan Peter, Ein Ort ist, mit wem du bist. Lebenssituationen eines Rabbiners. Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1996. See also Dani Levy’s film, Meschugge (1998), which deals with the attempts of Nazi perpetrators to seek cover in the Jewish community, or Hilsenrath, Edgar, Der Nazi und der Friseur. Munich: Piper, 1990.255 8 Geis, Jael, Übrig sein – Leben danach. Berlin: Philo, 2000. Strahtmann, Donate. Auswandern oder Hierbleiben? Jüdisches Leben in Düsseldorf und Nordrhein, 1945-1960. Essen: Düsseldorfer Schriften zur neueren Landesgeschichte und zur Geschichte Nordrhein- Westfalens, 2003, 213. 9 Levinson, Nathan Peter, Konversion oder Camouflage. Ein Bericht über Proselyten im Nachkriegsdeutschland. In: Levinson, Pnina Navè: Aus freier Entscheidung. Wege zum Judentum. Teetz: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2000, 96. 10 See interviews in my dissertation “When I noticed I was Jewish…” – Conversion of Germans to Judaism post 1945, and also Eigner, Antje. Ich bin Jüdin geworden. Hamburg: Rotbuch Verlag, 1994. 126 Barbara J. Steiner gion and its history. After the war ended, former members of the SA (the armed storm troopers of the German National Socialist Workers’ Party) sought out the company of Jews, and much to the annoyance of survivors of the Shoa, prayed alongside them in the synagogues in an effort “to be the better Jews.”¹¹ Many children and grandchildren from families who had been particularly involved with National Socialism also converted to Judaism, and it was they who were most strongly suspected of being driven by guilt to change sides.¹² It seems to be too narrow, however, to understand the phenomenon of Germans converting to Judaism entirely as a reaction of guilt, but it can logically be considered one possi- ble motivation. Conversion to Judaism may be a strategy for Vergangenheitsbewäl- tigung (the process of coming to terms with a disreputable past, and particularly with National Socialism); it is impossible, however, to determine whether it is a successful one.
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