TURKEY AND THE RESCUE OF JEWS DURING THE NAZI ERA: A REAPPRAISAL OF TWO CASES; GERMAN-JEWISH SCIENTISTS IN TURKEY & TURKISH JEWS IN OCCUPIED FRANCE by I. Izzet Bahar B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 1974 M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Bosphorus University, Istanbul, 1977 M.A. in Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 2006 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Art and Sciences in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cooperative Program in Religion University of Pittsburgh 2012 i UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by I. Izzet Bahar It was defended on March 26, 2012 And approved by Clark Chilson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies Seymour Drescher, PhD, University Professor, History Pınar Emiralioglu, PhD, Assistant Professor, History Alexander Orbach, PhD, Associate Professor, Religious Studies Adam Shear, PhD, Associate Professor, Religious Studies Dissertation Advisor: Adam Shear, PhD, Associate Professor, Religious Studies ii Copyright © by I. Izzet Bahar 2012 iii TURKEY AND THE RESCUE OF JEWS DURING THE NAZI ERA: A RE-APPRAISAL OF TWO CASES; GERMAN-JEWISH SCIENTISTS IN TURKEY & TURKISH JEWS IN OCCUPIED FRANCE I. Izzet Bahar, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 This study aims to investigate in depth two incidents that have been widely presented in literature as examples of the humanitarian and compassionate Turkish Republic lending her helping hand to Jewish people who had fallen into difficult, even life threatening, conditions under the racist policies of the Nazi German regime. The first incident involved recruiting more than one hundred Jewish scientists and skilled technical personnel from German-controlled Europe for the purpose of reforming outdated academia in Turkey. The second incident is the rescue of Jews of Turkish origin as well as those of non-Turkish origin from France during WWII. Both events were vociferously introduced for the first time in the early 1990s, within the discourse of the Quincentennial Foundation founded to commemorate the five hundreth year of immigration of Jews to the Ottoman Empire following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Our study shows that behind the Turkish recruitment of German-Jewish scholars, it was not humanitarian motives, but the interest of the Turkish state was the main and only motivation and the Jewishness of those scientists did not play any role in the decision of their employment. The study also shows that the Turkish government did not appear to have shown any concrete intention to rescue its Jewish citizens in France who were under the threat of deportations, particularly in the last months of 1942. On the contrary, with mass denaturalization iv policies, the government was reluctant to take back a sizable portion of its Jewish citizens in France. Only in December 1943, with the obvious defeat of Germany on the horizon and with the realization that only a small number of Jewish citizens would return, did the government give consent to their transportation to Turkey. The sources analyzed also do not confirm an unconventional or special altruistic act of the Turkish diplomats in France in relation to protecting or saving Jewish victims at that time. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVATIONS.................................................................................................................... XVI PREFACE .............................................................................................................................. XVIII 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 4 1.2 THE COMMEMORATION OF THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IMMIGRATION OF SPANISH JEWS TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE .................... 10 1.3 REPERCUSSIONS FROM THE DISCOURSE OF THE FOUNDATION 13 1.4 CRITICAL QUESTIONS ................................................................................. 15 1.5 CONTRIBUTION TO THE SCHOLARSHIP ............................................... 18 1.6 CHAPTER OVERVIEW .................................................................................. 21 2.0 TURKEY’S APPROACH TO MINORITIES, IN PARTICULAR TO THE JEWISH MINORITY, IN THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC ............. 28 2.1 THE LEADERSHIP CHANGE IN NOVEMBER 1938 ................................ 28 2.2 PEACE AT HOME ............................................................................................ 32 2.2.1 Ideology of Turkism ...................................................................................... 32 2.2.2 Minorities of Different Ethnicities ............................................................... 36 2.2.3 Religious Minorities ....................................................................................... 38 vi 2.2.3.1 The Greek Minority ............................................................................ 42 2.2.3.2 The Armenian Minority ..................................................................... 45 2.3 THE JEWISH MINORITY .............................................................................. 48 2.3.1. Ottoman’s Favorable Approach to its Jewish Minority .............................. 48 2.3.2 The Republic’s Approach to its Jewish Minority ....................................... 51 2.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 62 PART I 3.0 HUMANITY OR RAISON D’ETAT, GERMAN OR JEWISH: THE GERMAN SCHOLARS IN TURKEY, 1933-1952 ...................................................................................... 71 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 71 3.2 THE “JEWISHNESS” FACTOR IN THE APPROACH OF THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT TO EXILED GERMAN SCHOLARS ............................ 75 3.2.1 Turkish Regulations Prohibiting Foreign Jews to Enter to and Stay in Turkey ......................................................................................................................... 82 3.3 JEWISH IDENTITY OF SCHOLARS ........................................................... 84 3.3.1 Memoirs of German scholars ....................................................................... 85 3.3.2 Memories, recollections of family members and testimonies from locals in Turkey ......................................................................................................................... 87 3.3.3 Cultural Background of German Jewish Scholars as a Factor Shaping their Identity ............................................................................................................... 91 3.3.4 Reflection of their Identity on their Life as Émigrés in Turkey ................ 93 3.4 FINAL CHOICES ............................................................................................. 96 3.5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 97 vii PART II 4.0 MYTHS AND FACTS: WHAT HAPPENED TO TURKISH JEWS IN FRANCE DURING WWII? ...................................................................................................................... 101 4.1 NEUTRAL COUNTRIES AND FOREIGN JEWS ...................................... 101 4.1.1 Neutral Countries as Bystanders and Turkey .......................................... 101 4.1.2 “Foreign Jews” ............................................................................................. 103 4.1.3 France and Foreign Jews ............................................................................ 105 4.2 JEWS OF TURKISH ORIGIN IN FRANCE ............................................... 107 4.2.1 Critical Questions and Two Sources for the Turkish Documents........... 109 4.3 HOLOCAUST HISTORIOGRAPHY ON THE JEWS OF TURKISH ORIGIN IN FRANCE ...................................................................................................... 112 4.3.1 Stanford Shaw and Turkey & the Holocaust ............................................ 112 4.3.1.1 A Note on the Legal Status of Turkish Jews in France and ‘Irregular Citizens’ .......................................................................................... 115 4.3.1.2 Dictum of Other Neutral Countries ................................................ 122 4.3.1.3 The Repercussions of Turkey & the Holocaust .............................. 124 4.3.2 Desperate Hours .......................................................................................... 126 4.3.3 Behiç Erkin and The Ambassador .............................................................. 127 4.3.4 Corinna (Corry) Guttstadt: An Opponent to the Mainstream Coverage of Turkish Jews Residing in France ........................................................................... 129 4.3.5 Arnold Reisman’s Approach ...................................................................... 131 4.3.6 Bilâl Şimşir, Turk Jews and Turk Jews II ................................................ 133 4.3.7 The Turkish Passport .................................................................................. 135 viii 4.4 A REASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF TURKEY IN PROTECTING AND RESCUING JEWS OF TURKISH ORIGIN IN FRANCE ................................ 137 4.4.1 More on Irregulars .....................................................................................