JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Scrolls were hidden there during the years of the Nazi persecution
in a concerted organized activity which encompassed
over 500 scrolls to be restituted after the war.
Number of Jews in Berlin – 1816–1945
Absolute Numbers Percentages
1816 3,373 1.20
1837 5,648 1.98
1855 12,675 2.93
1871 36,326 4.15
1895 94,391 4.48
1905 130,487 4.30
1910 142,289 4.05
1925 172,672 4.30
1933 160,564 3.80
1939¹ 82,788 1.70
Jan. 1942² 55,000 —
Dec. 1942² 33,000 —
Apr. 1943³ 18,315 —
1945 9,000 —
¹ Including Jews by “race” – decrease due mainly to emigration but in small
measure also due to a mortality rate higher than the birth rate. Emigration figures
were actually higher for Berlin Jewry, but were offset by the influx of Jews from
the provinces.
² Decrease due to deportation.
³ Decrease due to final mass deportations.
Dashes denote unavailability of information.
Size of the Jewish Population
The Table: Jewish Population of Berlin shows the decrease in
the Jewish population of Berlin between 1925 and 1945. The
statistics before 1933 refer to persons designated as members of
the Jewish faith, whereas the later figures for the most part also
include Jews “by race” (as defined by the Nuremberg Laws):
[Kurt Jakob Ball-Kaduri / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
Contemporary Period
On July 15, 1945, the Jewish community was officially reconstituted.
At first it was headed by Erich Nelhans, a former *Mizrachi
leader, and from the fall of 1945 by Hans Erich Fabian,
who had returned from Theresienstadt, the only member of
the Reichsvereinigung to survive the war. Also active in the
leadership of the community were Alfred Schoyer, a member
of the Berlin Jewish Community Council before his deportation;
Heinz Galinski, who had returned from Bergen-Belsen;
and Julius Meyer, a survivor of Auschwitz. At the beginning
of 1946, the community had a registered membership of 7,070
people, of whom 4,121 (over 90% of all married members) had
non-Jewish spouses, 1,321 had survived the war by hiding, and
1,628 had returned from concentration camps. The Jews were
dispersed throughout Berlin, a third of them living in the Soviet
sector. The community was assisted by the military government,
as well as by the *American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC), which initiated its activities in Berlin
in the autumn of 1945. Several synagogues were opened, the
Jewish Hospital resumed its work (although most of its patients
and staff were not Jews), and three homes for the aged
berlin
and a children’s home were established. There was no local
rabbi or religious teachers, but American Jewish army chaplains
volunteered their services. The general assumption at
this time was that the Jews would not be able to reestablish
themselves in Berlin (or anywhere else in Germany) and that
the community’s principal task was to help them to emigrate
from the country. The community was thus defined as a “liquidation
community” (Liquidationsgemeinde).
In addition to the organized Jewish community, Berlin
also became a center for Jewish *Displaced Persons (DPs).
Toward the end of 1945 and during the first half of 1946, the
main *Beriḥah route from Poland led through Stettin and the
Soviet Zone to Berlin, from where it continued through the
remaining part of the Soviet Zone and the British Zone to the
American Zone. It was a very arduous route, especially during
the harsh winter months, and temporary shelter had to be
provided in Berlin. A small camp was established in the Wittenau
district of the French sector of the city in the autumn
of 1945 with a capacity of 200; at the beginning of 1946 a large
camp was established at Schlachtensee in the American sector,
which could hold 4,000 refugees, and a third camp was
established in the summer of 1946 in the Tempelhof district
of the American sector. In July 1946, however, the Beriḥah
from Poland took on a quasi-legal character and was rerouted
through Czechoslovakia and Vienna to the American Zone in
Germany and Austria. As a result the refugee population of
Berlin became fairly stabilized. By the end of 1946, there were
6,785 DPs in the three Berlin camps. When the Soviet blockade
of Berlin was lifted, the Occupation authorities decided to
evacuate the DPs, and between July 23 and Aug. 1, 1948, 5,456
Jewish refugees were airlifted from Berlin to various camps
in the American Zone.
By this time the Jewish community had reached a measure
of consolidation, in spite of the difficult economic and
political conditions in the city. Although a few hundred members
had emigrated overseas and mortality exceeded the birthrate,
the total number of Jews had increased as a result of the
influx of Jews returning from abroad. Prominent among the
returnees was a group of 500 refugees who had spent the war
years in *Shanghai. The welfare services extended by the community
were greatly improved; the return of confiscated property,
a process which was initiated at this time, also helped
raise the standing of the community. In 1946, upon the initiative
of Fabian, the community established its own weekly,
Der Weg, later to be merged with the Jewish weekly appearing
in Duesseldorf. Jewish organizations in the United States
arranged for American rabbis to undertake several years’ service
in Berlin. In 1949 Galinski was elected as chairman of the
community council.
The growing tension between the Western and Soviet
Occupation authorities also had its effect upon Berlin Jewry.
In 1947 Nelhans was arrested by the Soviets on the charge of
aiding Soviet military personnel to desert; he was sentenced
to 15 years imprisonment and was not heard of subsequently.
Although the city administration was split in two, the Jew-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 451