The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

The second phase of emigration was initiated by the adoption of the Nuremberg
Racial Laws of September 15, 1935. 19
The loss of German citizenship and the gradually
expanding pool of anti-Semitic rules and regulations finally convinced many German
Jews that continued existence within the homeland was no longer a plausible proposition.
Only emigration with its potential for resettlement and the re-establishment of normalcy
in their lives offered a viable solution. More than two hundred potential refugees
approached the Hilsverein in Berlin every day for emigration assistance. 20 Increasing
British and Arab resistance and concerns about the absorptive capacity of Palestine,
however, diverted the quest for resettlement to other locations:
Emigration Palestine Other Locations
1933-35 12,871 3,615
1936-37 5,879 10,106 21
German Jews belonging to the Reich Association of German Jews
(Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden), however, maintained their belief that continued
Jewish existence within Germany was practicable. 22 Although the Laws dealt the
19 The Nuremberg Race Laws were officially announced during a Nazi Party Rally on September 15,
1935. The “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor” banned marriages and sexual relations
between Jews and Aryans. Jews were barred from employing Aryan women as domestic servants and
could not display the German flag. Violations of this law would be punishable by imprisonment and hard
labor. “The Reich Citizenship Law” defined the parameters of citizenship granted to persons living within
the Reich and annulled Jewish citizenship in the German State. A citizen was defined as a “subject who is
of German or kindred blood” who demonstrated “that he is both desirous and fit to serve the German
people and Reich faithfully.” Only officially recognized citizens would be granted “full political rights.”
Both laws provided a legal basis for further discrimination and isolation of German Jews and were later
applied to Austria following the Anschluss. Noakes and Pridham, Documents on Nazism, 463-467.
20 Wischnitzer, “Jewish Emigration,” 29.
21 Reports of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany cited in Wischnitzer, “Jewish Emigration,” 29.
22 The Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden replaced the earlier Reichsvertretung and represented a
unification of the State Association of the Jewish Communities, large Jewish private organizations and
major Jewish population centers. This reordering was in response to the recognition that German Jewish
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