Jews in Leipzig - The University of Texas at Austin

understandable fondness for memories of full employment and lifetime social security in
a place that is now notably lacking in either, this warmth begs explanation, and certainly
problematizes the image of the GDR as a foreign-imposed, totalitarian regime.
In response, scholars like Mary Fulbrook have begun to consider the ties between
the GDR and its citizens, and have found a regime that is not very like the Nazi
dictatorship in some important ways. 13 Fulbrook finds more room for opposition to the
regime—and negotiation with it—than might have been expected, certainly more than is
reflected in the work of David Childs. The regime had a long life, after all, especially
compared to the Third Reich, and went through more permutations. For instance, she
identifies the role of Erich Honecker in reducing tensions between people and state and
moving toward some sort of integration between the two. These dynamics changed over
time, then, not what one would expect from a totalitarian regime with no legitimacy other
than a foreign garrison, or from a society naturally given to dictatorship. The question of
how the SED integrated itself with the people of East Germany is not entirely clear here,
however.
This move toward a more complicated understanding of life under the SED
regime has been reflected in the literature on East German Jews, too. Mario Keßler’s
work, emphasizes a top-down model of authority in which Jews operated with no more
autonomy than they would in any other “authoritarian” regime. 14 More recent research
by scholars like Lothar Mertens 15 and Jay Geller 16 sees more agency for Jews, varying
greatly over time and the stage and needs of the SED regime. This work is influenced by
13 Mary Fulbrook. Divided Nation: A History of Germany 1918-1990, New York, 1992.
14 See especially Mario Keßler, Die SED und die Juden – zwischen Repression und Toleranz. Politische
Entwicklungen bis 1967, Berlin, 1995, (Zeithistorische Studien, Bd. 6).
15 Lothar Mertens, Davidstern unter Hammer und Zirkel. Die Jüdischen Gemeinden in der SBZ/DDR und
ihre Behandlung durch Partei und Staat 1945-1990, Hildesheim/Zürich/New York, 1997.
16 Jay Geller, Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany, 1945–1953, Cambridge, 2005.
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