Anti-Semitic Violence ‘From Below’: Attacks and Protestant Church Responses in Germany in 1933

Abstract

This article is divided into two parts: the first analyzes grass-roots anti-Semitic violence in the winter and spring of 1933; the second the reaction of the German Protestant Church (one of the few remaining institutions still able to protest effectively) to this violence. As shown here, anti-Semitic violence during the first phase of the Nazi Machtergreifung was more brutal and widespread than hitherto assumed, ranging from assault, break-ins and abduction to ‘pillory marches’, manslaughter and murder. Not recorded in police files and thus difficult to quantify, contemporary estimates of over 1000 violent incidents and several hundred murders are likely realistic. For Nazi gangs, anti-Semitic violence served as a test of courage and a means of internal bonding by dint of jointly committed crimes. Protestant church leaders were well aware of the all-pervasive anti-Semitic violence. Repeated applications were made to church leaders to speak out against anti-Semitic attacks and discriminatory measures, and the issue of taking public action was debated at length in Protestant church councils. Despite considerable pressure to take action and protest openly, no public protest by the Protestant Church was voiced. This article examines the arguments put forward to justify delay, inactivity and silence, thus revealing the shared underlying assumptions of Protestant church leaders and a common mindset rationalizing inactivity.