Jewish Farmers in Hitler's Germany: Zionist Occupational Retraining and Nazi "Jewish Policy"

Abstract

Nazi support for Zionist and non-Zionist occupational retraining programs for young Jews between 1933 and 1941 reflected a desire to facilitate the rapid emigration of Jews from Germany. But this policy encountered considerable opposition from several government and party agencies because the retraining process involved activities they deemed violations of Nazi racial teaching. The policy debates and disagreements among the various offices of the Nazi party and the state reflected the tension between ideology and pragmatism in Nazi Jewish policy, and its relative lack of central planning and direction during the early years of the Third Reich. Eventually, as it so often did, the regime opted for the pragmatic approach by supporting Jewish retraining programs as the most effective way to promote the total emigration of Jews from Germany.