The Shaping of Jewish Identity in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1989

Abstract

The anti-Jewish measures that decimated the Jewish community of the GDR in 1952-53 and the subsequent rehabilitation of the remnant of that community after Stalin's death serve as examples of anti-semitism in Eastern Europe. Equally important, they reveal the role of the state in shaping its religious and ethnic minorities. The events of 1952-53 reduced the size of the Jewish community in the GDR and destroyed it as a grass-roots organization. Its ties to Western countries and institutions were cut, and it was attached directly to the East German state, on which it remained dependent and which it served. The Jewish community of the GDR was destroyed as a troublesome interest group and recreated as an embodiment of the GDR's claim to be the antifascist Germany.