As described in Thoughts from The Frontier: Jacob Lestschinsky, Demographer and Scholar, this essay – “The Jews of Central Europe”, from June of 1938 – is the first of Lestschinsky’s six writings published in the Jewish Frontier from the late 1930s through 1948.
The subsequent five essays are:
The Fate of Six Million – July, 1938
Jews in Baltic Lands – August, 1938
In Fascist Rumania – September, 1938
Terror in Polish Universities – April, 1939
Jewish Expressions in the U.S.S.R. – December, 1948
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The 1,500,000 Jews who live in these lands now have but one way out of the dilemma:
emigration.
The question is – where?
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The Jews of Central Europe
June, 1938
EVERY NATION is morally compelled to face the bitter truth. This article is written not with the intent of bewailing our plight but in order to arrive at a factual calculation of the status of six million Jews in Central and Eastern Europe and of the prospects that exist in the lands of immigration.
We will begin the reckoning with those countries in which the Jews had reached the peak of their development and where they now tumble at break-neck speed into a bottomless abyss. Over half a million Jews of central Europe are now in the grip of a ruthless inquisition: 300,000 in Germany and 200,000 in Austria. The liquidation of Jewish commercial concerns in Germany is now proceeding at a more rapid pace than it did even during the most difficult months of 1934 and 1935. At that time the Jewish as well as the world press was full of reports concerning the shameless robberies perpetrated by the “saviors” of the German nation. Now the process of pauperization has become a chronic ailment. Everyone, with practically no exceptions, is preparing for flight. As recently as a year ago German Jewish leaders were seriously considering the establishment of homes for the aged to house 250,000 Jews. According to their calculations about 100,000 of the younger and more adaptable Jews would leave the country in the next five years and only the old and those no longer fit for work would remain. They then believed that the old, the decrepit and the widows would be allowed to end their days in the exile of Hitler land. But not they too have changed their minds. They now realize that the departure of the younger ones increase the terror of the old people at the prospect of remaining in the hell which Germany has become for them and that these too are ready to grasp the wanderer’s staff in order to escape the fate of remaining alone in Germany.
Thus proceeds the liquidation of a section of Jewry which for 150 years has enriched the Jewish people and the whole world with hundreds of scholars and scientists. The 150,000 German Jews who have scattered throughout the world are spiritually crushed and will not soon recover. The 40,000 Jews who have settled in Palestine will probably enrich the Jewish community there, but the 110,000 others who fled to various lands are merely looking for a place of refuge where they can hide without attracting attention. Only one hope fills the heart of the German Jewish refugee who had found a domicile – to find room for those dear to him who still remain in Germany.
Such is the end of German Jewry which was the richest and most prosperous from an economic as well as from a spiritual viewpoint.
(Austria)
But the debacle of German Jewry is as nothing when compared to the calamity which has overtaken the Jews of Austria. The measure of destruction which was achieved in Germany in two years has been accomplished in Austria in two weeks. In proportion to the population there were more Jewish shops pillaged in Austria in two weeks than there were in Germany in two years. More Jewish doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers and architects were expelled from their positions in Austria in one month than were affected in Germany in three years. The number of Jewish officials in Austria was negligible and altogether they numbered no more than 156 in government and municipal positions.
Austrian Jewry suffered from a severe economic dislocation even before the annexation of the country by Hitler. Sixty thousand out of Vienna’s 170,000 Jews – over one third – were dependent on relief. Among the needy who applied for aid there were Jews who only a few years before themselves contributed considerable sums to the Jewish charitable institutions. Even before Hitler seized Austria the majority of the Jewish lawyers were unemployed and the number of Jewish bank employees decreased from 10,000 to 1,200 over a period of two years; the nationalization of the banks transformed the Jewish employees into paupers and unemployed. A similar fate awaited the Jewish employees of the insurance concerns. The bankruptcy of the insurance company “Phoenix” and its absorption by the government reduced 100 Jewish families to poverty. The plight of the Jewish “intelligentsia” of Vienna even before the advent of Hitler is impossible to describe.
In 1933 tens of thousands of Jews found refuge in the neighboring countries. Even Poland and Russia gave temporary refuge to thousands of German Jewish refugees and even though they soon left these countries they found momentary rest in these lands. Today the situation is different. The gates of all the countries are locked fast. All boundaries are carefully guarded and only a handful succeed in escaping. During the first years of the Nazi regime emigrants were allowed to take along enough money to tide them over for a few months. Today the pockets of those leaving Germany are carefully searched. If one does succeed in escaping, he emerges penniless with not a nickel to pay the porter at the station.
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(Hungary)
Hungary, Austria’s neighbor, harbors 430,000 Jews. Events which transpire in Austria cast their shadows on Hungary. We have heard much of the nightly raids in search of foreign Jews during which hundreds of people, 95% of them are Hungarian citizens, are roused from their beds. Much has also been written of the ceaseless attacks of the anti-Semitic Hungarian students during recent years. But very few people are acquainted with the systematic and thoroughgoing efforts to expel Hungarian Jews from economic positions. The Hungarian parliament is now considering a bill to limit Jewish participation in economic life to 20%. In sponsoring this bill the government aims to steal the thunder of the fascist and anti-Semitic parties and to gain the support of the masses which are sympathetic to fascism. The Hungarian government considers this attitude as “favorable” to the Jews; it is convinced that it “saves” the Jews from the still greater dangers which are threatened by the coming of the fascists into power.
The situation in Hungary is very similar to that in Rumania. The Jews fulfill such an important role in the national economic life that their sudden removal would create an economic catastrophe similar to that which occurred in Rumania during the administration of Goga and Cuza.
It is true that only 35% of the total trade of Hungary is in the hands of Jews but in some branches of commerce that percentage is much higher. Eighty-two perc cent of the wholesale trade in wood and coal is in the hands of the Jews; 73% of the marketing of farm produce is in Jewish hands; 88% of the food produce trade, 71% of the book and stationary stores and 79% of the textile trade is also handled by Jews. They are also prominent in industry and represent 68% of the garment production, 66% of the textile manufacture, 67% of the paper production, 44% of the chemical industry and 37% of the metal industry.
Jews are also heavily represented in the professions and they constitute 54% of the medical calling, 49% in law, 31% of the editors and journalists and 25% of the scientific and literary men.
But the figures cited above apply only to private trade and industry. We get an entirely different picture in the government owned sources of employment. The share of the Jews in government positions amount to no more than 1 1/2 %. Jewish judges and state attorneys make up but 1% of the total; 3% of the professors are Jews and only 16% of the doctors employed in government institutions are Jewish. These figures are taken from the census of 1931. During the past seven years most of the remaining Jews in government employment have been discharged. The figures of Jewish participation in economic life therefore apply only to private enterprise. The Hungarians have not yet mastered trade and industry sufficiently – like the Germans – to be able to ride themselves of the Jews at once. Such a move would endanger the economic structure of the country. Such is the argument of the government when it prepares to liquidate the Jews gradually, over a period of a few years, until the Hungarians are capable of operating the Jewish commercial enterprises as well as of seizing them.
At first glance it may appear that limitation of Jews to 20% is not such a calamity since they comprise only 5% of the total population and even in Budapest, where 200,000 Jews are concentrated, they make up no more than 20% of the inhabitants. It is also a fact that the number of Jews in Hungary is decreasing. Before the war there were 470,000 Jews living in the area of present-day Hungary and today there are only 430,000. The death rate among the Jews is much higher than the birth rate and there is additional loss through emigration. But if we consider the position of Hungarian Jewry from a more realistic point of view we will readily realize the terrible consequences which a limitation to 20% will entail. When the government will begin to apply this economic “plan” it will not consider the fact that Jews occupy only 1% of the positions in transportation, the judiciary and civil service and that their share ought to be increased, if not to twenty at least to five per cent. The new law aims only at taking away but not giving. This is the measure of justice to the Jew, but we must admit that in this age of Hitler even such a law is relatively just.
One thing is clear: Hungarian Jewry is faced with a great catastrophe and it is only due to the more dramatic tragedy of Germany and Austria that we do not hear more about it. I suspect, however, that before long we will be compelled to listen to the anguished cry from Hungary. The political developments in this country are progressing at an accelerating pace. The fascist and anti-Semitic tide is constantly gaining in momentum and the proximity of Nazi Germany is bound to exert a fatal influence on events in Hungary.
Hungarian Jewry which has always avoided contact with the Jews of other countries and which was never represented in world Jewish conclaves may soon gave to ask for aid from world Jewry. Heretofore they were estranged from their people and looked upon themselves as Hungarians of the “Mosaic persuasion,” now they will be compelled to reunite with the living and bleeding body of the Jewish nation.
(Note: Before this article was finished the news arrived that the Hungarian government adopted the limitation bill. Our fears in this respect came true. In practice it means that the Jews will be removed from all non-Jewish and governmental establishments but Jewish concerns will be allowed to employ their co-religionists only to a maximum of 20%.)
Among the Jews of Hungary there are 67,000 laborers and 52,000 officials. These are people without means who face starvation immediately after they are discharged. Out of 2,800 Jewish doctors, only 1,600 will be allowed to practice their profession; of 2,700 lawyers only 1,100 will be permitted to continue their practice of law; only 300 out of the 500 Jewish editors and journalists will be allowed to continue their work. The same holds true for Jewish musicians and actors. Altogether nearly 6,000 Jewish families, which gained their livelihood in the professions, will be left without any income. When we add to these the assistants and office workers that were employed by the professionals we may conclude that about 25,000 Jews will be affected by the new decree. Still more tragic is the fate of those employed in commerce and industry. Nearly half of the 52,000 Jews engaged in these callings will remain without employment and the decree will thus affect between 60 and 70 thousand persons. Somewhat more favorable are the prospects for the Jews in heavy industry where they number not more than 7% but the situation is very critical in the smaller Jewish shops which have Jewish employees only. It will thus be an “optimistic” estimate to say that about 150,000 Hungarian Jews will be affected by the new decree and will be faced with ruin.)
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(Czechoslovakia)
The fate of the 360,000 Jews living in Czechoslovakia is probably the most tragic of all despite the fact that they live in the midst of a civilized and democratic nation which is fighting the encroachment of Hitlerism and that they enjoy equal rights. Nearly 100,000 Jews live in districts which are overwhelmingly German; 100,000 live in districts with a Hungarian or Slovak majority; another 100,000 live in the midst of a Ukrainian or Hungarian majority and only about 60,000 Jews live in territory inhabited by Czechs. During the past century the Jews of these districts thrice changed their political orientation. At first they were Austro-German patriots and aided the German majority to assimilate the subject peoples. After the Austro-Germans and Hungarians arrived at an understanding and some of the minorities came under the sway of the Hungarians, the Jews became Hungarian patriots. The third change occurred when the Czechs became the dominant element and the Jews became Czech patriots. Even while they lived in districts inhabited by Germans, Ukrainians or Slovaks, the Jews sent their children to the Czech schools. During election periods the Jews allied themselves with the Czechs and aided them to attain majorities which they never could have obtained without the assistance of the Jews. It became axiomatic for the Jews to side with the stronger force. Why? Because the weakest must always depend on the strongest and is forced to lend its small aid. From a historical perspective such a policy is unwise and charged with dangers but it is part of human nature not to look into the future. People want to live and to enjoy life and when the stronger seeks the aid of a weak group in order to dominate other minority groups the weaker one will grasp the extended hand of friendship. The Jews paid dearly for this policy but they continued to ignore the lesson of history.
A great danger threatens Czechoslovakia. The exodus has already begun. At this moment the immigrants of recent date who settled in the country are leaving it; but every letter that comes out of Czechoslovakia voices a great terror of what is about to come. If Hitler’s plan to partition Czechoslovakia, which was formulated in the Voelkischer Beobachter, is carried out, then the Jews will find themselves in a position much worse than that of the Jews in Germany. The Germans, Slovaks, Poles and Hungarians that will be detached from Czechoslovakia will take revenge upon the Jews for having supported the Czechs. Even if Czechoslovakia is to remain an undivided state it is evident that all its national minorities will obtain a wide measure of autonomy and the Jews will fall under their sway. Sooner or later the Jews will thus be faced with persecution and economic annihilation at the hands of the national minorities.
The terror which has seized Czechoslovakian Jewry – until recently the happiest Jewish community in central Europe – shows that they instinctively sense the approaching calamity. The democratic “paradise” island in the heart of Europe is about to vanish and with its disappearance the last ray of light for the Jews of central Europe will be extinguished.
This is the condition of the Jews in the central European countries. It is a situation which offers no hopes or favorable prospects for the near future. The 1,500,000 Jews who live in these lands now have but one way out of the dilemma: emigration. The question is – where?
