Synopsis
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, some 525,000 Jews were living within the borders of Germany. Over the next six years between 250,000 and 300,000 either chose or were forced to emigrate as a result of officially sanctioned anti-Semitism, yet as the pivotal year of 1939 dawned, nearly half remained.Why so many German Jews appeared reluctant to leave their homeland and escape the Nazi terror is one of the great unsolved questions of the Holocaust. Theories abound: the vagaries of Hitler's Jewish policy during the 1930s did not clearly foreshadow the Final Solution; Jews expected to survive this period of German anti-Semitism as they had others throughout the centuries; those who tried to escape were denied immigration visas all over the world. While there is some truth in all these responses, according to John Dippel they are more ex post facto rationalizations than explanations. In this revelatory book he examines diaries, letters, and other documents written before 1939 in an attempt to discover an answer uncolored by hindsight. Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire is the story of six prominent figures in the German Jewish community who chose to stay on under the Nazis—the chief rabbi of Berlin, the editor of the leading Zionist newspaper, a renowned international financier, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, a society columnist, and a conservative youth movement leader. Owing to their visibility, their decisions not to emigrate changed irreversibly not only their own lives but also the lives of thousands of others.In spite of their disparate lives, Dippel argues that these six shared a single passion: a deep and abiding love for their country. Able to trace their German heritage back hundreds of years, they were proud of their ability to assimilate successfully—to become ”more German than the Germans.” Their ties to their homeland in fact were so deep that most probably would have described their primary identification as German rather than Jewish. Ultimately, their sense of loyalty and nostalgia—their patriotism—blinded them to the hatred that swirled around them until it was too late. Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire explores the emotional and psychological conflicts as well as the patriotic, cultural, and economic ties that kept these six leaders, along with countless others, from fleeing. In addition, it provides a fascinating look at the dynamics of late nineteenth and early twentieth century German Jewish life, including the rise of the Zionist movement and the tensions between established Jews and their eastern European immigrant cousins.
Reviews
A revealing glimpse into the lives of six German Jews and their motives for lingering on in Nazi Germany. From a wide ``archival diaspora'' of letters, diaries, and other documents, Dippel, an editorial consultant, pieces together the lives of six leading, but very different, German Jews who passed up every opportunity to leave Nazi Germany before 1939; the study is an attempt to suggest why the majority of German Jews, despite legal and physical assaults, did not flee that nation. Dippel follows both the private and very public lives of his six subjects. Rabbi Leo Baeck represents German Jewry's religious and political leadership. We watch this proponent of interfaith dialogue as he slowly comprehends that the Jews' position in Germany is untenable. Finally broken, he is dragged off to the camps (which he survives), after asking the Gestapo for an extra minute to pay his gas bill. Journalist Robert Weltsch discovers Zionism, remains dedicated to showing German Jews that Palestine will play ``a central role in Jewish life,'' and ultimately sees the fractured community accept his thesis that Jews, too, are a volk with a ``fatherland.'' Nobel Prizewinning chemist Richard Willstatter develops the gas mask, screens himself from reality in his scientific ivory tower, and survives only because of a miraculous escape. Society columnist Bella Fromm socializes with diplomats and top Nazis to save hundreds of refugees and then manages, barely, to save herself. Financier Max Warburg also grows from a hedonistic German into a heroic, defiant Jew who sacrifices much so that many others can escape before him. Only Jewish fascist Hans-Joachim Schoeps (``no one can tear Germany out of our hearts'') conforms to the pathological profile that we so glibly confer on those determined to deny reality and their own identity. This dramatic, multidimensional history adds much-needed depth to our understanding of the enigmatic German-Jewish community that dallied with Hitler. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Based on the author's research in surviving personal letters, newspaper accounts, and archival records, this arresting book succeeds in explaining why vast numbers of German Jews decided to remain in their homeland during the Nazi terror. Dippel (Two Against Hitler, Greenwood, 1992) focuses on six leaders of the German-Jewish community, among them the renowned Rabbi Leo Baeck and the powerful financier Max Warburg. Through their life stories he shows how their deeply ingrained love of country produced delusionary hopes of coming to terms with the "new" Germany. These six were lucky enough to survive the terror, but, sadly enough, they influenced thousands of their fellow Jews to stay behind when they still had the chance to leave. Soon it was too late, and most of those who stayed perished in the "Final Solution." In an accessible style that will attract general readers as well as specialists, Dippel shows how the German Jews' intense love of the fatherland together with their historical, emotional, and economic ties to Germany blinded them to the reality of the fate that was in store for them. An important and original contribution to Holocaust studies; highly recommended.?Robert A. Silver, formerly with Shaker Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In examining why thousands of German Jews chose to stay in their homeland after Hitler came to power in 1933, Dippel focuses on the lives of six prominent community leaders: Leo Baeck, chief rabbi of Berlin; Richard Willstatter, a Nobel Prize^-winning chemist; Bella Fromm, a Berlin society columnist; Hans-Joachim Schoeps, a Jewish youth leader; Max Warburg, Germany's leading Jewish banker; and Robert Weltsch, a Zionist editor. Despite their widely disparate walks of life, they all shared one passion--a deep and abiding love for their country. They chose to endure the deepening Nazi nightmare, even though doors abroad were open to them. Their bond to Germany was too complex, too emotionally and psychologically compelling, Dippel says, to be neatly rent asunder. Rumors of worse treatment to come were dismissed as panic-inspired exaggerations. Dippel concludes that German Jews feared leaving families, friends, homes, and jobs for unknown shores, an alien language, unemployment, isolation, hardship, and despair. In exploring the lives of these six German Jews--all survived, though Baeck spent time in Theresienstadt concentration camp--Dippel provides keen insights into a little-understood aspect of the Holocaust. George Cohen
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