6. L’exclusion, la persécution et l’expulsion des Juifs au niveau régional : L’exemple de Königsberg

Résumé 0

The experiences of the Jews in Königsberg only slightly differed from those of other communities in Germany during the Nazi era. Even before 1933, the Jewish community had suffered severely from the economic crisis which had struck isolated East Prussia as a whole, and from the particularly virulent anti-Semitism in this province resulting from this isolation and crisis. Königsberg itself had been able to maintain its liberal environment until 1932, but nevertheless, when the state began its attack in 1933, its target was a demographically and economically weakened, politically insecure minority. From then on, the Jewish community had to maintain its internal infrastructure despite continuous migration and, at the same time, serve as a safe haven for the Jews from the surrounding province, who had been exposed to extreme aggression from the beginning. The local perspective on a former liberal flagship city in Germany also proves that in the face of the intoxicating private and national perspectives which the new ruling class seemed to be offering, civic values such as decency and moral courage quickly became just as non-existent there as in traditional anti-Semitic strongholds.