Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish
Life in Nazi Germany (Studies in
Jewish History) by Marion A. Kaplan
Intersection Between Jewish And Women's History
As the old saying goes, hindsight is always 20-20; people looking back on
the Holocaust and the events leading up to it often wonder why the Jews
didnt flee Nazi Germany or why they put up with the prejudice and
degradation inflicted upon them by the Nazis. From our perspective, 50
years later, it seems almost incredible that the victims of genocide didnt
see it coming and made little effort to escape. But as Marion Kaplan
makes clear in her powerful book, Between Dignity and Despair, the
choices were much murkier at the time. The Jews didnt leave because
Germany was their home and had been for centuries; like everyone else,
they had responsibilities and commitments to family, jobs and
communities that kept them there. Nor, in the early days of Hitlers regime,
could the Jews of Nazi Germany have foreseen the terrible humiliations
they would suffer or imagined the horror of the Final Solution. Kaplans

sensitive narrative, supported by a host of letters, memoirs, and
interviews, aims to give a balanced account of German Jewry under the
Nazi regime. She convincingly shows how it was German society
(indoctrinated by Nazi propaganda) that dealt the first crippling moral blow
to the Jewish psyche, before any laws dictated their actions. The Jews
succumbed to daily humiliations, ranging from little boys being maliciously
teased for being circumcised to older Jews being treated like social
pariahs by one-time friends who fell easily into the mindset of racial
enmity. Hatred breeds hatred; slowly the German populace strangled the
pride of the Jews, creating resentment, distrust and disharmony. Kaplan
conveys a poignant, yet subtle message: the fundamental de-facto
abandonment of decency and moral civility by the gentile Germans was
the catalyst which allowed Nazi leadership to proceed with more
aggressive policies that ultimately led to the Holocaust.
Personal Review: Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in
Nazi Germany (Studies in Jewish History) by Marion A. Kaplan
Between Dignity and Despair is haunting and painful. The statistics of the
Holocaust and "sadistics" of its perpetrators can never capture the true
cost in Human terms. History is more than a chronicle and analysis of
events. It is also an understanding of the experiences of the people who
lived through those events. These experiences do not lend themselves to
quantitative assessment and validation. None-the-less, the stories and
letters of the people who lived during that time are essential to our
interpretation of the geopolitical, military and social events that have
shaped our world.The great question facing us today involves the
"collective guilt" of the German people for the persecution and genocide of
their Jewish neighbors. The frightening and logical extension of this
question is: if such horrors can arise from the children "of the
enlightenment," could it not also come from "the sons and daughters of
liberty?" It is clear from these accounts that the society as a whole,
actively and passively, participated in this process. When studied in
Human terms, it is inconceivable that it could have happened any other
way.Cain, after murdering Able, asked of God "Am I my brother's keeper?"
The response of the German people to the obvious disenfranchisement,
persecution and suffering of the Jews seemed to be: "It depends on your
definition of `brother.'" It teaches us that our high and noble beliefs such
as equality, liberty, freedom, and brotherly love, are empty words if not
applied universally. This lesson was painfully learned in 19th century
America when the statement "all Men are created equal" was understood
as only applying to those of White, Northern European ancestry.Between
Dignity and Despair is haunting and painful because within its pages we
see our own demons and feel the fragility of our own Humanity. We also
see to what extreme our quiet personal prejudices can lead us when they
go unchecked by the better angels of our nature.Ms Kaplan has
contributed to our understanding of the horrors of systematic
psychological terrorism practiced by the Nazis. No revisionist, seeking to
absolve German society, can deny the conclusions drawn from the

experiences she has documented. Her work is essential to an
understanding of the Holocaust.
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