IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 605
Held at: Wiener Library
Title: Reichsvereingung der Juden in Deutschland and Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland
Date(s): 1937-1950s
Level of description: collection
Extent: 1 folder
Name of creator(s): Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland
Reischsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland was founded in 1933 and became the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden in 1935, and later the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland in 1939. It came into being shortly after the Nazi seizure of power as the successor to the Reichsvertretung der jüdischen Landesverbände, a loose federation of Jewish organisations in Germany. Its main objective was to deal with the serious problems facing German Jewry from the new, antisemitic regime.
Rabbi Leo Baeck was elected president, and the driving force in the organisation was its chief executive officer, Otto Hirsch. The organisation's activities were to include all aspects of the internal life of the Jews of Germany, and it was to act as their representative before the authorities as well as Jewish organisations abroad. Its main spheres of operation, conducted through the Zentralausschuss der Deutschen Juden für Hilfe und Aufbau (Central Committee of German Jews for aid and reconstruction) were education, vocational training, support for the needy, economic assistance, and emigration.
The Reischsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Organisation of German Jews) came into being in February 1939 and, as far as its leadership and basic purposes was concerned, was a continuation of its predecessor, the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland. As a result of the intensification of the Third Reich's anti-semitic policies, its aims were increasingly linked to Jewish survival, and in particular, emigration. It was put under the control of the Ministry of the Interior, in practice the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office). It was the only organisation in Germany dealing with Jewish survival until its liquidation in July 1943 when its leaders, Leo Baeck and Paul Eppstein were deported to Theresienstadt.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland and Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland, 1937-1950s, comprising correspondence; press cuttings and reports and papers providing statistical data on the Jewish population in Germany, with particular reference to the expropriation of Jewish property.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: German
System of arrangement:
Original order
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Detailed description on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Jewish Central Information Office
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Mar 2008