professors, student newspapers and isi books to an extent facilitates that writing books with intellectual cultural event with the aim to kind of restore some of that culture that we have lost in the past 50 or so years. before that, isi also published books but not under our own publishing act. we would go outside. since 93 we've been dependent within the institute itself. >> and is the ideological -- is there and all ideological concentration? >> yes. bringing back the cultural underpinnings of conservatism, not so much this is what we need to do now or taking action but trying to bring back the fault of the culture into the movement and just get people to think about overseeing, played out at the whole level. >> thanks for your time,

christian. .. in 2003, the center inoculated this jewish store study initiative. if that remains to fundamentally change the way in which the holocaust is studied, taught that ultimately understood. i focusing attention on the

survival and study of jewish source material that document to which responses and activities are indeed transfix era and during the jewish world after the war, this initiative attempts to balance the study of the perpetrators of death with the study of jewish life during and immediately following the period of the assault. this afternoon, we will see some of the fruits of those labors, the first volume in the "jewish responses to persecution: volume i, 1933-1938". the first volume edited by director of applied researcher at the museum and dr. mark roseman examines the initial years of persecution, 1933 through 1938 and the fate of german, austrian, to the voices of the victims through letters, diaries, jewish community reports, communicate and other documents. these documents illuminate history from the ground up and

address such questions as how do jews respond to the unfolding persecution around the? what was it like for jews in germany is accustomed to full rights of citizens to have their lives become more and more restricted? how to do german jews have time to emigrate and with a lot of the devastating choices presented to them and their families? about these documents will look at the story only as the perpetrator stole it in numbers of dead or free suspect. through the acquisition of research efforts we now have access to the voices of those who experience the holocaust from persecution to full-scale genocide. in the words of these individuals will no doubt change the way in which the narrative, the holocaust is told to today will hear those words requiring survivor volunteers who give so much to distance duchenne each day. we are honored to hear peter landy, jill and kirk talley, susan coe and susan worsened her mother voices to these words.

their presence reminds us that each document in this volume in the series of fanning, he face any family. please refer to the handout for survey reprise of our readers. today's program will begin with dr. matthaus provide an overview of the national history of the series. he received his phd in history 1992 from the university in germany. his recent publications include a oppression and ossuary provider, holocaust and transformations and atrocities on trial comes to postpurchase on the which he co-edited with patricia haber. professor roseman will provide commentary fictionalization for the different documents to be read here the pope can be found in handout. professor roseman. his publications cover wide range of topics in german and european history including life reform and protest the 1920's

and 30's, germany, holocaust survival in memory, nazi policy and perpetrators, post-1945 germany and the construction in jewish and other minorities in german history. professor roseman labadie notational scholar center for the 2010, 2011 academic year. dr. leah wilson will close the program of the question-and-answer period. dr. wilson is an applied research officer with the center. she received her phd from emory university in 2008 and is working on the fifth volume of this persecution will to cover the years 1944 through 1946. this sign was made possible by the generous support of the plume family foundation and the william s. foundation with additional support of the jarrell foundation. we also thank the helena rubinstein program for making this possible. before him the podium over to jurgen i want to ask anyone to join us again on the evening of march 18 will present the

20:10 a.m. with an annual lecture entitled from soviet to jewish, the war experience in the evolution of jewish identity. finally, i ask you please to have your cell phones and other noisemaking electronic devices. thank you. jurgen? >> good afternoon. my name is jurgen matthaus. before we get into the reading, let me take a few minutes to explain the rationale behind the book and the reading were having today. shortly after hitler been appointed chancellor of germany the most prominent representative of chairman jewelry rabbi lübeck if it were declared that that the thousand year history of german jewry was over. my perspective looking him back in what we know now about the persecution of jews in the 1930's and thereafter, such a statement makes perfect sense

and confirms what we think jews at the time, at least those in prominent positions, could have perceived about the future. not surprisingly then, since the 1950's back statements have often been quoted, however there's a problem. we have no proof that back ever made the statement either in 1933 or later in the 1930's. in fact, it is very likely that he was described to him after the war by well-intentioned friends. we do have plenty of documentary evidence pointing to the fact that at the time, that is to say the 1930's, backs public renunciations were in keeping with the mood of most jews in germany. and that mood was anything but uniform when it came to future expectations. i'm the one hand, there was shock and confusion at the abrupt turn of events in the future escalation. on the other, they're still to

going to be a reason for hope that things would one way or another improve, that there would be some kind of future for jews and the new germany. memoirs and other testimonies put aside the fact are unique and invaluable sources, yet documents produced at the time either diaries, letters, newspaper articles or photographs have a special powers to limit the past. as any history teacher knows, contemporary sources are invaluable for conveying a sense of history in the making. if only for a moment he sources let us grasp the reality of a time when the past was so the president, when outcomes with which we are all familiar were still unknown. but when it comes to understanding the holocaust, documents from the time. , particularly those stemming from the hands of it duns had a significant and expressiveness that goes far beyond this

general rule. they can recover the hopes, fears, decisions and actions of people, real people too often seen merely as objects of nazi policy. they can rescue the diversity and individuality of millions of women, men and children from their tormentors try to treat as faceless undifferentiated mass. and they can bring back to life the uncertainty, confusion and disbelief of those confronted by measures and processes that they don't believe retrospect, not at the time. after all, for much of that. i've nazi rule, jews may find, but could not see where things are heading. the architects and petitioners of german anti-jewish policies knew how to conceal their intentions. more than that, the contradictions and changes and nazi policy show that in the night and 30's at least even

nazis had no idea about the destination, the holocaust as we know it was not a full block conclusion. only the contemporary records are free from the blinding clarity of hindsight. but why should such documents be coming to light only now. why is there indeed no english-language collection available for university teaching for the public documenting the breadth and richness of jewish responses to not nazi persecution. for one thing, there has been the opening of eastern european archives since the early 1990's. secretive and a moscow archive for the entire paper is that the important jewish soap defense organization, the central association of german citizens of the jewish faith. a rich of material now available at the united tape holocaust

holocaust for this volume. moreover, it has been the the perpetrators and not the big dems who received most attention. we have seen for example import new studies exploring the causes and to constitute the holocaust in providing new answers the questions how, and in why the not be used in the collaborators did what they did. what is found surprisingly little scholarly interest however other reactions and actions of jews at the sources generated by then not after the holocaust, but while it was still raging. the aim of our on each responsibility to persecution with it just published first volume is to fill that gap. and if these volumes achieved nothing else, they will hopefully convey the sheer richness, vitality and depth of witness records preserved in our car sideways across the globe

even when we do focus on records produced at the time, one might ask whether we can really understand that time of the special circumstances of the nazi era. in germany in the 1930's, jewish individuals and agencies operated in a strange space with mayor wayne wiles of surveillance, but also within one can call a jewish fear devoid of the institutional pressures that non-jewish groups had to conform with. to understand a report or article written by jewish men or women under such circumstances, we need to be able to read between the lines of a text that had to be meaningful to us just recipients while staying within the limits set at the gestapo. we need to another words to listen closer, beyond the mere informational content, to understand the undertones, the

whispers and operations. guys, introducing various texts featured in the book where tried to convey a sense of the circumstances of their production and communication. a great many documents in this volume revealed that the duns as thinking, feeling, reflective individuals, capable of gaining striking insights into their situation. but how jewish were such responses? some of the statements and actions for which we have documentation undoubtedly reveal common behavior patterns that would be just played by any group or individual confronted with such a monstrous brat. others however, reflect jewish diaspora life in the first half of the 20th century with its specific political religious cultural aspects. the narrative presented in the book consists of many partly dissonant and conflicting

voices, a broad spectrum that we can only reflect to a small degree here today. this event and the volumes in the series have achieved one of the key aims if they convey a better understanding of the openness of the process in the minds of those who lived through it, like the survivors with us on this her grand and the authors of the sources you will here read today. if they make us more aware of the unpredictability cause of events as well as of the great diversity and reactions within the jewish minority persecuted and nazi. with these volumes, we hope to deepen the understanding of jewish agency under circumstances that increasingly reduced real options to choices between the impossible and the unthinkable. allow me to briefly introduce our volunteer readers. we were all born in germany or

austria and they all have a very rich biography that i cannot do really just this year by introducing them. margaret meisner center childhood in czechoslovakia and in 1941 came to the united states, france, spain, and portugal. peter came to the united states in 1937 from berlin. jerry pauley integrated with a family first to kenya and after the war to the united states. her husband left germany in 1936 for palestine before he moved on to america in 1938. sue came to france in 1938 and joined her parents in the united states in september 1941. suzanne taube reflects experiences that go far beyond what we feature in this volume and addressed in future volumes in the series. born in a town of thuringia she was deported from berlin to the

league of althea in 1942 with her grandmother, mother and sister. her grandmother was killed in the forest and in 1943 season, her mother and sister were taken to the guys about concentration camp dearly to and were deported to shoot off concentration camp in august 1944. her sister died in shootouts, and her mother. after the probation in march 1945, she would've to pull in wishing that her future husband from large was also a survivor at the museum. this would not have been possible without our volunteer readers. it is also a first in that it features holocaust documents, many written by jews who did not survive, publicly presented here at the u.s. holocaust memorial museum by holocaust survivors. their voices experiences and memories will provide, we hope,

a special kind of resonance for the documents you will here read today. there is more in the book, which has the same goal as this event, namely to raise interest in the future study of the holocaust. you will find information on the documents that are read in the handout that you hopefully have received at the door. there has been a last-minute change and so far as the number 10 on your list, document 64 has been dropped. that may now turn it over to my dear friend and colleague, mark roseman who will guide us to the documents and provide some context as well as background information for the reader. thank you. [applause] >> one-way to think about the text and the voices that you're about to hear is that there is a mournful confirmation, the moving personalization of what

we already know. like the passes we give to visitors they offer real stories, real voices, real names amidst millions. it's not that the past tell us something new, but they make it insofar as they can real. but another way to think about the stories are about to hear the shots shouts of light onto a dark planet. each shines a little light and each shaft of light comes in at a different angle, revealing something new about the dark than it is nazi rule. so when we read them, when we hear them, we can ask, how does this change? but it's not always easy for that light to reach us. sometimes people wrote with things in butte that we can't be. sometimes they could not write or speak freely. so as we listen, we should ask,

what is off the page? what is between the lines that we need to bear in mind? and quite white of a jewish newspaper article written under nazi censorship we should think about what that meant for readers at the time. here's an example of what i need, disburse extract is taken from the germanrthodox jewish weekly published just three days after his appointment as chancellor and it's read by peter laude. hitler's cabinet today in berlin weighs heavily on the minds of all german jury and in fact all those circles that few overheated rhetoric of today's exaggerated naturalistic race fanaticism as an obstacle to human civilization and historical progress. we do not subscribe to the view

that hitler and his friends now finally in possession of power they have desired for so long will enact the proposal circulated on the enclave newspapers. they will not suddenly divest german jews of their constitutional rights, lot in the wake embrace ghettos or subject them to the avaricious and murderous impulses of the mob. they not only cannot do this because so many other crucial -- [inaudible] ranging from the president to some of the political parties affiliated with them, but they also clearly do not want to go this route. for when one acts as a european broke power the whole atmosphere is more conducive to ethical reflection upon one's better self band revisiting once earlier oppositional role. operating as a european world power means that one seeks an enduring place in the harmonious exchange of peoples of culture.

not to recognize the gravity however would be inexcusably up to mistake. the lesson the men in power prove able to perform legislative miracles for the german people as they struggle with hunger and hardship, the more they will find it attractive instead in order to appear to be doing something to be seen at least turning a few sections of the nazi party racial theory program into political part this. in a national national association civil service, to what extent will the old prussian civil servants sensitivity prevailed over a long long nurtured anti-semitic instincts and be allowed to prevent chicanery towards jews in the abridgment of their legal rights. to what extent will the police force or the national socialistic be reliable and impartial in every case involving jews? last communist citizens. only the future will review whether these questions and concerns are justified.

>> we could read this in several ways. we could say that contemporaries in and the u.s. president know better horribly underestimated and capable of an overestimated the degree to which the constraints of government of coalition government in the affirmative with the nazi could do and we could be sure that no one knew what was coming. but before january the 30th, the german jewish press had not held back in its warnings about hitler. [inaudible] the well-known jewish bank of max warburg in a powerful and much publicized enunciation of the nazis of his great friend of his great friend of his great friend jane seymour readers of the jewish papers do this. so the will of been wondering, did the editorialists you really mean what he said, was that really is readers and himself?

[inaudible] sending a coded symbol to the new government or responsibilities of high office are now not wishing to sound too critical. did the jewish press now feel a little constrained that the new government might go after it? in short, what we learn from this is that one of the first casualties after the nazis came to power was at that the jewish organizations could no longer communicate quite openly with their members, even before purposeful terror constrain their abilities to speak. for jewish newspaper readers in germany, the world that then they become harder to read. even so, many people soon gained a strong sense of the jewish community was threatened with ruin. the sub nazis [inaudible] and then in the second half of march there was the looming threat that the government would support a boycott of jewish

stores. in the view of shorthand typists, and and a hilton heart attack that the following letter to the central association of german citizens of the jewish faith on march 25 disaster backend. her letter is read via susan calloway. >> also distribute the lives of our jewish coreligionists have not yet stopped here. bit by bit every german jewish men and women will be out of any means of subsidence. what is to become a german jews who can no longer live here. if people of other face boycott against us than we jews need to hold us together and support each other. the union of the german jews pray men loyal to the german fatherland. don't they see the writing on the wall? are we going to go back into the god does and misery rights as? >> in the income essential not nazi boycott would last only one

day. our own view is clouded by the later horrors we perhaps lost sight of the shot that went to the jewish community of government support of the boycott. this contemporary document from health and heart who escaped to the u.s. in 1938 shows that for some jews, unspeakable misery was imaginable he [inaudible] as it turned out however, the following months and years would be surprising variation in german jews ability to maintain a normal life under the. for most used it was impossible to get an overview over the entire situation. some regions it better than others. the big city with safer than the fall down. some businesses and trade continued largely unhindered, while many professions jews were thought of their offices. establish figures in the middle years were better placed than youngsters barred from education and training and there was the role of sheer luck. those unfortunate enough to get caught up in the dragnet of

police arresting concentration camp like can tour [inaudible] abraham from the small jewish community in the province of brendenburg were exposed to the full measure of nazi brutality. abraham was arrested in june 1933 and transferred in september to the northern german concentration camp, pouting bird. his report of his experiences as red light poly. >> the jewish holidays are approaching. we debated asher say whether the ss knew the dates of the holidays because we feared worse cruelties. we both agree to avoid any hint about the upcoming holidays. we had not reckoned with her relatives through some sundberg remains of the jewish new year, unaware of the events of the camp. because the letters were read [inaudible] the ss learned of the date and it was not then last

[inaudible] thus i ended up going back to the camp commander after all to request the work exemption and permission to conduct services. answer? that isn't done here. the first day of the holiday at 6:00 in the morning, we jews who are newcomers on the camp were assigned to a special attachment to a chase across the dataquick margin per order to stop in front of the menorah pit. we had to climb down into the pit and get at the bottom. i was yanked out of the line by my comrades and positioned in the middle of the pit. ss mco everly and screamed at me, here you go, rabbi. you can hold services here. [inaudible] rebelled against drug in our religion bitterly into the dirt. i remained silent.

everly, are you refusing to follow the command? i'm not holding services in the manure pit. everly called me out of the pit and rained down on me. i was brought to my bunk unconscious. i lived there for two hours he forward regaining consciousness. >> the way we [inaudible] is strongly shaped by her pain of this jewish community and shaped in this way our memory also tends to exclude some groups without meaning to. the contemporary document remind us that fully one sixth of german jews in the line of fire for over 100,000 people are actually christians of jewish descent. and not roseman they were so racially jewish. i have the christians found themselves stranded between a community of faith that showed little cushion solidarity.

she was skeptical of converts on a notion of being jewish and forced of come with which which they could not identify. some like richard o. writing to the rabbi in the 1933 still turn the church to the hull. his letters read by kurt pauly. >> i personally arranged to be baptized by the protestant church in 1908 because i also married a christian women and because i wanted the children that we expected to have sunday to be raised those questions. i wanted my wife to be buried in a church when the time came. and above all, i wanted to belong to the protestant religion because of my deep-seated convictions, which according to my assessment and experiences with the right ones. my daughter married a protestant and her child was that ties in a