Sojourners. The Return of German Jews and the Question of Identity

Abstract

This absorbing book of interviews takes one to heart of modern German Jewish history. Of eleven German Jews interviewed, four are from West Berlin, and seven are from East Berlin. The interviews provide an exceptionally varied and intimate portrait of Jewish experience in twentieth-century Germany. There are first-hand accounts of Weimar Republic, Nazi era, Holocaust, and divided Germany of Cold War era. There are also vivid descriptions of new united Germany, with its alarming resurgence of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Some of men and women interviewed affirm their dual German and Jewish identities with vigor. There is West Berliner, for instance, who proclaims, am a German Jew. I want to live here. Others describe impossibility of being both German and Jewish: don't have anything in common with whole German people. Many confess to profound ambivalence, such as East Berliner who feels that he is neither a native nor a foreigner in Germany: If someone asks me, 'Who are you?' then I can only say, 'I am a fish out of water.' Uncertain, angry, resolute, anguished-the diverse testimonies of these people provide startling evidence that the history of German Jews is not over