Deutschland in the US, Part III: The migration of Jewish Germans

Written by Sabrina Axster

This is the third installment of our History of German Immigrants series. Read the first and second installments.

Jewish Germans waiting in the office of the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Relief Organization of German Jews). Source.

One essential element of German migration to the US — and to NYC in particular — is that of Jewish Germans. Jewish immigration to America is traditionally divided into three categories: Sephardic, German, and Eastern European. But this doesn’t mean that there were no German Jews coming to the US during the periods of Sephardic or Eastern European immigration. These only denote an overarching trend.

The German wave of Jewish immigration started in the mid-19th century and was driven by a desire for more freedom, and economic and social factors such as land scarcity, rural poverty, and marriage restrictions. Many were poor and lived in the immigrant communities of the Lower East Side with its crowded tenements.

The darkest chapter of the migration of German Jews was during the Nazi regime. As the targeted persecution and later extermination of Jews in Germany intensified, many Jewish Germans left the country. Initially, many Jews went to neighboring European countries only to be caught later when these countries were conquered by the Nazis. In total, more than 340,000 Jews left Austria and Germany during the Nazi regime, with roughly one-third staying close to home.

This wave intensified after the Kristallnacht pogroms (also known as the Night of Broken Glass) that took place from November 9 to 10 in 1938. In the months thereafter, 120,000 Jews emigrated from Germany, 85,000 of which came to the US. It’s well known that this number does not reflect the vast number of Jews that were seeking refuge during this time. Equally well-known is how reluctant governments from other countries were to accept more refugees: a poll from 1938 shows that the majority of Americans wanted to keep Jewish refugees out. The plight of the many Jews who were unable to secure visas to the US or were returned upon arrival should serve as a stark reminder of the United States’ responsibility to help refugees.

Come back next week to find out more about German immigrants in New York today.