After the Shoah it was not a matter of course that Jews who had fled the Nazi regime returned to Germany. Their motives varied, particularly in the face of the question whether they returned to East or West Germany. For Jews who had decided on a life in the “Soviet occupation zone” (SBZ), it was not insignificant to become part of the new “anti-fascist state”. After the end of the war, antisemitism and other forms of discrimination were, in the SBZ, associated with the Western “capitalist striving for profit and world conquest”. In the GDR’s self-image, the roots of the new, socialist state lay in the resistance against National Socialism. This would rule out any succession to the German society of perpetrators. In the building of the “anti-fascist state”, the reappraisal of the Nazi era was degraded to a form of representation of the resistance. Jews were, moreover, called into question as the main victim group of the National Socialists. A reappraisal of one’s own perpetration took place only superficially or not at all. All the same, a rampant antisemitism emanated from the GDR leadership. Among other things, this was also shown by the close cooperation between the GDR and Palestinian terrorist groups which at that time were oriented exclusively towards the destruction of Israel.
The vision of the returned Jews of helping to build an anti-fascist state turned out for many to be a great disappointment, if not indeed dangerous. The lack of a reappraisal of Nazi history, in combination with (left-wing) antisemitic conspiracy myths, can still be felt today.
The path to German unity was a hopeful chapter for many Jews. With reunification, new possibilities opened up in particular for Jews from the former GDR to connect with the world and to live their Jewish identity.
In reunified Germany the consensus applies of living, protecting and preserving a society free of discrimination and free of hatred. It is therefore a task for society as a whole also to stand up for the safeguarding of Jewish life in Germany.
