Teaching about German Jewry between 1933-1939

Welcome to the 17th issue of Teaching the Legacy. This edition focuses on the subject of Germany, 1933-1939. The e-newsletter includes a main article on this theme, as well as a continuing article on music in the Third Reich, an article on the work of Felix Nussbaum, and an interview with German historian and writer Götz Aly. As always, the newsletter features new publications, book reviews, and updates on recent and upcoming activities at the International School for Holocaust Studies and across Yad Vashem. We hope you find this issue interesting and resourceful and we look forward to your feedback.

Teaching about German Jewry between 1933 and 1939

Yael Weinstock Mashbaum

IntroductionThe rise of the Nazi Party in 1933 signaled a turning point for 525,000 German Jews that would take years to unfold in the rest of Europe. The ultimate result was World War II and the Holocaust, but long before the ultimate devastation of world Jewry, German Jews felt their world turn upside-down as the emancipation they had achieved came to an end. In the previous newsletter,...

Felix Nussbaum: Self Portraits of a Jew in Turmoil

Liz Elsby

Creating art can be an exhilarating yet painful process for an artist as he grapples with his emotions, his vision, his message, and his limitations. Throughout his artistic life, an artist grows, learns his craft, explores, and matures in a very personal process. However, external factors like war, upheaval, and social change can rob an artist of the ability to freely pursue his inner calling, and...

The Third Reich: Classical Music and the Nazi Leadership, 1933-1945

Jackie Metzger

IntroductionThe Third Reich entered the annals of history as the most extreme aberration of civilized society. Its benchmark was the murder of millions of people in the name of an elaborate ideology that planned to divide the world into superior and inferior race groupings. From 1933 until 1945, the Nazi leadership planned, organized, and executed their ideas, inflicting relentless misery in the European...

Interview with Dr. Götz Aly, German Historian and Journalist

Asaf Tal, Kathryn Berman

Scholars and Educators

Dr. Götz Aly is a German historian and journalist researching the Holocaust and German history during the Nazi period. He is presently researching the survivors’ return home to Europe after the Holocaust, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research. We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Aly for agreeing to share his ideas and thoughts...