Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany

by Nathan Stoltzfus

Overview

In February 1943 the Gestapo arrested approximately 10,000 Jews remaining in Berlin. Most died at Auschwitz. Two thousand of those Jews, however, had non-Jewish partners and were locked into a collection center on a street called Rosenstrasse. As news of the surprise arrest pulsed through the city, hundreds of Gentile spouses, mostly women, hurried to the Rosenstrasse in protest. A chant broke out: "Give us our husbands back."

Over the course of a week protesters vied with the Gestapo for control of the street. Now and again armed SS guards sent the women scrambling for cover with threats that they would shoot. After a week the Gestapo released these Jews, almost all of whom survived the war.

The Rosenstrasse Protest was the triumphant climax of ten years of resistance by intermarried couples to Nazi efforts to destroy their families. In fact, ninety-eight percent of German Jews who did not go into hiding and who survived Nazism lived in mixed marriages. Why did Hitler give in to the protesters? Using interviews with survivors and thousands of Nazi records never before examined in detail, Nathan Stoltzfus identifies the power of a special type of resistance--the determination to risk one's own life for the life of loved ones. A "resistance of the heart..."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813586618
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	388
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Nathan Stoltzfus teaches history at Florida State University. Resistance of the Heart won the Fraenkel Prize of the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library and was selected as a "book of the year" by The New Statesman.

Table of Contents

I. Hitler's theory of power
II. Stories of Jewish-German courtship
III. The politics of race, sex, and marriage
IV. Courage and intermarriage
V. Mischlinge: "A particularly unpleasant occurrence"
VI. Society versus law: German-Jewish families and social restraints on Hitler
VII. Society and law: German-Jewish families and German collaboration with Hitler
VIII. Kristallnacht: Intermarriages and the lessons of Pogrom
IX. At war and at home: Mischlinge in Hitler's army
X. Racial hygiene, Catholic protest, and noncompliance, 1939-41
XI. The Star of David decree: The official story and the intermarried experience
XII. The price of compliance and the destruction of Jews
XIII. Plans to clear the Reich of Jews, and the obstacles of women and "total war"
XIV. Courageous women of Rosenstrasse
XV. Protest, rescue, and resistance

Editorial Reviews

In early 1943, the Gestapo rounded up most of the Jews remaining in Berlin, the majority of whom were married to German gentiles, and interred them in a facility on Rosenstrasse, a street in the heart of the city. In the following days, their non-Jewish spouses congregated spontaneously on Rosenstrasse and demanded the return of their mates. Despite threats from the SS to shoot anyone gathering around the building, the spouses held their ground, and eventually Joseph Goebbels agreed to release the 1700 intermarried Jews. Stoltzfus, who teaches history at Florida State University, has written a powerful, exhaustively researched report on that rare episode of open, successful resistance to the regime and reaches a telling conclusion: the Nazi state was so concerned with popular acceptance that public protest could have stopped many of its murderous policies. For a significant example, he cites the Catholic Church's successful opposition to the Nazi's euthanasia program: "[I]t seems beyond any doubt that if the churches had opposed the killing... of the Jews as they opposed the killing of the congenitally insane and sick, there would have been no Final Solution." Interwoven here are the poignant, compelling histories of couples from mixed marriages who opposed the Nazisand survived the regime. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Stoltzfus (history, Florida State Univ.) has written about an unusual and striking episode of the Holocaust. In February 1943, the remaining 10,000 Jews of Berlin were rounded up by the Gestapo; of these, about 2000 were married to non-Jews. These 2000 were herded to a collection center on the Rosenstrasse, the street that was a former center of Jewish life. Word spread quickly among the Christian spouses and relatives, and a public protest ensued, lasting a week. The author's work is groundbreaking in documenting the sensitivity of the Hitler regime to public opinion. After initial vacillation, a decision was made to release the prisoners. Stoltzfus has done an impressive job of presenting this unusual episode. He emphasizes that if the church had protested against the treatment of the Jews as it did, successfully, against the euthanasia program, the Holocaust would not have occurred. He examines issues pertaining to, among other things, intermarriage between gentile and Jewish Germans and adds an extra dimension to his account with poignant, compelling interviews with survivors, which provide the backbone of the book and make it very readable for generalists. Highly recommended for large public and academic libraries.Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., Ill.

Library Journal

Stoltzfus's (history, Florida State U.) 1996 book has now appeared in paper. The Rosenstrasse protest consisted almost entirely of women protesting the arrest of their Jewish husbands by the Nazis in 1943. The Nazis, surprisingly enough, gave in, and almost all of the men survived the war in their Berlin neighborhood. Using interviews with survivors and other primary resources, Stoltzfuz reconstructs the story, offering his analysis of how intermarriage with Germans was viewed by the Gestapo and by Hitler. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Gripping. . . Stoltzfus persuasively argues that the Rosenstrasse protest contradicts the standard German claim that they could do nothing to stop their government, and indeed most of the German Jews who married non-Jewish Germans survived."

New York Times

"Stoltzfus is a careful and subtle historian and the result of his labours is no less sensational and thoughtprovoking."

The Sunday Telegraph

"Here is human interest interwoven with scholarship."

book of the year 1997 New Statesman

"Stoltzfus has created a cogent account, made all the more compelling by the often gripping personal stories of the participants. He pays glowing tribute to their superhuman tenacity ... moreover, he builds a convincing argument."

Jerusalem Post

"Stoltzfus is the first to investigate the events leading to the protest systematically and in depth, not only on the basis of archival material but, more importantly perhaps, on the basis of interviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses ... and it is to Dr. Stoltzfus's great credit that he has saved from oblivion some of these unsung heroes ... Their memory, not least owing to Dr. Stoltzfus's study, will live on ... Fascinating and moving."

from the foreword Walter Laqueur

"An event buried in the past is resurrected here to shed light on the nature and character of the Nazi regime, the Holocaust, and the German people themselves ... An important work that refracts larger political issues and ethical questions through the prism of a unique event."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"Gripping. . . Stoltzfus persuasively argues that the Rosenstrasse protest contradicts the standard German claim that they could do nothing to stop their government, and indeed most of the German Jews who married non-Jewish Germans survived."-- "New York Times"

"Here is human interest interwoven with scholarship."
-- "New Statesman, book of the year 1997"

"Stoltzfus has created a cogent account, made all the more compelling by the often gripping personal stories of the participants. He pays glowing tribute to their superhuman tenacity ... moreover, he builds a convincing argument."-- "Jerusalem Post"

"Stoltzfus has written a powerful, exhaustively researched report on that rare episode of open, successful resistance ... Interwoven here are the poignant, compelling histories of couples from mixed marriages who opposed the Nazis - and survived the regime."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Stoltzfus is a careful and subtle historian and the result of his labours is no less sensational and thoughtprovoking."-- "The Sunday Telegraph"

"Stoltzfus is the first to investigate the events leading to the protest systematically and in depth, not only on the basis of archival material but, more importantly perhaps, on the basis of interviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses ... and it is to Dr. Stoltzfus's great credit that he has saved from oblivion some of these unsung heroes ... Their memory, not least owing to Dr. Stoltzfus's study, will live on ... Fascinating and moving."-- "Walter Laqueur, from the foreword"

From the Publisher