The American Zone of occupied Germany became the haven for about 250,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors from eastern Europe. These displaced persons built a full infrastructure with a Yiddish press, political parties, theaters, sports clubs, schools, and religious institutions on what they called the “blood-stained soil” of Germany.
While 90% of them had left for Israel and the United States by the early 1950s, those remaining, together with German-Jewish survivors and returnees from exile, rebuilt Jewish life in postwar Germany.
Historian Michael Brenner of American University discusses this era, what it means to be Jewish in Germany, and the importance to Germany of a vibrant Jewish community. He also examines the massive Russian-Jewish immigration following the fall of the Berlin Wall, which increased Germany’s Jewish population from 30,000 to 200,000, and includes the newest immigrant group—Israelis in Berlin.
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