• DOI:10.1177/002200949102600204
• Corpus ID: 159961797

Anglo.Jewish Responses to Nazi Germany 1933—39: The Anti-nazi Boycott and the Board of Deputies of British Jews

@article{Gewirtz1991AngloJewishRT,
  title={Anglo.Jewish Responses to Nazi Germany 1933—39: The Anti-nazi Boycott and the Board of Deputies of British Jews},
  author={Sharon Gewirtz},
  journal={Journal of Contemporary History},
  year={1991},
  volume={26},
  pages={255 - 276}
}

• S. Gewirtz
• Published 1 April 1991
• History
• Journal of Contemporary History

While various studies have been carried out on the responses of the British government and the British press to nazi Germany,1 specifically Jewish attitudes have been neglected. Where the Jewish community of the 1930s in Britain has been the object of scholarly attention, the focal point has been the fight against domestic fascism and not the response to nazi Germany.2 Certainly the victory over British fascism at Cable Street and the events leading up to it provide an attractive subject of investigation for the historian. There is no comparable success which can be said to have been the culmination of Jewish responses to nazi Germany. Neither the boycott of German goods and services undertaken by the majority of British Jews nor the cautious diplomatic approach pursued by the official communal leadership, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), had the slightest effect in ameliorating the conditions of Jews in Germany. It is perhaps for this reason that the history of the anti-nazi boycott movement of the 1930s and the numerous protest marches and meetings which formed part of it remains virtually unexplored. But the ultimate failure of a movement does not mean that it should be consigned to oblivion, especially a movement of such large dimensions as the anti-nazi boycott drive of the 1930s. Researchers into the subject will benefit from Bernard Krikler's unpublished paper in the possession of the Wiener Library.3 Krikler provides a useful overview of some of the most prominent attitudes present in the community. His chief source of evidence was the Jewish Chronicle (JC), whose coverage of events in nazi Germany and the conflicts they provoked in the Jewish community is extensive and often quite perceptive. But an exploration of a large body of the BoD's correspondence for the period enables one to probe deeper than the level of contemporary public discourse. The JC presents the arguments, accusations and counter-accusations levelled by the