The Jews Who Voted for Hitler
What happened when members of a minority community cast its lot with a political leader who despised them
On February 5, 1930, Paul Fechter, an art and theater critic, delivered a lecture to the League of Nationalist German Jews in Berlin. He criticized the perceived Jewish control of the press and arts, accusing prominent Jewish individuals of dominating theaters, publishing houses, and art dealers. Fechter, an editor of the conservative newspaper Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, was delivering a controversial speech that would make the league's members unpopular.
The league, founded by Dr. Max Naumann, was a conservative Jewish organization that opposed perceived Jewish influence. Naumann, a Berlin-based Jewish attorney, held antidemocratic views and blamed Eastern Jews for the influx of unwanted immigrants. He had previously denounced Zionists as traitors and compared them to Nazis. Despite the dangers, the Jews who voted for Hitler, though a small minority, serve as a cautionary tale of individuals who aligned themselves with a political leader who openly despised them.
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