Israelitisches Familienblatt (literally: Israelite Family Paper; originally: Israelitisches Familienblatt für Hamburg, Altona und Wandsbek) was a Jewish weekly newspaper, directed at Jewish readers of all religious alignments. Max Lessmann and Leo Lessmann founded the Familienblatt, which was published by the printing and publishing house Buchdruckerei und Verlagsanstalt Max Lessmann first in Hamburg (from 1898 to 1935), and then in Berlin (1935–1938). The Familienblatt was the only newspaper dealing with majorly Jewish issues in Germany which was run (at least until 1935) by a private business not aligned to a Jewish organisation of any kind.Die Juden in den geheimen NS-Stimmungsberichten: 1933–1945 (Jews in secret Nazi Reports on the German "Public Opinion"), Otto Dov Kulka and Eberhard Jäckel (eds.) with Anne Birkenhauer, Düsseldorf: Droste, 2004, (=Schriften des Bundesarchivs; vol. 62), p. 700. . The editorial and printing offices were located in ABC-Straße 57 in Hamburg. The Hamburg agglomeration, consisting of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Danish-Holsteinian cities of Altona and Wandsbek as well as the Hanoverian city of Harburg upon Elbe, had been an important Jewish centre in Europe and in number with 9,000 persons, the biggest in Germany. Only by the first third of the 19th century did Berlin, Prussia's capital, overtake with Jews migrating from the former Polish provinces, which Prussia annexed in the Polish Partitions. Originally directed to readers in Hamburg's metropolitan area the Familienblatt gained more and more readers and spread nationwide in Germany. Israelitisches Familienblatt was prohibited to appear any further after the November Pogroms on 9–10 November 1938.
History and characteristics Herbert A. Strauss characterised Israelitisches Familienblatt "as the gemütliche, middle-brow journal written for the average petit-bourgeois family in city and country, the Sunday paper that wants to edify, educate and comfort, the Jewish equivalent to the (antisemitic) Gartenlaube."David Flinker, The Jewish Press that was. Accounts, Evaluations and Memories of Jewish Papers in pre-Holocaust Europe, Tel Aviv-Yafo: World Federation of Jewish Journalists, 1980, p. 323 The Lessmanns kept the Familienblatt, politically rather conservative,Die Juden in den geheimen NS-Stimmungsberichten: 1933–1945 (Jews in secret Nazi Reports on the German "Public Opinion"), Otto Dov Kulka and Eberhard Jäckel (eds.) with Anne Birkenhauer, Düsseldorf: Droste, 2004, (=Schriften des Bundesarchivs; vol. 62), p. 701. . out of the controversies on assimilation or Zionism, as fought between the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (literally: Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, founded in 1893) with its C.V.-Zeitung (founded in 1922) and the Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland (founded in 1897 and chaired by Felix Rosenblüth (later Pinchas Rosen) from 1920 to 1923) with its Jüdische Rundschau.
The Familienblatt provided broad-scale information and news about life in the Jewish communities, Jewish celebrities, Jews around the world, Judaism, Jewish traditions and history, recipes for kosher cooking. In its cultural insert the Familienblatt presented music, performing and visual art by examples of creative works by Jewish artists. Esriel Carlebach, since 1931 permanently appointed to the Familienblatt, went to the theatre on four to five evenings each week and afterwards composed his reviews. Over time the Familienblatt spread and specific editions appeared for Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and one Reich's edition for the rest of Germany. In 1933 the circulation amounted to 25,000, which meant that about one-fourth of all Jewish families in Germany had subscribed to the Familienblatt.
Education took up much space in the Familienblatt. Another editorial emphasis was to strengthen Jewish identity and self-confidence by taking a positive attitude to Jewish matters. The Familienblatt covered the establishment of a Jewish museum in Berlin, directed by . In 1905, Albert Wolf (1841–1907), a jeweller from Dresden, donated his collection of Jewish art, at that time the biggest of its kind in Germany, to the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin (founded in 1671).It was a community, which accepted among its members all denominations, orthodox, liberal, reform and offered in its different synagogues services of different styles and traditions. The majority of its members were of mainstream alignment, not needing any further terminological specification. In the 20th century, mainstream meant, what is most appropriately termed by the Anglo-Saxon 'conservative', which was no term in Germany of that time. Exclusively orthodox communities, like Berlin's (founded in 1869), used to distinguish themselves and accepted only orthodox members. The community further enriched the art collection by its own possessions, acquisitions and donations and showed it the first time in 1917 and then with irregular frequency. In November 1929, an association established to found a Jewish museum. On 24 January 1933 Jüdisches Museum zu Berlin (1933–1938), run by the community, opened in Oranienburger Straße 31.
Later confronted with growing antisemitism the Familienblatt worked towards resolving and enlightening as to Jewish matters. Carlebach had unveiled that Joseph Goebbels, who so vehemently defamed Jews and their alleged detrimental influence, had studied with Jewish professors, to whom he owed his scholarship at that time. In the beginning of the 1930s the general atmosphere grew more aggressive. In November 1932 to January 1933 the Familienblatt published a series named 'Sowjetjudäa' (Soviet Judea) on Jewish life under communist reign, a report written by Carlebach on his journey through the USSR in summer 1932. He came to the conclusion that there were neither the possibilities nor an adequate milieu for a genuine Jewish life.
Albert Einstein occasionally brought the Sowjetjudäa series up for discussions, so that they had a much broader response than usual. Especially adversaries of Hitler, who relied on the USSR and who naïvely or willfully downplayed the crimes there, were incited to give thought to his arguments or to be angry with Carlebach.Ezriel Carlebach, 'Let Us Remind Ourselves ' ['לאָמיר זיך דערמאָנען' (Lomir zikh dermonen; letter to Chaim Finkelstein September/November 1955; Engl.], Mort Lipsitz (trl.), in: Chaim Finkelstein (פֿינקעלשטיין, חיים), Yiddish: הײַנט: א צײַטונג בײַ ײדן, תרס״ח־תרצ״ט (Haynt: a Tsaytung bay Yidn, 668–699, {1908-1939}), Tel Aviv-Yafo: פֿארלאג י.ל. פרץ (Farlag Y.L. Perets), 1978, pp. 363–367, here p. 365. "The articles brought forth a flurry of anonymous threatening letters and a vile pamphlet attack upon him from Hamburg's 'Jewish Workers' Study Group'."Donald Lee Niewyk, The Jews in Weimar Germany, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c1980, p. 30. The camouflage name of this group (in German: Arbeitsgemeinschaft jüdischer Werktätiger, Hamburg) aimed at disguising the harassing of Carlebach, the avowed Jew, by the Young Communist League of Germany, Hamburg branch.
On the night of 3 January 1933 the harassment culminated in an assassination attempt. A gunshot cut through his hat, barely missing him.Ruth Heinsohn (mar. Gerhold; 1911–2003), Interview of 13 December 1999, recorded by Ulf Heinsohn (private oral history project) Carlebach fell over, got concussed and lost consciousness. The police found him later senseless. Israelitisches Familienblatt offered a reward of 2,000 Reichsmarks for the capture of the person who did it. By February he had recovered so far that he could resume his work for the Familienblatt.
In January 1933, the Familienblatt still assumed that the German citizenry in its majority would refuse antisemitism. On 30 January 1933 Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler, only since recently German after his seventh attempt to get naturalised finally succeeded on 25 February 1932, chancellor of a coalition government of right-wing forces. On 2 February, the Familienblatt declared its dismay that an outspoken antisemite was appointed head of government, and expressed its hope that once in office the antisemitic movement of National Socialism would have to come to terms.
After the fire in the Reichstag on 27 February 1933, Hindenburg could be persuaded that this, and not his appointment of Hitler, caused an emergency situation, and that he thus needed to decree the partial suspension of the Reich's constitution, which he did by the Reichstag Fire Decree. The Nazis in the Reich's government, with Hermann Göring holding simultaneously the Reich's and Prussian ministry of the interior, could command executive forces of Prussia's police. Thus the Nazis could start to arrest political opponents. Also Carlebach, the Familienblatt's editor, was arrested. He attributed his arrest to Goebbels, who resented Carlebach for unveiling facts from the times, when Goebbels was still studying.Ezriel Carlebach, 'Let Us Remind Ourselves ' ['לאָמיר זיך דערמאָנען' (Lomir zikh dermonen; letter to Chaim Finkelstein September/November 1955; Engl.], Mort Lipsitz (trl.), in: Chaim Finkelstein (פֿינקעלשטיין, חיים), Yiddish: הײַנט: א צײַטונג בײַ ײדן, תרס״ח־תרצ״ט (Haynt: a Tsaytung bay Yidn, 668–699, {1908–1939}), Tel Aviv-Yafo: פֿארלאג י.ל. פרץ (Farlag Y.L. Perets), 1978, pp. 363–367, here p. 365.
Carlebach was lucky, since the prison guards had not yet been brought into dictatorial line and still clung to constitutional practices. He was released from custody because no judicial warrant existed. Just out of prison, Carlebach had to go into hiding, for the Nazis meanwhile noticed that he had been released, and started to search for him. He found aides, who provided him with a hideout and forged papers and smuggled him out into Poland.
The last genuine election under Nazi rule on 5 March 1933 was heavily influenced by the Nazi party. All elected communists and many elected social democrats and liberals were arrested or hiding, so that the number of Nazi-opponent members of the Reichstag, able to attend the decisive sessions of parliament, was sufficiently reduced in order to create a parliamentary majority for the Nazi party, which it could not gain in the election itself. A law, the Enabling Act of 1933, was passed (only opposed by the few unarrested social democrats who risked attending the session) that empowered the Reich's government to rule without parliamentary legislation. Violent atrocities accompanied the Boycott of Jewish shops on 1 April 1933. On 7 April the Reich's government decreed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which allowed to cleanse the public service from all unwelcome persons, such as liberals, social democrats, communists and persons of Jewish descent.
This law became the first official expression of the Nazi definition of Jewishness. The Nazis did not bother about halachic definitions and the individual creed of the concerned persons. The Nazis declared Jewishness in their view being a matter of inheritance, thus persons were discriminated against as Jews if they had three or four grandparents who were registered after their birth as members of a Jewish congregation. This was easy to detect, because mostly religious bodies were busy with the recording of births, marriages and deaths, before official recording became obligatory in 1875. Thus it happened that Gentiles, completely unaware of their Jewish descent, suddenly figured out that the Nazi government regarded them as Jews. The cleansing wasn't restricted to the public service only, but included also the withdrawal of public permissions or approvals for lawyers, physicians and professors.