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Jewish students (1933-1938)

Around two thousand Jewish students were enrolled at Berlin University in 1933. The vast majority left the university just a few months after the start of National Socialist rule.

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Photo: privat

Biographies and interviews

Benski with blue checked shirt
Photo: privat

Between October 2000 and March 2003, Peter Nolte researched the fate of students at Berlin University who were persecuted under National Socialism as part of a project led by Prof Richard Schr?der and Prof Rüdiger vom Bruch. In October 2001, 22 former students who could be traced in this way visited the Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin. To date, Peter Nolte has collected data on over 2,300 former Jewish students. He has conducted over 80 film interviews with survivors in Europe, the USA and Israel, excerpts of which can now be seen here for the first time.

Gain an insight into a selection of interviews and biographies of Jewish students at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit?t.

Background: University under National Socialism

Jewish and politically unpopular students and lecturers were systematically expelled from the universities from 1933 onwards. Many left Berlin University and Germany because they saw no prospects for the future in the face of anti-Semitic persecution. However, the anti-Semitic exclusion did not begin with Hitler's seizure of power on 30 January 1933, but had a long history. Anti-Semitism was already widespread in the academic milieu at the end of the 19th century and also in the Weimar Republic. The NSDAP student organisation became increasingly popular at the end of the 1920s and even violent attacks on left-wing and Jewish students were no longer a rarity at Berlin University. Texts and illustrations on the everyday life of students in the 1920s and 1930s are taken from the exhibition "stud.Berlin - 200 Years of Studying in Berlin". It was developed by a historical commission of the Referent*innenrat and shown at Humboldt-Universit?t from 4 May 2010 to 31 July 2011.

Menschen in Naziuniformen stehen neben einem Haufen brennender Bücher auf dem Berliner Bebelplatz und machen den Hitlergru?.
10. Mai 1933 - Studierende der damaligen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit?t (heute HU) verbrennen eingesammelte, "undeutsche" Schriften und Bücher ?ffentlich auf dem Opernplatz. Photo: Georg Pahl, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-14597, License: CC-BY-SA 3.0, Source: Wikimedia Commons

The removal of undesirable students

The physical expulsion of Jewish and politically unpopular fellow students from the doors of the university has been a common practice since the 1920s.

Political violence at Berlin University

Various student groups regularly gather in front of their notice boards in the hall during the breaks or meet in the courtyard. National Socialists use these meetings for provocations and assaults.

The NS Student Union

At the beginning of June 1926, a handful of National Socialist students founded the "National Socialist German Student Association" (NSDStB). The Nazi students combine v?lkisch nationalism and fierce anti-Semitism with crude socio-political slogans.

Contact us

Johanna Langenbrinck
Institute of History
Department of 20th Century German History, specialising in
National Socialism

e-mail

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Despite its tradition, the HU did not resist the Nazi attack. Since 1990, it has been working to once again fulfil the academic, political and cultural aspirations of its namesake.