HG Wells
In 1936, in a book entitled The Anatomy of Frustration, H.G. Wells wrote…
Zionism is an expression of Jewish refusal to assimilate. If the Jews have suffered, it is because they have regarded themselves as a chosen people.”
Jews stubbornly refused to stop being Jews, Wells said, and so may have suffered. But well before Hitler’s rise to power German Jews had become Germans first; yet when the crisis came their patriotism and willingness to conform did not seem to help. Before World War II German Jews…
…tended to adopt the culture of their non-Jewish neighbors. They dressed and talked like their countrymen, and traditional religious practices and Yiddish culture played a less important part in their lives. (Jewish Life in Europe before the Holocaust)
Photo: Peter Goldberg
