"Don't We All Have a Responsibility?”: Authority, Agency, and the Reframing of Jewish Life in East Berlin before and after the Fall of the Wall

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ways in which individuals, particularly women, identifying as Jewish in East Berlin between 1945 and 2016 articulated their Jewish identity and sense of community in the aftermath of the Holocaust, under state socialism, and in response to the social and political changes of the reunification period. It argues that we can understand this trajectory only if we develop an understanding of Jewish history that lifts up marginalized and less-heard voices. In practice, this means taking seriously the idea of a multiplicity of perspectives and re-examining the question of what constitutes the center, and the margins, of Jewish life. This dissertation thus combines the examination of state and congregation documents with analyses of memoirs, essays, literary works, and oral history interviews to address issues such as the experiences of Jews of different national origins, the impact of reunification on the personal and professional lives of East Berlin Jews, and the ways community members documented their lives.