"Whoever wears this sign is an enemy of our people" –Parole der Woche, 1 July 1942 showing ayellow badge used by the Nazis to identify JewsSynagogue inGerman-occupiedBydgoszcz, Poland, September 1939. The inscription in German reads: "This city is free of Jews!"German map showing the number of Jewish executions carried out byEinsatzgruppe A in:Estonia (declaredjudenfrei),Latvia,Lithuania,Belarus, andRussiaAdvertisement for a café inTübingen, describing itself asjudenfrei
Judenfrei (German:[ˈjuːdn̩ˌfʁaɪ], "free of Jews") andjudenrein (German:[ˈjuːdn̩ˌʁaɪn], "clean of Jews") are terms ofNazi origin to designate an area that has been "cleansed" ofJews duringThe Holocaust.[1] Whilejudenfrei refers merely to "freeing" an area of all of its Jewish inhabitants, the termjudenrein (literally "clean of Jews") has the even stronger connotation that any trace of Jewish blood had been removed as an alleged impurity in the minds of the criminal perpetrators.[2] These terms ofracial discrimination andracial abuse are intrinsic to Nazianti-Semitism and were used by theNazis in Germany beforeWorld War II and in occupied countries such asPoland in 1939.Judenfrei describes the local Jewish population having been removed from a town, region, or country by forced evacuation during the Holocaust, though many Jews were hidden by local people. Removal methods included forced re-housing inNazi ghettos especially ineastern Europe, and forced removal orResettlement to the East by German troops, often to their deaths. Most Jews were identified from late 1941 by theyellow badge as a result of pressure fromJoseph Goebbels andHeinrich Himmler.
Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, some attempts have been made to attract Jewish people back to Germany, as well as reconstructsynagogues destroyed during and afterKristallnacht.
Establishments, villages, cities, and regions were declaredjudenfrei orjudenrein after they were apparentlycleared of Jews. However, some Jewish people survived by being hidden and sheltered by friendly neighbours. InBerlin, they were known as "submariners" since they seemed to have disappeared (under the waves). Many survived the end of the war, hence becomingHolocaust survivors.
Gelnhausen, Germany andCalw, Germany – reportedjudenfrei on November 1, 1938, by propaganda newspaperKinzigwacht after their synagogues were closed and remaining local Jews forced to leave the towns.[3]
Independent State of Croatia – Declaredjudenfrei by Interior MinisterAndrija Artuković in February 1942 but Germany suspected that this was not true and the authorities from Berlin sentFranz Abromeit to assess the situation. After that, theUstaše were under pressure to finish the job. In April 1942 two hundred Jews fromOsijek were deported toJasenovac, while 2,800 were sent toAuschwitz.[10] TheGestapo organized the deportation to Auschwitz of the lastCroatian Jews in May 1943, 1,700 fromZagreb and 2,500 from other parts of theNDH.[11][12]: 107 German diplomatSiegfried Kasche pronounced Croatiajudenfrei in a message to Berlin on 18 April 1944, stating that "Croatia is one of the countries in which the Jewish problem has been solved".[13][14]
^Drndić, Daša (2009).April u Berlinu. Fraktura. p. 24.ISBN978-953-266-095-1.Njemački list Völkische Beobachter objavio je 19. kolovoza 1941. da je Banat konačno Juden frei.
^"Extract from Report by Einsatzgruppe A". Archived fromthe original on November 12, 2007. Partial Translation of Document 2273-PS Source: Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV. USGPO, Washington, 1946, pp. 944–949
^Lituchy, Barry M. (2006).Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia: analyses and survivor testimonies. Jasenovac Research Institute. pp. xxxiii.ISBN978-0-97534-320-3.
^Manoschek, Walter (1995)."Serbien ist judenfrei": militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42. Walter de Gruyter. p. 184.ISBN9783486561371.
^Lebel, G'eni (2007).Until "the Final Solution": The Jews in Belgrade 1521 - 1942. Avotaynu. p. 329.ISBN9781886223332.
^Herbert, Ulrich; Schildt, Axel (1998).Kriegsende in Europa. Klartext. p. 149.ISBN9783884745113.
^John K. Cox; (2002)The History of Serbia p. 92-93; Greenwood,ISBN0313312907
