there were a lot of people of jewish descent in europe at the time who wanted to leave it all behind and just be regular citizens of whatever country they happened to be in.
i have a vague theory that this (mass assimilation of jews) contributed to the hysteria that resulted in the holocaust. cos if you cant even tell who the jews are (they're no longer wearing funny beards and hats, they dont even have funny customs or anything), they might marry your daughter! race mixing!
Yes, a lot of Jews did change their names when possible, especially the convert Jews, though before recent times the procedure was usually pretty complicated, but if someone in interwar Germany did had German Ashkenazi name like Goldberg, which were specifically assigned to Jews in order to mark them as Jews, it's sure that someone in straight paternal line was a Jew, though not necessary father.
But what i meant is it would be rather impossible to live back then, have Jewish name and not even be interested about his Jewish roots?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Goldberg
He had one of the most Jewish names possible and had no idea about his Jewish roots?
there were a lot of people of jewish descent in europe at the time who wanted to leave it all behind and just be regular citizens of whatever country they happened to be in.
i have a vague theory that this (mass assimilation of jews) contributed to the hysteria that resulted in the holocaust. cos if you cant even tell who the jews are (they're no longer wearing funny beards and hats, they dont even have funny customs or anything), they might marry your daughter! race mixing!
Yes, a lot of Jews did change their names when possible, especially the convert Jews, though before recent times the procedure was usually pretty complicated, but if someone in interwar Germany did had German Ashkenazi name like Goldberg, which were specifically assigned to Jews in order to mark them as Jews, it's sure that someone in straight paternal line was a Jew, though not necessary father.
But what i meant is it would be rather impossible to live back then, have Jewish name and not even be interested about his Jewish roots?