Judenfrei

Judenfrei ("free of Jews") was a Nazi term to designate an area free of Jewish presence during The Holocaust.^[1]

While Judenfrei referred merely to "freeing" an area of all of its Jewish citizens, the term Judenrein (literally "clean of Jews") was also used. This had the stronger connotation that any trace of Jewish blood had been removed as an impurity.^[2]

Locations declared Judenfrei

Establishments, villages, cities, and regions were declared Judenfrei after they were ethnically cleansed of Jews.

• Gelnhausen, Germany – reported Judenfrei on November 1, 1938 by propaganda newspaper Kinzigwacht after its synagogue was closed and remaining local Jews forced to leave the town.^[3]
• German-occupied Bydgoszcz (Poland) – reported Judenfrei in December 1939
• German-occupied Luxembourg – reported Judenfrei by the press on October 17, 1941.^[4]
• German-occupied Estonia – December 1941.^[5] Reported as Judenfrei at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942.^[6]
• German-occupied Serbia/Belgrade – August 1942^{[7][8][9][10]}
• Vienna – reported Judenfrei by Alois Brunner on October 9, 1942
• Berlin, Germany – May 19, 1943^[11]

Usage in Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a fear among many Israelis which has been reflected by Israeli government officials such as Benjamin Netanyahu^[12] is that the proposed removal of Israeli Jewish settlements in the West Bank according to the wishes of Palestinian officials is tantamount to rendering areas of the West Bank "Judenfrei", or clean of cultural Jewish residents. The term, in this context, is controversial among both Palestinians and Israelis, and also alludes to the question of the prospective status of settlers who refuse to be withdrawn by the Israeli military.

On July 9th 2009 Benjamin Netanyahu, discussing with the German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is reported to have said "Judea and Samaria cannot be Judenrein."^[13]

References