The Eppstein Syndrome in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume 40:2

The Eppstein Syndrome: Beate Meyer, Tödliche Gratwanderung: Die Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland zwischen Hoffnung, Zwang, Selbstbehauptung und Verstrickung (1939–1945)

In her book, Tödliche Gratwanderung: Die Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland zwischen Hoffnung, Zwang, Selbstbehauptung und Verstrickung (1939–1945), Beate Meyer examines the role of leadership of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland in the fate of German Jewry during the second half of the Nazi era. Throughout the book, Meyer aims to refute the notion that Jews were accomplices in their own murder. Meyer uses a multilayered approach to conceptualize ethical dilemmas of the victims of the Holocaust, and concludes that the Reichsvereinigung was an instrument within the larger framework of Nazi domination and persecution. Thus, the question of the victims’ morality is, in principle, rendered superfluous. Meyer’s research in widely scattered sources meticulously reconstructs a complex story in which she invokes discussion of the relationship between victims and oppressors in the context of the plight that overtook the German Jewish community leaders.