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Their status under Russian imperial rule bore beneficial fruits for the Karaim decades later. In 1934, the heads of the Karaite community in Berlin asked the Nazi authorities to exempt them from the regulations; on the basis of their legal status in Russia. The Reich Agency for the Investigation of Families determined that from the standpoint of German law, the Karaites were not to be considered Jews. The letter from the Reichsstelle fur Sippenforschung gave the official ruling in a letter which stated:
The Karaite sect should not be considered a Jewish religious community within the meaning of paragraph 2, point 2 of the First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law. However, it cannot be established that Karaites in their entirety are of blood-related stock, for the racial categorization of an individual cannot be determined without ... his personal ancestry and racial biological characteristics
-(YIVO archives, Berlin Collection, Occ E, 3, Box 100, letter dated January 5, 1939)
This ruling set the tone for how the Nazis dealt with the Karaite community in Eastern Europe.
At the same time, the Nazis had serious reservations towards the Karaites. SS Obergruppenfuhrer Gottlob Berger wrote on November 24, 1944:
Their Mosaic religion is unwelcome. However, on grounds of race, language and religious dogma... Descriminiation against the Karaites is unacceptable, in consideration of their racial kinsmen [Berger was here referring to the Crimean Tatars]. However, so as not to infringe the unified anti-Jewish orientation of the nations led by Germany, it is suggested that this small group be given the opportunity of a separate existence (for example, as a closed construction or labor battalion)...
Despite their exempt status, confusion led to initial massacres. German soldiers who came across Karaim in Russia during the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa, not aware of their legal status under German law, attacked them; 200 were killed at Babi Yar alone. German allies such as the Vichy Republic began to require the Karaites to register as Jews, but eventually granted them non-Jewish status upon being instructed by Berlin.
On interrogation, Ashkenazi and Krymchak rabbis in the Crimea told the Germans that the Karaim were not Jews, in an effort to spare the Karaite community the fate of their Rabbanite neighbors. The record of the Karaite community during the war is a checkered one; while many Karaim risked their lives to hide Jews, and in some cases claimed that Jews were members of their community, others joined German auxiliary units such as the Tatar Legion, Ostturkische Waffenverband, an SS unit that included Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples. According to a letter of September 27 1944, penned by Chancellor Gerhard Klopfer, an estimated 500-600 Crimean Karaim were fighting in the Wehrmacht, Waffen SS and Tatar Legion. Klopfer asked that until such a time as the exact racial origin of the Karaites could be determined, a list of all members of the sect be dilligently kept. Many of the Karaim were recruited for labor battalions.
In Lutsk the Karaim generally cooperated with the Nazi anti-Jewish activities. In Vilna and Troki Karaite Hakham Seraj Szapszal gave precise lists of the members of their community, allowing the Nazis to quickly discover Jews bearing false Karaite papers.
Other related archivesAnatolia, Arabic, Aramaic, Ashkenazi, Avraham Firkovitch, Babi Yar, Bakhchisaray, Belarus, Berlin, Black Sea, Chmielnicki Uprising, Crimea, Crimean, Crimean Khanate, Crimean Tatar language,
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "During the Holocaust", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |
