Hans-Joachim Schoeps

Hans-Joachim Schoeps (January 30, 1909 Berlin - July 8, 1980 Erlangen) was a German-Jewish historian of religion and religious philosophy. He was professor of religions and religious history at the University of Erlangen.[1]

Prior to World War II, Schoeps was leader of the German Vanguard (Der deutsche Vortrupp), an organization of 150 Jewish students, conservative nationalist anti-Zionists who sought total assimilation into the German nation.[2]

German Vanguard

The German Vanguard (Der deutsche Vortrupp), also referred to as "Nazi Jews", was a group of German-Jewish followers of Hitler led by Schoeps.[3]

Exile

Schoeps went into exile in Falun/Sweden at the end of 1938 (seven weeks after the Kristallnacht), just before the persecutions began in earnest. There his two sons were born. His parents were deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp June 4, 1942. His father died there six months later.

Return to Germany

Schoeps returned to Western Germany after World War II in Autumn 1946. In 1950, he was made professor of religious history at the University of Erlangen in northern Bavaria. He remained a monarchist and wanted to re-introduce the monarchy in post-war West Germany. He was firmly opposed to the West German student movement after 1967, and published a book in 1972 in which he claimed that Germany was threatened by anarchy.[4] His involvement in the Vortrupp and his personal engagement for the success of the Nazi movement did not become known at Erlangen until 1970. Schoeps was a member of the Deutschland-Stiftung, in which former Nazis were active.

See also

References
  1. Uwe Backes, Politischer Extremismus in demokratischen Verfassungsstaaten, p. 190, note 324.
  2. https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206254.pdf
  3. Gordon, Sarah Ann (1984). Hitler, Germans, and the "Jewish Question". Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0.
  4. Deutschland droht die Anarchie. von Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1972, ISBN 3-7758-0833-7.


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