What was it like for German Jews after WWII?
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Accepted answer
To talk about numbers, one has to talk about the definitions first. The Nazi definition of Jews was racist drivel, but it is relevant because it guided their persecutions. Counting the members in organized Jewish congregations would miss non-religious Jews. That being said, some numbers can be found in Wikipedia if one looks for the right keywords:
- Directly after the war there were over 200.000 Jews in Germany, mostly Displaced Persons from Eastern Europe.
- Most of those left within a few years. A few Jewish emigrants came back to Germany and a few Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe. A few years later there were about 10.000 Jews left in West Germany, many too old to emigrate to Israel.
- The number grew slowly until the end of the Cold War, when Jews and their families from the former Soviet Union were given the opportunity to immigrate to Germany. The details of that are beyond the scope of your question.
As you guessed, the situation was rather awkward. Several groups in Germany attempted to reach out and provide restitution, but most of the victims were dead. Other Germans were reluctant to return goods which were taken during the so-called Aryanization and reacted with anger if the previous owners showed up.
Any posted signs and publications in the immediate post-war period would have been controlled by the occupation forces. Later on there were strict laws against hate speech, but enforcement could vary depending on the bias of the prosecutors and judges, many of whom had worked under Nazi rule.
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Source: stackoverflow.com
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