User:Ariconte/RIhistWW2

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[edit] World War II and Nazi Germany

Rotary clubs do not appear to have had a unified policy towards the Nazi regime: while several German Rotary Clubs decided to disband their organizations in 1933, others practiced a policy of appeasement or collaborated, as in Munich, where the club removed from its members' list a number of rotarians, Jewish and non-Jewish, who were politically unacceptable for the regime, including Thomas Mann (already in exile in Switzerland) [1].

The Nazis on their turn, although they saw international organizations as suspect, had authorised NSDAP members to be members of the Rotary through Nazi Party's court rulings issued in 1933, 1934 and 1936, and in 1937, more than half the rotarians were Nazi Paty members [2].

Begin 1937 however, hostile articles are published in the nazi press about Rotary, comparing Rotary with freemasonry. Soon after that, the incompatibility between nazism and the international humanitarian organisation results in two decisions who will jeopardise the existence of the Rotary in Germany: in June 1937, the ministry of the interior forbids civil servants to be members of the Rotary, and in July, the NSDAP's party court issues a ruling declaring party and rotarian membership incompatible as from January 1938.

Rotary's cause was advocated before the NSDAP party court by Dr. Grill, Governor for the Rotary 73d district, arguing that the German Rotary was compliant with the goals of the Nazi government, had excluded freemasons in 1933 and non-aryans in 1936 [3]. Other attempts were made, also by foreign rotarians [4] but appeasement failed this time, and in September 1937, the 73d district dissolved himself and the charter of german clubs was withdrawned by the Rotary International [5], although some clubs maintain an activity as "Friday Clubs" [6].

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ History of the Rotary Club of Munich
  2. ^ Fabrice d'Almeida, La vie mondaine sous le nazisme ("High-class life under Nazism"), Paris, Perrin, 2006, ISBN 978-2-262-02162-7, p.155
  3. ^ Fabrice d'Almeida, ibid., p. 155
  4. ^ Suchs as the governor of the Belgian Rotary district, who insisted, in a letter to the NSDAP party court, on the fact that Rotary respects established authority. See d'Almeida, ibid., p. 156.
  5. ^ «Irresistible Empire - America's Advance Through Twentieth-century Europe», Victoria De Grazia, ISBN 0674016726, p. 71
  6. ^ History of the Rotary Club of Munich