Paul Merker and the ‘Jewish Question(s)’

The predominant interpretation of the MerkerMerker, Paul affair constructs it as a ‘martyrdom’, which represented a ‘philosemitic minority tradition’ opposed to the SEDSozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED)’s alleged position in ‘the Jewish question’, which is further defined as ‘the whole complex of antisemitismAntisemitism, the HolocaustHolocaust and the place of the Jews in Germany and Europe’. As we have seen from the previous chapter, aspects of this ‘Jewish question’ or rather differing (though often interlinked) Jewish questions are central to how the MerkerMerker, Paul affair is framed in contemporary discourse.