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The Atlantic ·For the curious

The Jews Who Voted for Hitler

by Timothy W. Ryback

Published 2026-08-25 07:00:00-04:00

How did a decorated Jewish veteran convince himself that Adolf Hitler was his country's only hope?

0:00 / 21:16 · Narrator Vindemiatrix

Context

Max Naumann spent the early 1930s organizing a small, fiercely nationalist group of German Jews to campaign for Adolf Hitler. Published on 25 August 2026 in The Atlantic, the story asks why anyone would hand their loyalty to a dictator who openly despised them. Naumann and his followers convinced themselves that Nazi anti-Semitism was just political theater, meant to rile up the base. It is a quiet study of a fatal human instinct: the belief that your patriotism will somehow make you the exception to someone else's prejudice.

Show notes

A history of the League of Nationalist German Jews, a small political faction that actively supported Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The account follows the group's founder, Max Naumann, as he and his followers prioritized their German nationalism over their Jewish identity, convinced that Nazi anti-Semitism was mere political posturing. Drawing on speeches, news reports, and Gestapo records, the narrative documents the group's political choices and the eventual destruction of its leaders by the regime they backed.

Read on The Atlantic →