Quoting Tony Greenstein’s Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation, pages 110–111:
An example of the Zionist endorsement of the [Fascist] goal of racial separation was the editorial in Judische Rundschau, eight years before it was made compulsory, endorsing the Yellow Star.⁵²
In Poland the Yellow Star was introduced almost immediately after the [Fascist] occupation.⁵³ Whereas most Jews bitterly resented Governor-General Frank’s edict as a return to the Middle Ages, the Orthodox Zionist Chaim Kaplan relished it. ‘The conqueror is turning us into Jews… I shall wear my badge with satisfaction.’⁵⁴
Everywhere the wearing of the Yellow Star was a prelude to deportation and extermination. In Berlin 1,767 Jews refused to wear the badge. They ‘realized, perhaps for the first time, that the orders the functionaries were obligated to implement were to their detriment.’⁵⁵
Not only this, but it seems that Herzlians suggested wearing these stigmata even before any Fascist gentiles proposed officially reintroducing the practice:
The first reference to a Jewish badge during the [Fascist] era was made by the German Zionist leader, Robert Weltsch. During the [Third Reich’s] declared boycott upon Jewish stores on April 1, 1933, yellow Stars of David were painted on windows. In reaction to this, Weltsch wrote an article entitled “Tragt ihn mit Stolz, den gelben Fleck” (“Wear the Yellow Badge with Pride”) which was published on April 4, 1933. At this time, Jewish badges had yet even to be discussed among the top [Fascists].
As I have shown in our article discussing premodern anti-Judaism’s influence on Fascist antisemitism, the reintroduction of ‘Jewish badges’ was a conscious borrowing from the Middle Ages, not a matter of historical chance. The European Fascists probably reintroduced them independently of whatever the Herzlians thought, though there were undoubtedly some who were aware of this premodern practice as well.
One could quibble that since these 1933 badges were painted on windows rather than worn on one’s clothing, Weltsch technically was not recommending that fellow Jews wear badges on their clothes again, but we really have no good reason to believe that he would have opposed that custom either. The Herzlians had the fewest objections to the Nuremberg laws, and their preference for segregating Jews from gentiles (especially those of colour) persists to this day, so this technicality is irrelevant.
Click here for events that happened today (November 4).
1921: The Saalschutz Abteilung (hall defense detachment) of the NSDAP is renamed the Sturmabteilung (storm detachment) after a large riot in Munich.
1942: Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Schicklgruber, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel retreated with his forces after a costly defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein. The retreat lasted five months.
1944: The Axis lost Bitola to the 7th Macedonian Liberation Brigade, and Operation Pheasant, an Allied offensive to liberate North Brabant in the Netherlands, ended successfully.