The Ramifications of Jewish Immigration to South Africa, 1930–1939: Dr D. F. Malan and the Perversion of Ethics on the Altar of Political Expediency

Abstract

Prejudice against Jews was part of the landscape in the Union of South Africa long before Nazism made inroads into the country during the 1930s, at which stage Jews constituted approximately 4.6% of the country’s white (or European) population. Aggressive Afrikaner nationalism was marked by fervent attempts to proscribe Jewish immigration. By 1939, Jewish immigration was included as an official plank in the political platform of the opposition Purified National Party led by Dr D.F. Malan, along with a ban on party membership for Jews residents in the Transvaal province. Racial discrimination, in a country with diversified ethnic elements and intense political complexities, was synonymous with life in the Union long before the Apartheid system, with its official policy of enforced legal, political and economic segregation, became law in May 1948 under Dr Malan’s prime ministership. Although the Jews, while maintaining their own subcultural identity, were classified within South Africa’s racial hierarchy as part of the privileged white minority, the emergence of recurrent anti-Jewish stereotypes and themes became manifest in a country permeated by the ideology of race and white superiority. This was exacerbated by the growth of a powerful Afrikaner nationalist movement, underpinned by conservative Calvinist theology. This chapter focusses on measures taken in South Africa by organisational structures within the political sphere to restrict Jewish immigration between 1930 and 1939 and to do so on ethnic grounds. These measures were underscored by radical Afrikaner nationalism, which flew in the face of the principles of ethics and moral judgement.

Citation

Cohen, M. (2022), "The Ramifications of Jewish Immigration to South Africa, 1930–1939: Dr D. F. Malan and the Perversion of Ethics on the Altar of Political Expediency", Thakhathi, A. (Ed.) Transcendent Development: The Ethics of Universal Dignity (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-192. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620220000025011