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how jews became germans the history of conversion and assimilation in berlin
when the nazis came to power and created a racial state in the 1930s an urgent priority was to identify jews who had converted to christianity over the preceding centuries . with the help of church officials a vast system of conversion and intermarriage records was created in berlin the countrys premier jewish city . deborah hertzs discovery of these records the judenkartei was the first step on a long research journey that has led to this compelling book . hertz begins the book in 1645 when the records begin and traces generations of german jewish families for the next two centuries . the book analyzes the statistics and explores letters diaries and other materials to understand in a far more nuanced way than ever before why jews did or did not convert to protestantism . focusing on the stories of individual jews in berlin particularly the charismatic salon woman rahel levin varnhagen and her husband karl a writer and diplomat hertz humanizes the stories sets them in the context of berlins evolving society and connects them to the broad sweep of european history .