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The Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin presents the year 1938 through the eyes of Jews, whose personal documents detail their experiences and the hardships they suffered as well as the growing tensions in Europe and diminishing hope for Jews in Germany and Austria.

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31

SATURDAY

31

Embracing tomorrow

A refugee gives advice to refugees

“We remain fighters for a free, just, clean Germany. This underworld must come to an end, it will come to an end! A humane Germany will live. Not only are the real Germans hoping for this real Germany, but the Jews are hoping, the world is hoping.”

New York

For four years, Aufbau, the newsletter of the German-Jewish Club in New York, had served immigrants as a cultural and emotional anchor and as a source of useful information. The December issue brings a gushing report on the Club’s newly established weekly radio program. Among the prominent speakers who were asked to contribute speeches to inaugurate the program was Dr. Joachim Prinz, a former Berlin rabbi and outspoken opponent of the Nazis. Forging a bridge from the days of the exodus from Egypt via a history of emigrations to the present predicament, he made no attempt to minimize the emigrants’ plight. At the same time, likening the situation of his community to that of Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, he saw the potential in the challenges of emigrant life in America. The new program, he felt, was “an important instrument of education as Jews and as people of freedom.” The call of the moment was clear: “We must embrace Tomorrow and bury Yesterday. We must try to be happy again.”

TAGS: Berlin, commentary, December 31, displacement, Jewish Community, Journalism, New York, press article, prominent people, rabbis, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

"Vom Rundfunk des G.-J. Club" Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 13, p. 7

30

FRIDAY

30

A totalitarian regime fears the free press

Victims of Nazi employment bans meet in exile

“If he [Dr. Selmar Aschheim] does not get permission to practice, he will team up with Bally or another pharmacy, allow them to use his name and make money with it.”

Paris

One of the first official acts of the new Nazi rulers in 1933 had been the elimination of the independent press. Already in February, the freedom of the press was abolished, and from October, only such individuals who were deemed politically reliable and could prove their “Aryan” descent were admitted to journalistic professions. Ernst Feder (b. 1881), a jurist and erstwhile editor for domestic affairs at the “Berliner Tageblatt,” fulfilled neither of these requirements. In his Parisian exile, he resumed his activities as a journalist as one of the founders of the German-language Pariser Tageblatt (1933-36) and as a freelance writer. On the pages of his diary, he covers a plethora of topics, ranging from the personal to the philosophical and political. Among his friends and fellow exiles was the gynecologist and endocrinologist, Dr. Selmar Aschheim (b. 1878). As Feder notes in his diary on December 30th, the eminent physician and scientist was looking for an alternative source of income, should he be denied the possibility to practice in France. Especially older emigrants often had to overcome major obstacles in order to gain a foothold abroad. Language barriers and admission examinations, for which decades of professional experience were not seen as a substitute, additionally exacerbated the situation.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, commentary, December 30, diary, emigration, immigration procedures, Journalism, Language skills, Paris, persecution of Jewish professionals

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ernst Feder Collection, AR 7040 / MF 497

Original:

Box 1, Diary, vol. 13, 1938

26

MONDAY

26

No new arrangement for siblings

Argentina tightens immigration requirements

“I always feel miserable when I have to write you letters destroying hopes on your side time and again. It makes me feel guilty, even though I can't do anything about it with the best will in the world.”

Buenos Aires/Berlin

Due to the perception prevalent since the middle of the 19th century that immigrants, preferably from Europe, were needed to populate the vast expanses of Argentina, the country’s immigration policy was comparatively generous. But already following WWI, the country’s needs for manpower were perceived as saturated, and by the 20s, administrative barriers to immigration were put up. With victims of Nazi persecution seeking refuge, immigration policy was tightened even more. Nevertheless, many thousands of German Jews as well as political adversaries of the regime found refuge in Argentina. Among them was Max Busse. His sister, Anna Nachtlicht, had heard about plans of the Argentine government to ease immigration and make it possible to request permits for siblings. Max immediately went to make inquiries, but the results were sobering. In this December 26th letter, he is forced to tell her that no such plans seem to exist. Relatives in France had offered the Nachtlichts to stay with them to wait for their visas for a third country. Perhaps, Max suggests, it would be easier to apply from there.

TAGS: Berlin, Buenos Aires, commentary, December 26, displacement, emigration, immigration, immigration procedures, letter, politics, refugees, visa application, WWI

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Nachtlicht Family Collection, AR 25031

Original:

Box 1, folder 7

18

SUNDAY

18

A safe place for Marianne

Leo Baeck's granddaughter is sent to school in England

“I am writing to tell you that my partner Miss Martin & I will be pleased to receive your daughter Marianne as a pupil in our school.”

Westgate-on-Sea, Kent/Berlin

For many Jewish children in Germany, going to school had become an ordeal: the constant anti-Jewish indoctrination of German students was poisoning the atmosphere, teachers as the agents of this policy rarely supported the Jewish children, and the mere act of getting to school and back could be like running the gauntlet. As a result, Jewish schools began to proliferate, and those who could afford it sent their children to boarding schools abroad. When Ruth Berlak, in Berlin, received this friendly note from St. Margaret’s School in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, informing her of the acceptance of her 13-year-old daughter, Marianne, as a pupil, little more than a month had passed since the Nazi regime had decreed the removal of Jewish children from German schools. Marianne’s maternal grandfather was Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck, the president of the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany. Her father’s father was Leo Berlak, the chairman of the Association of Jewish Heimatvereine, clubs devoted to the maintenance of local traditions.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, children, December 18, displacement, emigration, family separation, letter, Nazi policies, Nazi propaganda, prominent people, rabbis, refugees, schools, segregation, Westgate-on-Sea

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Letter of Leo Baeck's granddaughter, Marianne Dreyfus. Courtesy of Marianne Dreyfus.

17

SATURDAY

17

Dependent on the kindness of others

Dismal prospects

“I don't need to describe to you how we are in light of all that is ahead of us—dissolving everything that is there-the family-the apartment—transplantation into foreign, unknown circumstances—dependent on the kindness of others everywhere—parents and children torn apart, without knowing whether there will be a reunion—one barely has the strength to imagine it in advance.”

Berlin/Buenos Aires

As the wife of a successful architect, Anna Nachtlicht had enjoyed social prestige and experienced years of material comfort. However, in 1932, the Great Depression forced the couple to auction off their art collection, and in 1933, Leo Nachtlicht lost his occupation. Eventually, the couple was left with no other choice but to rent out rooms. The couple’s two adult daughters, Ursula (b. 1909) and Ilse (b. 1912) contributed to the household. But the situation became untenable. As Anna Nachtlicht writes to her brother Max in Argentina on December 17th, the family had “every reason” to fear that they were about to lose their apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, on top of everything else. While there was realistic hope that their daughters would soon find employment in England, Anna and Leo’s efforts to find refuge abroad had remained largely unsuccessful. Relatives on Leo’s side in France had agreed to house the couple temporarily, until a third country would offer them a permanent home. Anna Nachtlicht clearly resented having to ask for help and deplored the dependence on others, but the constant decline of the situation and dark forebodings left her no choice. She had heard that Argentina was about to change its immigration policy and make it possible to request permits for siblings. With undisguised despair, she asks her brother in Buenos Aires to immediately request a reunification with her and facilitate their emigration.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, Buenos Aires, December 17, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, Great Depression, immigration procedures, impoverishment, Jewish property, letter, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, refugees, South America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Nachtlicht Family Collection, AR 25031

Original:

Box 1, folder 7

16

FRIDAY

16

Total arbitrariness

Jews in the police state

“Condition: you are to report immediately to your local police authority State Police Authority Potsdam.”

Sachsenhausen

One of the tools in the hands of the Nazis to terrorize Jews was arbitrary incarceration: the Enabling Act of March 24th, 1933, handed the regime the legal basis for the perfidious institution of “protective custody”: persons deemed to “endanger the security of the people” could be detained without concrete charges. Ostensibly, the policy was aimed at political adversaries. In fact, however, it was frequently used against Jews. The salesman Hans Wilk was among its first victims: in 1933, at 24 years of age, he spent over four months at the Lichtenburg concentration camp. During the November pogroms of 1938, he was among the roughly 30,000 Jewish men incarcerated in concentration camps. On December 16th, he was released from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg near Berlin. The requirement to report immediately to the State Police in his home town of Potsdam indicated that the harassment was not yet over.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, Concentration Camps, December 16, document, imprisonment, kristallnacht, Lichtenburg, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, November Pogrom, persecution, Sachsenhausen

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Collection:

Certificate confirming Hans Wilk‘s release from the Lichtenburg concentration camp; Hans Wilk Collection, Gift from Loni Wilk

13

TUESDAY

13

With the blessings of the Nazis

A Jewish press product with the blessings of the Propaganda Ministry

“Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (Dept. 2A) There are no objections to the publication of this issue (no. 6, 12/13/38). The ‘Jüdische Nachrichtenblatt’ is authorized for distribution among the Jewish segment of the population in the territory of the German Reich. Berlin, 12/12/38 Signed, Hinkel” [from the Berlin edition of the paper]

VIENNA

Until 1938, dozens of Jewish periodicals managed to withstand the mounting pressure of the regime. However, even since 1935, they were no longer publicly for sale, and since 1937, their freedom of reporting had been severely curtailed. After the Pogrom Night of November 9th to 10th (later known as “Kristallnacht”), a comprehensive prohibition brought the over-130-year history of the Jewish press in Germany to an abrupt halt. In order to be able nevertheless to spread official communiques through a paper aimed specifically at Jews, a Jewish newsletter, the “Jüdische Nachrichtenblatt” was established, the first issue of which was published on November 23rd in Berlin. Albeit edited by Jews, it was under total control of the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. On December 13th, the Vienna edition appeared for the first time.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, December 13, document, Journalism, kristallnacht, Nazi policies, November Pogrom, persecution, persecution of Jewish professionals, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt (Berlin, Germany: 1938-1943)

12

MONDAY

12

Contradictory messages

The Nazi press agency spreads misinformation

[original] “A check-up revealed that so far the communique, which announced that after Jan. 1 certain streets, hotels and restaurants will again be open to Jews, and indignantly repudiated any suggestion that the Reich intends to establish a ghetto, has been released only for foreign consumption.”

Berlin

The banishment of Jews from public spaces was far advanced by now. Already in 1933, Jewish creative artists had been dismissed from state-sponsored cultural life. Since November 12th, 1938, Jews were no longer admitted even as audience members at “presentations of German culture” and were banished from concert halls, opera houses, libraries and museums. More and more restaurants and shops denied access to Jews. On Dec. 12th, 1938, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency pointed out a striking discrepancy: while abroad, the “German News Bureau,” the central news agency of the Reich which followed the directives of the Propaganda Ministry, spread the information that from January 1st, 1939, certain anti-Semitic measures would be relaxed, quite the opposite had been communicated to Jews inside the Reich. One fact, however, was not hidden: the goal was to prompt all Jews to emigrate, “also in the interest of the Jews themselves,” as the Bureau put it.

TAGS: antisemitism, artists, Berlin, cultural life, December 12, emigration, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution, propaganda, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“News of Easing Anti-Jewish Curbs Not Published in Reich”

Source available in English

Chronology of major events in 1938

Aktion “Arbeitsscheu Reich”

Poster for the Reich Labor Service, 1938.

Heinrich Himmler orders a “one-time, comprehensive, surprise attack” on Arbeitsscheue. This designation, which means “work-shy” or “indolent,” includes men of working age who have rejected two job offers or who quit after a short period of time. The Gestapo, the secret police force of the National Socialists, was tasked with the endeavor and collected the necessary information in collaboration with employment offices. From April 21 through April 30, between 1,500 and 2,000 men are arrested and brought to the concentration camp Buchenwald. Hearings are not scheduled to take place until the second half of the year.

View chronology of major events in 1938

4

SUNDAY

4

Banks as accomplices

German banks block Jewish accounts

“I sent away even the child. The fear and lack of security in our own home are too great. I am sitting and writing to patients asking to pay the bill. For the first time in my life, I have to ask for money.”

Berlin

As double earners, the Nathorffs did quite well materially for a number of years: the pediatrician Hertha Nathorff was the director of a children’s home and baby nursery run by the Red Cross in Berlin Charlottenburg, and her husband, Erich, was an internist at the Moabit Hospital. On the side, the couple had a private practice. Shortly after the Nazis came to power, both lost their positions, but they maintained their joint practice until September 1938, when the licenses of all Jewish physicians were revoked. Erich Nathorff was among the few Jewish physicians who were allowed to tend to the needs of Jewish patients exclusively as so-called “caretakers of the sick.” However, during the November Pogroms, he was incarcerated at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On December 4th, Hertha Nathorff confided to her diary that due to the insecure situation, she had “sent away” her son and that she was having financial problems. Due to the Nazis’ policy of blocking the accounts of Jews whose financial situation would have permitted them to leave the country, she had no access to her money.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, children, commentary, Concentration Camps, December 4, diary, family, family separation, impoverishment, imprisonment, kristallnacht, Nazi policies, November Pogroms, persecution of Jewish professionals, Sachsenhausen

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Hertha Nathorff, Reichstagsbrand, ME 460

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

2

FRIDAY

2

Kindertransport

The British government grants asylum to Jewish children

Harwich

Following the November Pogroms, individuals and groups in England, among them faith-based organizations, demonstrated through their relentless refugee advocacy and organizing how effective determined action by citizens can be. Among those who lobbied the British government specifically on behalf of Jewish children was the Society of Friends (Quakers). After initial rejection by Prime Minister Chamberlain, a delegation composed of Jews and Quakers met with Home Secretary Hoare, following which the government gave permission to issue visas and facilitate the children’s entry into the country. Within the shortest time, host families were recruited, donations solicited, tickets booked, transit visas organized (the children traveled via Hoek van Holland). The network of Jewish and non-Jewish helpers included Dutch volunteers who welcomed the children at the border, gave them food and drink and accompanied them all the way to the ship in Hoek van Holland. The first group arrived at Harwich on December 2. The organized efforts to rescue Jewish children from Nazi Germany later came to be known as “Kindertransport.”

TAGS: advocates, Berlin, children, December 2, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, Harwich, Hoek van Holland, immigration procedures, kindertransport, kristallnacht, November Pogroms, photo, refugees, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden (IGdJ)

Original:

Kindertransport; 21-015/266

1

Thursday

1

Last resort: emigration

The Joint Distribution Committee's report after the November Pogroms

[original, p. 1] “The plight of the Jews in the Reich is indescribable. Robbed of their means of livelihood, thrown out of their homes, not being able to buy in Aryan stores, terror-striken [original spelling] by the latest excesses, threatened with arrest and hard labor at concentration camps, there exists for them no other solution but to emigrate.”

Berlin

Sent to take stock after the November Pogroms in Germany, the American Joint Distribution Committee’s emissary to Germany, George Rooby, traveled to several cities to collect first-hand impressions. His findings were deeply disturbing: Berlin, Nuremberg, Fürth, Frankfurt-on-Main, no matter where he went, he saw synagogues burnt down, Jewish shops demolished and ransacked, Torah scrolls desecrated, and was met by terror-stricken Jews whose leadership had been forbidden to operate or taken to concentration camps. Non-Jews extending a helping hand exposed themselves to the danger of Nazi reprisals. The almost complete absence of small children and babies was explained to Rooby as a result of the fact that nativity among Jews had receded considerably since the Nazis’ accession to power. Leaders of Jewish communities had assured him that there was enough money to cover immediate welfare needs. Those organizations, however, whose goal was to advance emigration, were facing a serious lack of funds. Generally, hope prevailed that the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany would soon be allowed to operate again and play its part in accelerating emigration. Its success, of course, depended on the willingness of other countries to receive German Jews. Rooby’s conclusion was unambiguous: the only hope to escape the violence was emigration.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, children, Concentration Camps, December 1, document, emigration, Frankfurt am Main, Fürth, impoverishment, imprisonment, Jewish Community, Jewish property, kristallnacht, November Pogrom, Nuremberg, religion, Synagogues, violence, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

George Rooby Collection, AR 6550

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

28

MONDAY

28

Help among friends

An old friend in need

“It’s practically impossible to get through to the US consulate here, since they give no information at all, and for that you don’t have to spend hours standing in a cold yard and waiting.”

BERLIN/BOSTON

Willy Nordwind, co-chair of the Boston Committee for Refugees, tirelessly endeavored to save Jews from the grip of the Nazis by helping them immigrate to the United States. Himself an immigrant from Germany and familiar with the requirements, he helped organize affidavits and saw to it that newcomers with fields of expertise as heterogeneous as “tobacco and clothing retail business,” “tourism,” “expert buyer and salesman of hosiery,” and “wholesale fish dealer” found employment in America. Most of the people he helped were total strangers to him, but some of his beneficiaries were personal acquaintances. On November 28th, 1938, his friend Seppel pleads with Nordwind to find a special arrangement for him that would speed things up. Requests for visas had risen sharply since the pogrom night of November 9th to 10th (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”), and the usual waiting period for the processing of affidavits was far too long.

TAGS: affidavits, Berlin, Boston, immigration, immigration procedures, kristallnacht, letter, November 28, November Pogrom, persecution, refugees, transnational networks, violence, visa application, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Original:

Box 1, folder 24

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Placing trust in strangers

Aid organization takes its responsibility seriously

A man who is good enough to fill out affidavits would certainly not take advantage of these people.

New York/Boston

Could Willy Nordwind of the Boston Committee for Refugees—an organization not dealing specifically with unaccompanied child immigrants—be entrusted with the well-being of a 16-year-old girl? The Relief Organization of Jews in Germany was not ready to take chances: rather than just sending Frieda Diamont on her way, the organization turned to the National Council of Jewish Women in New York to ascertain Mr. Norwind’s integrity. The Council’s Merle Henoch passed on the case to Jewish Family Welfare in Boston, Mass., where Nordwind, too, was based. For her there was no doubt: as generous a helper as Willy Norwind must be a trustworthy ally.

TAGS: advocates, Berlin, Boston, children, displacement, ethical dilemmas, family, immigration, Jewish Community, letter, New York, November 23, refugees, transnational networks, welfare organizations, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Original:

Box 1, folder 8

Source available in English

22

TUESDAY

22

Banned from his art

Not suited for the advancement of German culture

“According to the results of my examination of the facts grounded in your personal circumstances, you do not possess the requisite aptness and reliability to participate in the advancement of German culture with responsibility towards the people and the Reich.”

Berlin/Dresden

The works of the Expressionist painter and graphic artist Bruno Gimpel were classified as “degenerate” during the Third Reich. Neither his voluntary service as an aide in a military hospital during World War I nor his “mixed marriage” with an “Aryan” woman spared him the usual repressive measures. On November 22nd, 1938 he received a letter from the Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste, the Nazi authority in charge of the visual arts, which yet again denied him membership and banned him from all branches of his profession. In 1935, this institution of the Third Reich had once before rejected a request for admission by the Dresden artist. Since 1937, he had no choice but to make a living by giving drawing lessons to Jewish children.

TAGS: antisemitism, artists, Berlin, children, cultural life, document, Dresden, impoverishment, letter, Nazi policies, November 22, persecution, persecution of Jewish professionals, WWI

SOURCE

Institution:

Deutsches Historisches Museum

Collection:

Letter of Bruno Gimpel's membership application, issued by the president of the "Reichskammer der bildenden Künste" (the Third Reich's Imperial Chamber of Fine Arts)

Source available in English

19

SATURDAY

19

What is already bad gets worse

A dwindling circle of friends

Two weeks ago, the old Goldmanns disappeared without a peep. We don’t know where they are.

BERLIN

The Intrators had been forced to flee once before: the anti-Jewish climate in their native country, Poland, had caused Rachel (Rosa) and Jakob in 1905 to make Berlin their home. Their son Alexander, born the same year, later became a successful concert violinist. Gerhard, five years his junior, went to law school, but the Nazis had hardly been brought to power when they began to systematically push Jews out of the legal professions. In light of the hopelessness of pursuing a juridical career in Germany, the 27-year-old emigrated to the US in 1937. Now he was making massive efforts to bring his parents. On November 19th, his father reported on the arrival of the affidavit which was needed for immigration. However, he added, they did not expect to receive their visas any time soon. Meanwhile, their circle of relatives and friends was getting smaller and smaller. Some were being forced by the Nazis to return to Poland, others simply disappeared.

TAGS: affidavits, antisemitism, Berlin, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, immigration, immigration procedures, letter, musicians, Nazi policies, November 19, persecution of Jewish professionals, Polenaktion, Polish-born Jews, refugees, visa application, Zbaszyn

SOURCE

Institution:

Courtesy of Joanne Intrator

Collection:

Letter of Jakob Intrator to Gerhard Intrator

17

THURSDAY

17

No reprieve

The wave of violence continues

A new wave of arrests, accompanied by violence, has netted hundreds of Jewish victims in the last 48 hours in Frankfurt-am-Main and other provincial centers.

Berlin

Whoever had hoped that peace and quiet would return after the pogroms on and through the night of November 9th to 10th (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”) had been mistaken. In its November 17th dispatch, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency gives account of a new wave of arrests and violence. The initial round of violence had been orchestrated to look like a spontaneous outburst of popular rage after the assassination of an employee at the German Embassy in Paris, Ernst vom Rath, at the hand of a 17-year-old Jew. The pogrom was followed by a series of legislative measures eliminating Jews from commercial life in Germany and forcing them to “restore the streetscape” after the arson attacks on synagogues and the destruction of Jewish businesses. Apparently, the diplomat’s funeral in Düsseldorf was now serving as a subterfuge for renewed violence. The US consulate in Berlin was flooded by Jews seeking asylum for fear of additional assaults—in vain, as the article states.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, economic persecution, emigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, JTA, kristallnacht, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, November 17, November Pogrom, persecution, prominent people, religion, Synagogues, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Hundreds Seized in New Wave of Arrests, Violence; 3,000 Jews Seek U.S. Protection”

Source available in English

15

TUESDAY

15

A sensitive eccentric

A political activist surrenders

Berlin

In this watercolor portrait of a young girl, we do not see the artist John Hoexter’s familiar acerbity but rather a much gentler side. The Expressionist and Dadaist was a leftist activist and idealist and was not very good at making money. For years he contributed to the magazine “Der blutige Ernst” (“Bloody Earnest”), which disseminated undogmatic leftist thought with the help of first-rate contributors who were not paid for their efforts. Hoexter’s financial situation also was not helped by the fact that in trying to control his asthma, he had gotten addicted to morphine early in life. In addition to his considerable artistic talent, he was forced to develop his skills as a “shnorrer.” He was at home in the Bohemian circles frequenting places like the “Cafe Monopol” and the “Romanisches Cafe.” After the Nazis were handed power in 1933, Hoexter’s leftist circle of friends shrank more and more, which, along with the ongoing debasement of Jews by the regime, did not fail to take a toll on him. Under the impact of the violence experienced during the night of pogroms (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”) Hoexter committed suicide on November 15th.

TAGS: antisemitism, art, artists, Berlin, Journalism, kristallnacht, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, November 15, November Pogrom, persecution, politics, prominent people, resistance, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Hans John Hoexter, Portrait of a Little Girl 20th century

Original:

80.135

Chronology of major events in 1938

Jewish children expelled from schools.

A young student practices Hebrew in the all-Jewish Goldschmidt School in Berlin, 1938.

The National Socialists expel Jewish children from all public schools. From now on, Jewish children are only allowed to attend segregated Jewish schools. Jewish schools must be operated and funded by the Jewish communities, which by now have been deprived of all means of financial support.

View chronology of major events in 1938

3

THURSDAY

3

From bank teller to celebrated Hollywood composer

A Composer Finds His Place

Hollywood

Mr. Wachsmann, an industrialist in Königshütte, Upper Silesia, tried to talk his gifted son, Franz, out of embarking on an unprofitable career as a musician. He imagined a more solid career for the youngest of his seven children. But Franz would not be dissuaded. While briefly working as a bank teller, he used his salary to pay for his real interests: piano; music theory; and composition lessons. After two years in this disagreeable position, he went to Dresden, later to Berlin to study music. Recognizing the young man’s talent, the composer Friedrich Hollaender asked him to orchestrate his score for the legendary 1930 movie, “The Blue Angel” with Marlene Dietrich. When in 1934, Franz was beaten up by Nazi hoodlums, he needed no further persuasion to leave the country and boarded a train to Paris the same evening. In 1935, he moved on to the United States, where, under the name “Waxman,” he quickly became a sought-after composer of film music. On November 3, 1938, Richard Wallace’s movie “The Young in Heart” was launched, with a soundtrack by Franz Waxman.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, displacement, Dresden, emigration, family, Hollywood, Königshütte, musicians, November 3, Paris, persecution, photo, prominent people, refugees, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Evelyn Pearl Family Collection, AR 6292

Original:

Box 1, folder 4

27

THURSDAY

27

Fired without pension

Martin Lachmann terminated without his long-promised pension

“I was told that I cannot draw my pension from this portfolio, since a non-Ar. must not receive payments from a portfolio that must mostly be called Aryan.”

BERLIN

Nobody contested Martin Lachmann’s exceptional success as an insurance agent for Allianz. Nevertheless, after 31 years of dedicated work, the company decided “under the pressure of the circumstances” to terminate his contract. In recognition of Lachmann’s achievements, efforts were made to have him transferred to Zurich. But their success depended on immigration authorities in Switzerland. To make matters worse, Lachmann had been informed that he was no longer eligible for the pension stipulated in his contract. It was inconceivable to him how a contract written long before the political sea change in Germany could suddenly be declared void. The pension “voluntarily” offered by Allianz to its outstanding employee amounted to just one-third of his salary and did not begin to cover his needs.

TAGS: antisemitism, Aryanization, Berlin, economic persecution, immigration, impoverishment, Nazi policies, October 27, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo

SOURCE

Institution:

Allianz Center for Corporate History

Collection:

Martin Lechman und sein Enkelsohn Peter Haas in Berlin in den frühen 1930er Jahren. Martin Lachmann and his grandson Peter Haas in Berlin in the early 1930’s

24

MONDAY

24

Discrimination of mixed couples

Dismissal after 25 years in service

BERLIN

Ernst Patzer, an employee of the criminal investigation department of the Berlin police and seriously disabled in World War I, had lost his job in March 1938. The reason was the Public Service Law of 1937 which barred those married to Jews from public service – and Patzer had been married to a German-Jewish woman for 25 years. This additional move of the Nazi regime to push Jews and their relatives out of all spheres of life hit the Patzers very hard: he was the sole wage earner and, after 25 years of service, lost not only his position but also any claim to his pension. This letter of October 24, 1938, shows how step by step, Ernst Patzer was excluded from civic participation. In vain he wrote, as a former frontline soldier, to Hitler and Göring, in order to obtain continued employment with a government agency. The marriage lasted, and he finally found work as an auditor with AEG (a producer of electrical equipment). The Patzers survived National Socialism.

TAGS: Berlin, economic persecution, family, impoverishment, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, October 24, segregation, welfare organizations, WWI, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Deutsches Historisches Museum

Collection:

Inv.Nr. Do 89/102II

23

SUNDAY

23

A joyous occasion in difficult times

A wedding as a respite

“For this marriage, consecrated by God, we fervently request salvation, peace and blessings.”

BERLIN

In a year marred by numerous alarming anti-Jewish measures, the wedding of Frieda Ascher and Bernhard Rosenberg on October 23rd in Berlin must have provided a much needed reprieve for their families and friends. The officiant at the ceremony was Dr. Moritz Freier, an orthodox rabbi. Many young Jews, unable to find work as a result of the intensification of antisemitism in Germany, approached Rabbi Freier since his wife Recha had already come up with the idea of helping Jewish youth to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine and settle in Kibbutzim, a project known as “Youth Aliyah,” in January 1933.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, document, emigration, immigration, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, October 23, persecution, prominent people, rabbis, refugees, religion, transnational networks, welfare organizations, Youth Aliyah

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Original:

Trust deed for Bernhard Rosenberg and Frieda Ascher; 7.5

22

SATURDAY

22

Resistance by Jews in exile

In the United States, Toni Sender warns of the dangers of National Socialism

BERLIN

Since 1920, Toni Sender was a delegate of the Social Democratic Party in the parliament of the Weimar Republic. Early on, she began to oppose National Socialism and warned of the dangers it posed to democracy. Exposed to hostility and threats as a social democrat and a Jew, she fled in March 1933 first to Czechoslovakia and then to Belgium, continuing her struggle against the Nazis in exile. In 1935, she emigrated to the United States. There too, as an orator and journalist, she tried to inform the public abroad about the criminal character of National Socialism. As this letter from the Secret State Police (Gestapo) to the investigating judge at the People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof), dated October 22nd, 1938, demonstrates, her resistance did not go unnoticed.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, displacement, emigration, letter, October 22, persecution, politics, public sphere, refugees, resistance, Weimar Republic

SOURCE

Institution:

Die Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

Original:

Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde; R3018 NJ-15413

21

FRIDAY

21

Looking toward Palestine

The Münzer family hopes for a reunion in Palestine

VIENNA

This photograph, taken in October 1938, shows Moses Münzer, a tailor in Vienna, and his wife Lisa, with their five children, Elfriede, Benno, Nelly, Gertrude and Siegfried. After the “Anschluss,” Moses Münzer, like many Jews, lost his job. Lisa Münzer started working as a cook in the soup kitchen of the Brigittenauer Tempel on Kluckygasse, sometimes assisted by her children. By October 21st, 15-year-old Gertrude was on her way to Palestine on Youth Aliyah, an organization founded by Recha Freier, the wife of an orthodox rabbi in Berlin, before the Nazi rise to power. Its goal was to help Jewish youth escape anti-Semitism in the Reich and settle in Palestine. Gertrude left on her own, but the intention was for the family to reunite in Palestine.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, Berlin, children, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, impoverishment, Jewish Community, October 21, Palestine, photo, rabbis, refugees, Synagogues, transnational networks, Vienna, welfare organizations, Youth Aliyah

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gertrude Knopf Family Collection, AR 11692

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

15

SATURDAY

15

“Race” and blood vs. humanity

The dissenters' despair

“My friends have scattered all over the world. Good for those who have gotten off lightly, who no longer must suffer from a seventy-five percent loss of their assets! [...] Loss of assets can be gotten over. Personal offense--never.”

BERLIN

In her diary entry of October 15th, 1938, the non-Jewish Berlin journalist Ruth Andreas-Friedrich reminisces about her many Jewish friends who have left Germany since 1933. “This desperate rebellion against laws based on race and blood! Can’t everybody be at home where he wishes to be at home?” In her childhood, she writes, people were divided into good and bad, decent and not decent, lovable or worthy of rejection. But now, even among dissenters, “Jew” and “Aryan” seem to have replaced evaluation based on human qualities. And all the anti-Jewish chicanery – who even knows about it? Those who have no Jewish acquaintances remain clueless.

TAGS: advocates, antisemitism, Berlin, commentary, diary, economic persecution, impoverishment, Journalism, Nazi laws, Nazi policy, October 15, persecution, photo, resistance

SOURCE

Institution:

Die Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

Collection:

Ruth Andreas-Friedrich: Der Schattenmann. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1938-1945, Berlin 1983 (Neudruck), S. 19.

12

WEDNESDAY

12

Doctors become “caregivers of the sick”

Discriminatory regulations for Jewish doctors

Nazi authorities were now referring to Jewish doctors as “caregivers of the sick” and forced them to clearly mark their practice signs as those of Jews.

BERLIN

The dimensions of the triangles of the Star of David which Jewish “caregivers of the sick” were to add to the signs for their offices was from now on to be 3 1/2 cm. The specifications in the letter dated of October 12th, 1938, from the Berlin Reich Physicians’ Chamber were meticulous. And they did not end with specifications down to the millimeter: The background color was to be “sky-blue,” and the Star of David in the top left corner was to have a “lemon” color. On September 30th, according to the Reich Citizen Law, licenses for Jewish doctors had expired. Only a few got permission to continue to practice as “caregivers of the sick” of Jewish patients exclusively. The authors hinted that the patronizing had not yet reached its peak: in order to do justice to the requirements of the “Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names” (coming into force Jan. 1, 1939), it was advisable to add the name “Israel” or “Sara” to the practice sign already now, to avoid future costs.

 

TAGS: antisemitism, Aryanization, Berlin, bureaucracy, document, economic persecution, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, October 12, persecution of Jewish professionals, politics, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Collection:

Hirschberg Family Collection

5

WEDNESDAY

5

A time for pause

Berlin

“Where circumstances permit, the teacher should also use gramophone records in this lesson. For the high holidays, there's a range of good recordings of synagogue music available.”

Berlin

In 1938, Yom Kippur fell on October 5th, a Wednesday. The educational department of the “Reich Representation of Jews in Germany” had published a booklet this year which contained numerous suggestions as to how the holiday could be observed in schools. It reads like a didactic handout which could have been written exactly the same way in earlier or in later years. There is no reference to the difficult circumstances in which Jews and, not the least, Jewish schoolchildren found themselves in Germany in 1938. In the previous five years, the Nazis had gradually implemented “racial segregation” in public schools. Already by 1936, the ratio of Jewish students in public schools was nearly half of what it had been before.

 

TAGS: Berlin, children, document, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, October 5, public sphere, religion, schools, segregation, Synagogues, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Eliezer L. Ehrmann, Arbeitsplan fuer Rosch Haschana und Jom Kippur, Berlin: Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland, Schulabteilung, 1938

Chronology of major events in 1938

Jews’ passports invalidated

The passport of a Jewish woman stamped with the obligatory "J" for Jew. Siegmund Feist Collection, Leo Baeck Institute

The Reich Ministry of the Interior invalidates all passports owned by Jews. From now on, only those marked with a prominent red letter “J” will be considered valid. The measure is another step in the Nazis’ campaign to permanently separate Jews from the rest of the population

View chronology of major events in 1938

2

SATURDAY

2

Upheaval hits home and work

Search for a home and a job

“Now imagine, on top of all this misery the prospect of my going on a ‘long vacation’ while I need to be mom's provider. And then, yesterday, a ray of hope appeared, I got permission from the Landesverband in Berlin to conduct English classes in the provinces.”

BRESLAU/BERLIN

In August 1938, Irma Umlauf’s life had begun to unravel: she had been notified that the Jewish-owned company in Breslau for which she worked was going to be liquidated, leaving her jobless. And her landlord had terminated her lease. While there was no law in October 1938 stipulating that non-Jews could not have Jewish tenants, some landlords were eager to get rid of them. In Irma Umlauf’s case, the problem was that her Jewish co-tenants could no longer afford the place and had moved out. The non-Jewish landlord, according to Irma, was afraid to accept other Jewish tenants, and since Jews and non-Jews weren’t allowed to share living space, she had no choice but to leave. Among the other topics broached by Irma in this letter to her friend Hilde Liepelt in Berlin, is her job situation. Luckily, the Landesverband in Berlin gave her permission to do language lessons in the Jewish communities of Münsterberg and Fraustadt, both near Breslau, providing her both with means to live as well as allowing her to continue caring for her mother. A little extra income was generated by singing engagements.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, Breslau, cultural life, economic persecution, emigration, family, Language skills, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, October 2, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Original:

Letter from Irma Umlauf in Breslau, to her friend Hilde Liepelt in Berlin ; 7.379, Bl. 14

28

WEDNESDAY

28

“For the last time”

Farewell at a Bar Mitzvah

They celebrated nonetheless. Many of the families with members whose Bar Mitzvah was taking place during this September would not be in Berlin much longer. However, on this day they all came together in the synagogue for one last time.

BERLIN

It was more of a wistful farewell than a joyful Bar Mitzvah: Rabbi Manfred Swarsensky seemed to be fully conscious of the situation in which his congregants at the Prinzregentenstraße Synagogue in Berlin found themselves. In his address on the occasion of the Bar Mitzvah of 15 teenagers, he captured the mood of this day of celebration: everything clearly bears “the stamp ‘for the last time.’” Many families, whose sons celebrated their Bar Mitzvah on this day, sat on packed suitcases. One family was departing the very next day. The synagoge, in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf neighborhood, had been one of the only synagogues first built during the Weimar Republic. It had also quickly developed into a center of Jewish culture. Now, at the end of September 1938, it was clear to the rabbi that his congregation was facing major changes: “In a few years, much of what’s here today will be gone and perhaps also forgotten.”

TAGS: Bar Mitzvah, Berlin, cultural life, emigration, Jewish Community, public sphere, rabbis, refugees, religion, September 28, Sermon, Synagogues, Weimar Republic

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gerhard Walter Collection, AR 11826

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

24

SATURDAY

24

Stateless from now on

The number of denaturalizations grows

Berlin

Alfred Basch, born September 27th, 1915, in Magdeburg, was henceforth stateless. With the publication of his name in the Gazette of the German Reich, he was deprived of German citizenship. The basis for this was the “Law on the Revocation of Naturalizations and the Deprivation of German Citizenship.” It had been valid for five years. Yet in recent months the number of denaturalizations had clearly risen, often affecting persons and families, who after World War I thanks to the comparably liberal naturalization policy of the Weimar Republic, had become German citizens. On the basis of this law, in September 1938 alone, 116 families became stateless from one day to the next. And that wasn’t enough. The publication of their full names and places, as well as dates of birth, set them up as targets for discrimination, making it impossible for them to go on living a normal life, even if only temporarily.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, document, family, immigration, Magdeburg, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution, Polish-born Jews, public sphere, September 24, Weimar Republic, WWI

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gesamtverzeichnis der Ausbürgerungslisten, 1933-1938 : nach dem amtlichen Abdruck des "Reichsanzeigers"

Original:

f JX 4231 S8 M5 Copy 1

19

MONDAY

19

Worldwide networks of aid

Kurt Grossmann and refugee aid

“If you receive a request from Mrs. Erna Winter (and child), who was until now supported by Democratic Refugee Relief in Prague, I ask you to respond with goodwill.”

PARIS

Jewish refugee organizations had wide networks. This was due to individuals such as Kurt Grossmann, who steadily made more connections with contacts and developed cooperation on an international level. Kurt Grossmann, a journalist and General Secretary of the German League of Human Rights from 1926 until 1933, had escaped from Berlin just before an arrest. He fled to Prague, where he established and developed Democratic Relief for Refugees. Grossmann knew how to use his network for the increasing number of Jewish refugees, who had reached Prague. Even in Paris, where he had lived since 1938, he campaigned for support from the local refugee aid organizations. For example, in a letter from Grossmann on September 19th, 1938, he urges M. Gaston Kahn of the Parisian Comité d’Assistance aux Réfugiés juifs to help Erna Winter and her child.

TAGS: advocates, Berlin, displacement, emigration, immigration, Jewish Community, letter, Paris, persecution, Prague, prominent people, refugees, September 19, transnational networks, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kurt Grossmann Collection, AR 25032

Original:

Box 1, folder 8

8

THURSDAY

8

A full-time job

The laborious preparations for emigration

Basel

In her short life, Hilde Lachmann-Mosse already had a few relocations behind her. The 26-year-old grew up in Berlin. Other stops were Woodbrooke in Great Britain (school), Freiburg (studies in medicine) and Basel (medical doctorate). Now she was facing another move: to the United States. She had already had the certificate of employment regarding her time as an assistant gynecologist at the university hospital in Basel translated into English, although that was only one step of many. Even if the actual certificate is only a few lines long, the three stamps of authentication from various institutions is evidence of how many appointments with authorities must have been necessary for Hilde Lachmann-Mosse finally to hold this document in her hands.

TAGS: Basel, Berlin, displacement, doctoral certificate, document, emigration, immigration, immigration procedures, prominent people, refugees, September 8

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Mosse Family Collection, AR 25184

Original:

Box 3, folder 35

Source available in English

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