7

Paul Proskauer Collection, AR 25641

Collection:

Original:

Box 2, folder 30

29

MONDAY

Resistance through passport forgery

The postal ID of Felix Perls

Berlin

The Jewish businessman Felix Perls was born in Beuthen (Upper Silesia) in 1883. By April 1st, 1938, following Nazi regulations, he had to relinquish his position as director of the Upper Silesian Lumber Industry Corporation. Two months later, he and his wife, Herta, moved to Berlin-Grunewald, in order to escape the hostility in Beuthen. Perls tampered with his 1938 postal ID. He changed its date of issue and its validity period. Postal ID cards were needed for receiving confidential mail but were accepted as identification documents elsewhere too.

TAGS: antisemitism, Aryanization, August 29, Berlin, Beuthen, displacement, document, ID, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals

SOURCE

Institution:

Die Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

27

SATURDAY

Contacts worth more than money

Agnes Graetz uses her network to help her daughter emigrate to the USA

"I ask you to write to me, if at all possible, in the near future, as to whether you see a possibility which does not - as seems to be customary now - require implausibly high guarantees and legal fees."

Lucerne

An illness during a journey forced Wilhelm Graetz to extend his stay in Switzerland. In light of the escalating situation in Germany, he decided to relinquish his home in Berlin. The formerly well-off couple was in no position to help out their four children financially but benefitted from widely spread contacts. Wilhelm Graetz had been a member of the board of the Berlin Jewish Community, and as the chairman of the German “ORT,” he knew potential helpers in many places. In August, a trip took him to Hungary. On the 27th, his wife Agnes made use of her time by asking the well-known territorialist and “ORT” leader, David Lvovich, to help one of her three daughters, who urgently needed an affidavit in order to be able to emigrate to America.

TAGS: affidavits, antisemitism, August 27, Berlin, bureaucracy, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, immigration, immigration procedures, impoverishment, Jewish Community, letter, Lucerne, refugees, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

William Graetz Collection, AR 4121

Collection:

Original:

Archivbox 1, Ordner 3

25

THURSDAY

Adversity the mother of innovation

Intellectuals plan a housing project in the USA for unemployed Jewish physicians

"You know that as of October 1st, all of us will no longer be doctors; German medical licenses have been revoked for all those of our faith. Of course, there are many who won't know how to make a living and won't be able to continue living here."

BERLIN/NEW YORK

The existential crisis of Jewish doctors in Germany, which had passed through various stages (exclusion from public service and health insurance funds, prohibition of cooperation between Jewish and “Aryan” physicians, etc.) escalated with the employment ban in July 1938 and required a creative approach. On August 25th, Dr. Felix Pinkus, a renowned Berlin dermatologist, wrote to his friend, Dr. Sulzberger, in America, in order to win him over as a fellow campaigner in an aid project. The sociologist and national economist Franz Oppenheimer had come to the idea of establishing a kind of residential colony for former doctors from Germany. The funding for this would be covered by contributions from American-Jewish doctors. According to Oppenheimer’s calculations, roughly 1,000 physicians would use this remedy. (Dr. Pinkus estimated that it was closer to 3,000).

TAGS: antisemitism, August 25, Berlin, commentary, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, immigration, Jewish Community, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, New York, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, segregation, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Felix Pinkus Family Collection, AR 25456

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 41

20

SATURDAY

650 reichsmarks and 50 pfennigs

Aboard the Columbus New York-bound

"Boat tickets, train tickets, plane tickets to all countries"

Berlin/Bremen/New York

Just a few doors down from the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency, at No. 2 Meineke Street in Berlin, was the travel agency “Palestine & Orient Lloyd,” which closely cooperated with the Palestine Office in assisting thousands of Jews with emigration from Nazi Germany—and not only to Palestine. One of these emigrants was Dr. Rolf Katzenstein. On August 20th, 1938, the “Palestine & Orient Lloyd” issued this bill to him for passage to New York on August 27th aboard the Columbus from Bremen.

TAGS: August 20, Berlin, Bremen, displacement, document, emigration, New York, Palestine, refugees, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Collection:

Receipt "Palestine & Orient Lloyd" for Rolf Katzenstein, Ruther Gützlaff née Katzenstein Collection

17

WEDNESDAY

Sara for women, Israel for men

Compulsory first names for Jews

"If a Jew bears a name differing from those which according to § 1 can be given to Jews, as of January 1, 1939, he must adopt an additional first name, namely Israel in the case of a male and Sara in the case of a female."

Berlin

Twice in the course of German history, Jews were forced to change their names: the first time through the introduction of (often stigmatizing) family names during the Emancipation, the second time through the introduction of compulsory first names: “Sara” for Jewish women and “Israel” for Jewish men (August 17, 1938). Thus, Jews were singled out and made to stand apart from the rest of society. If the given name appeared on an officially approved list of Jewish names issued by the Nazis, no additional name was required. The regime also saw to it that Jews who had changed their family names in order to blend in and avoid discrimination had to return to their previous names.

TAGS: antisemitism, August 17, Berlin, document, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Kurt Hirschfeld Collection, AR 25708

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Chronology of major events in 1938

Jews forced to adopt new first names

A passport for a Jewish woman clearly displays the legally ordered middle name of Sara. Marianne Salinger Collection, Leo Baeck Institute.

Jewish Germans with a first name that the Nazis do not consider “typically Jewish” are forced to adopt an additional first name as of January 1, 1939. Men are assigned the name Israel, women the name Sara. The intent of this policy is to make Jews more immediately identifiable as Jews. This initiative marks the first attempt to mark Jews and to segregate them from the rest of the population. On January 24, 1939, the order is extended to include Jews in Austria and the Sudetenland.

View chronology of major events in 1938

14

SUNDAY

A super woman

Woman entrepreneur turned housewife takes charge

“I think I write to the children of Emanuel and Victoria Magen and I beg you to help us to come to America.”

Berlin

Gusty Bendheim, a Berliner, had never met the American branch of her family. As a 42-year-old divorcee, she had no other choice but to turn to her overseas relatives. She asked these quasi-strangers for help facilitating emigration for herself and her children, Ralph (13) and Margot (17). Gusty was an enterprising sort: by the time she got married to Arthur Bendheim, a businessman from Frankfurt/Main, around 1920, she had established three button stores. After the wedding, Arthur took over management and Gusty became a housewife. In spite of the increasingly alarming anti-Jewish measures taken by the Nazi government, Arthur was not willing to leave. After the couple’s divorce in 1937, Gusty took matters into her own hands. In this August 14th, 1938 letter to her unknown relatives, in addition to her request for help, she states that her former husband is ready to pay the costs of travel for her and their children to the United States.

TAGS: affidavits, antisemitism, August 14, Berlin, children, emigration, family, immigration, immigration procedures, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Margot Friedlander Collection, AR 11397

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

3

WEDNESDAY

Incremental Aryanization

Jewish doctors lose their accreditation

“The number of Jews this new decree affects is estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000.”

Berlin

The percentage of Jews among German physicians was so high that, initially, a comprehensive employment ban did not seem expedient to the Nazis. Instead, they issued the “Administrative Order regarding the Admission of Jewish Physicians” of April 22, 1933, which excluded “non-Aryan” doctors from working with the Statutory Health Insurance Funds unless they began their practice before WWI or could prove that they or their fathers had been frontline soldiers in the war. Starting in 1937, Jews could no longer obtain doctoral degrees. In an August 3, 1938 notice, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency draws attention to the fourth supplementary regulation added to the Reich Citizenship Law, passed days earlier, according to which, effective September 30, Jewish physicians were to lose their medical licences.

TAGS: antisemitism, Aryanization, August 3, Berlin, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals, press article, WWI, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

“Purge of Lawyers, Dentists Expected to Follow Ousting of Jewish Doctors in Reich”

Collection:

Source available in English

31

SUNDAY

Out of respect for the “Volksgemeinschaft”

New law outlaws bequests to Jews

“§ 48 A disposition on grounds of death is null and void if it violates healthy public sentiment in a manner grossly contradicting the respect which a responsible testator must exhibit towards family and ethnic community.”

Berlin

With the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz) of March 24, 1933, the newly installed government of Adolf Hitler left little doubt about how it viewed the rule of law. The act allowed the government to suspend the constitution whenever it saw fit, to formulate laws and decrees without the involvement of parliament, and even to create treaties between Germany and other countries without parliamentary consent or compliance with the constitution. The arbitrariness and randomness of the legal system this created were intensified by the frequent evocation of the Gesundes Volksempfinden (“healthy popular sentiment”), a term that implied that the people’s putatively uncorrupted, natural instincts should be the basis of Germany’s jurisprudence. One such case was the “Law on the Creation of Testaments and Contracts of Inheritance” (§48) of July 31. Invoking “the needs of the Volksgemeinschaft“—code for racially conceived German national community—the law invalidated contracts through which a deceased person’s property was bequeathed to a Jew.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, document, economic persecution, July 31, Nazi laws, Nazi policies

SOURCE

Institution:

ALEX - Historische Rechts- und Gesetzestexte Online

Collection:

Reichgesetzblatt, Jahrgang 1938.

28

THURSDAY

The veneer of legality

All Jews required to carry ID cards

“Possession of a card is compulsory for all Jews and ‘Aryans’ of military age, but voluntary for other ‘Aryans.’”

Berlin

Identification cards for use within Germany were introduced by decree of the Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick, on July 22, 1938. Frick, a lawyer by training, consistently worked to furnish the anti-democratic, anti-Jewish measures of the regime with the veneer of legality. Frick’s initial order was vague about who would be required to carry IDs (“The Reich Minister of the Interior determines which groups of German nationals and to what extent are subject to compulsory identification”), but this was clarified in an announcement on July 23. Apart from men of military service age, it was mainly Jews of all age-groups who were required to apply for IDs. The purpose of the IDs was to clearly identify and stigmatize Jews and further separate them from the rest of the population. In a July 28 notice, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on this latest legal atrocity.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, Journalism, JTA, July 28, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, prominent people, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

“Reich Jews from Age of 3 Months Must Carry Identity Cards”

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 5

Source available in English

27

MONDAY

A scholar’s departure

Ismar Elbogen, a major historian of German Jewry, leaves his homeland

“Professor Ismar Elbogen, noted Jewish scholar, is leaving for the United States to settle there permanently.”

BERLIN

Thanks to decades of scholarly work, notably his seminal works “The Religious Views of the Pharisees” (“Die Religionsanschauungen der Pharisäer,” 1904) and “Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History” (“Der Jüdische Gottesdienst in seiner Entwicklung,” 1913), Prof. Ismar Elbogen was well known internationally, when in 1938, he overcame years of hesitation and decided that the time had come to leave. His efforts as chairman of the education committee of the Reich Representation of German Jews had been severely hampered by the regime, and his last book published in Germany, “The History of Jews in Germany” (“Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland,” 1935) had been censored heavily by the propaganda ministry. In the 1920s, several institutions of higher learning in the US (he taught at Hebrew Union College and turned down an offer to teach at Columbia University) had offered him lectureships, so that he had significant contacts overseas when the time came to leave Germany. In today’s report, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency informs its readers of the noted scholar’s impending departure.

TAGS: Berlin, emigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, JTA, July 27, media coverage, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, religion, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

“Dr. Elbogen. Noted Scholar, Quitting Reich for U.S.”

Collection:

Source available in English

21

THURSDAY

Cautious optimism

Reich Representation of Jews in Germany evaluates Évian Conference

It was practically the only concrete result of the Évian Conference, so organized German-Jewry had little choice but to pin its hopes in the newly founded International Refugee Committee.

Berlin

As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on this day in 1938, five days after the end of the Évian Conference (July 6-15), the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany published its first statement on the outcome of the convention in the Jüdische Rundschau, the paper of the Zionist movement. The organization voiced cautious optimism and opined that the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, which had been set up at the conference with the goal of facilitating permanent resettlement, would have a positive effect on emigration.

TAGS: Berlin, emigration, Evian conference, Evian-les-Baines, Journalism, JTA, July 21, media coverage, politics, refugees, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

“Reich Jews Ask Emigration Aid from Abroad to Solve Refugee Problem”

Collection:

Source available in English

20

WEDNESDAY

“Jews Unmasked”

Nazi censors deem an antisemitic film politically useful

“Summary. The movie offers a cross-section of Jewish film production during the system period [derogatory term for the Weimar Republic] and proves the necessity of the Nuremberg Laws, which brought an end to this subversive activity in the fields of culture and the economy.”

Berlin

Immediately after their rise to power in January 1933, the Nazis began to extend their control over every aspect of cultural life in Germany. As a popular medium capable of reaching large numbers of people—and one perceived as being dominated by Jews—film was of central importance to the new regime. Before the production of a new movie could begin, the script had to pass pre-censorship. The final product was scrutinized by the censorship authority for film (Film-Prüfstelle) of the Reich Propaganda Ministry. Under the Nazi regime, the state’s relationship with the film industry changed. While prior to 1933, authorities had primarily sought to censor or suppress material deemed harmful, the Nazi regime actively instrumentalized the film industry to promote National Socialist ideology. The anti-Semitic film “Juden ohne Maske” (“Jews unmasked”), whose authorization card from the censors is shown here, is such a case. It received the rating “valuable to national policy”, but it was also restricted to screenings for adult audiences in the context of NSDAP events.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, cultural life, document, Hate speech, July 20, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, propaganda

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Original:

Authorization card from the Berlin Film Censorship Office for the Nazi propaganda film, “Juden ohne Maske” [“Jews Unmasked”] ; CJA, 7.78

19

TUESDAY

Keep your tired

Visa stop at the United States Consulate General

Berlin

On July 19, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the United States Consulate General in Berlin stopped accepting new visa applications. According to the Consulate, about 2000 people have applied for visas per month. Due to the high demand, the Consulate prioritizes clearing the files of the applications on hand for the time being. The oftentimes hard-won affidavits and other documents of new applicants will not be accepted anymore, though new applicants will be put on a waitlist. In consequence, this means that Jews who are planning to leave Germany or the annexed Austria for the USA will have to wait until next year to get a chance at obtaining a visa. It can be assumed that the 60,000 to 70,000 applications by emigrants from Germany/Austria which are waiting to be processed will already significantly surpass the annual US quota of 27,370 visas for immigrants from the Deutsches Reich.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, Berlin, emigration, immigration procedures, Journalism, JTA, July 19, media coverage, United States of America, Visa applications

SOURCE

Institution:

“U.S. Consulate in Berlin Stops Accepting Visa Applications; Has 60,000 on Hand”

Collection:

Source available in English

17

SUNDAY

Double jeopardy

Disabled and Jewish, Ursula Meseritz was a target of multiple Nazi policies

“The beautiful back of the head in animated conversation. Ach, the sun!”

Berlin

As a deaf-mute Jew, Ursula Meseritz was doubly inferior in the eyes of the Nazis. Since July 14, 1933, the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring had been in effect, which legalized the forced sterilization of the deaf, the blind, the cognitively disabled, epileptics, and others. Ursula had attended the only Jewish institution for the deaf-mute in Germany, the “Israelitische Taubstummenanstalt” in Berlin Weißensee. Under the Nazi regime, the use of sign language was forbidden in public schools, and in 1936, Jewish students were excluded from institutions catering to the needs of the deaf-mute. According to a “Questionnaire for Emigrants,” which she had submitted in April 1938, Ursula had been trained as a lab worker for clinical diagnostics and was hoping to work in this field in the United States. The captions on these photographs (dated July 17, 1938) show that in spite of the difficult times, the 19-year-old had not lost her sense of humor. They appear to show Ursula and her sister with their parents celebrating one last time before Ursula departed for the US.

TAGS: Berlin, Disability, emigration, family, family separation, July 17, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, photo, schools, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Ursula Meseritz Elgart Family Collection, AR 25544

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 5

11

MONDAY

Rejection letter

Dismissed from the post office for being Jewish, Johanna seeks new employment

“I am 37 years old, worked for the Berlin post office for 14 years and was dismissed because of the Aryan Paragraph. The office was very satisfied with my performance.”

Berlin

“The position under discussion has been filled,” was the terse answer Johanna Rosenthal, a former postal clerk, received to her application for a job as a telephone operator. After 14 years of service with the Deutsche Reichspost, she had been dismissed at the end of 1933. As she points out in her letter, her employment in public service as a Jew has been made impossible by the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.” The provisional pension of 68 Reichsmark that she had been granted was not enough to live on, so she sought new employment.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, economic persecution, impoverishment, July 11, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals

SOURCE

Institution:

Original:

Johanna Rosenthal's application with negative response ; Inv. Nr. Do2 2002/762

8

FRIDAY

Staff exodus

German Zionists lose another trusted leader to emigration

“Mr. Friedman has carried out all tasks assigned to him with dedication by far exceeding the ordinary and with unflagging diligence.”

Berlin

The Zionist Federation of Germany was in a tricky position. While it supported the emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany, it struggled with the consequences of constantly losing capable staff members, especially on the leadership level. Nevertheless, Benno Cohn, member of the Federation’s executive board, generously supported yet another departing colleague with a deeply appreciative letter of recommendation. Rudolf Friedmann had been associated with the Zionist Central Office since 1933 in various capacities, serving it with the utmost diligence and dedication. Cohn praises his organizational abilities and ideas and warmly recommends Friedmann to any Zionist or other Jewish organization.

TAGS: Berlin, emigration, Jewish Community, July 8, letter, transnational networks, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

5

TUESDAY

Jewish emigration

The periodical of the Jewish Hilfsverein der Juden in Deutschland educates Jewish refugees

Berlin

The “Aid Society of German Jews,” founded in Berlin in 1901, mainly supported Jewish immigrants to Germany. After the Nazis came into power, the association, now forced to call itself “Aid Society of Jews in Germany,” helped to facilitate Jewish emigration from Germany. In this context, it offered help with questions concerning government agencies, passport issues, or vocational retraining and also granted financial support. An important organ for its work was the periodical Jüdische Auswanderung (“Jewish Emigration”), which informed its readers about general living and work conditions but also about specific questions regarding Jewish culture in various countries. In the July 1938 issue, the US, Cuba, and the Philippines were introduced.

TAGS: Berlin, document, emigration, immigration, immigration procedures, impoverishment, July 5, Nazi policies, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Original:

“Jewish Emigration.” Brochure for Emigration and Resettlement Questions ; Inv. Nr: Do2 91/194

29

WEDNESDAY

Gestapo warrant for protective custody

Painter Lea Grundig at Dresden Court Jail

Berlin/Dresden

The Gestapo warrant for protective custody dated June 29, 1939 confirmed the hitherto merely formal arrest of the Jewish and communist painter Lina (Lea) Grundig (also see June 1). After her conviction of high treason, she was held at the Dresden Court Jail.

TAGS: artists, Berlin, Communists, document, Dresden, imprisonment, June 29, Nazi policies, persecution, prominent people

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Original:

Protective custody order for Lea Grundig, issued by the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin; Inv.No. Do 62/1126.4

28

TUESDAY

A professional farewell letter

Hans Lamm writes to his employer before leaving for the USA

Berlin

The observance of Shabbat, holidays, and kashrut was so deeply ingrained in the life of the Lamm family in Munich that even the Catholic cook, Babett, saw to it that the traditional customs were adhered to. While traditional in their understanding of Judaism, the Lamms were open to worldly matters. After high school, Hans briefly studied law, but, understanding that in the new political climate, there was no way a Jew could advance in the field, he embarked on a career in journalism instead. The career paths of Jewish jounalists at the time were also stymied by the fact that non-Jewish papers would not hire them and Jewish ones were forced to close down one by one. In 1937, Lamm relocated to Berlin, where he studied with Leo Baeck and Ismar Elbogen at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, in order to deepen his understanding of Judaism. Deeply rooted in German culture as he was, it was difficult for him to decide to emigrate. Yet eventually, his older brother convinced him that there was no future for Jews in Germany. In this letter, the 25 year-old Lamm cordially and politely, yet without palpable emotion, bids farewell to the editors of the Jewish monthly, Der Morgen, a high-level publication to which he had been contributing, expressing his gratitude for their support.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, emigration, family, Journalism, June 28, letter, Munich, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, rabbis, religion

SOURCE

Institution:

Original:

Farewell letter by Hans Lamm to the editors of the newspaper “Morgen” before he emigrated to the USA; CJA, 1 C Mo 1, Nr. 2, #12509, Bl. 29

23

THURSDAY

Interview at the US-Consulate

Heinz Ries is finally allowed to immigrate

Havana

After his first official attempt to immigrate had failed under adventurous circumstances, 20 year-old Heinz Ries of Berlin made another effort to get permission to live in the US permanently and legally. For months, he had struggled in the shadows as an undocumented immigrant in New York. After obtaining an affidavit of support, Ries traveled to Havana and visited the US consulate there on June 23, 1938. Finally, he was admitted legal entry into the United States. After the war he returned to Germany for some time, first in the employment of the Allies, then as a photo journalist for the New York Times. The photographs of the Berlin Blockade and the Airlift, taken during these years, made him world-famous under the name Henry Ries.

TAGS: affidavits, artists, Berlin, bureaucracy, document, emigration, Havana, ID, immigration, immigration procedures, June 23, New York, prominent people

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Original:

Immigrant Identification Card Issued by the US Department of State for Heinz Ries ; Inv.No. Do2 2009/488

Source available in English

22

WEDNESDAY

Billy Wilder

The filmmaker celebrates his 32nd birthday in Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD

Samuel (later “Billy”) Wilder had a mind of his own: born in 1906 into an Austrian-Jewish family in the Galician town of Sucha Beskidzka, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was expected to join his father’s business, which consisted mainly of a chain of railroad restaurants. But after the Realgymnasium and a brief stint at law school in Vienna (he dropped out after three months), he decided to follow his true leanings. At the paper Die Stunde, a tabloid of questionable repute, he got his first shot at practicing his writing skills. In 1926, an opportunity arose for him to move to Berlin, where he freelanced for various tabloids and took up screenwriting. After the Nazis’ ascent to power, Wilder first moved to Paris and was given the opportunity to direct his first movie, Mauvaise graine. In 1934 he entered the US on a visitors visa. From 1936, he was under contract at Paramount Pictures. June 22, 1938 was his 32nd birthday – the sixth he celebrated in exile.

TAGS: artists, Berlin, displacement, emigration, Hollywood, Journalism, June 22, Paris, photo, prominent people, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

The Oscar Academy Award

Collection:

Billy Wilder

20

MONDAY

The crowd looked on quietly

Shop windows vandalized with antisemitic graffiti

“The word ‘Jew’ was smeared in thick red letters on the window of every Jewish shop, sometimes with a Star of David added, to fix in the minds of Berliners that these were stores for them to avoid entering at all costs.”

Berlin

Section 17 of the Third Supplementary Decree on the Reich Citizenship law (Reichsbürgergesetz), issued on June 14, called for marking Jewish businesses at a date yet to be determined. The Nazis lost no time. According to this article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, days later, the word “Jew” and Nazi slogans were smeared on Jewish shop windows throughout Berlin in an organized fashion, with the same red, hard-to-remove oil paint used everywhere. There could be no doubt that the action was carried out with blessings from above. While no opposition from the non-Jewish population is recorded, the correspondent does point out that unlike in Vienna and in less affluent parts of Berlin, the crowd on Kurfürstendamm looked on quietly, without major enthusiasm. Tension among Jews was intensified by reports of plans to build labor camps where Jews apprehended in recent raids were to be put to work.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, economic persecution, imprisonment, Journalism, JTA, June 20, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, photo, public sphere, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Collection:

Photograph of antisemitic graffiti applied between June 15–20, 1938 at the furniture store of A[dolf] Brünn jr. Berliner Allee 29-31, Berlin-Weißensee

Original:

CJA, 7.103, 4

Source available in English

Institution:

“Report: Labor Camps to Be Built for Arrested Reich Jews”

Collection:

Institution:

Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main

Original:

Archivsignatur: S7Z1938-31, Fotografin: Hannah Reeck

19

SUNDAY

A letter from Shanghai

Report from a German Jewish refugee

“There is not a single Jew here who cannot feed himself.”

Shanghai/Berlin

At a time when more and more German Jews became anxious to leave the country, this letter from a German-Jewish emigrant in Shanghai, addressed to the “gentlemen of the Hilfsverein [Aid Society of Jews in Germany]” and published in the “Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt für Berlin,” must have infused prospective emigrants with new hope: the writer exuberantly thanks the Hilfsverein for counseling him and gushes over the multitude of professional options available to immigrants at his new location, “provided, of course, that you have a skill and are able to work intensely.” According to him, musicians, physicians, and merchants are greatly in demand, and the situation is especially promising for secretaries and shorthand typists – on condition that they have perfect command of the English language, which could by no means be taken for granted among German Jews. The newcomers were not the only Jews in the country; a Sephardic community had been present in Shanghai since the middle of the 19th century, and settlement by Ashkenazi Jews had begun in the early 20th century and intensified in the wake of the Russian Revolution.

TAGS: Berlin, commentary, displacement, emigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, June 19, Language skills, letter, musicians, refugees, Shanghai, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Gemeindeblatt der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin

Collection:

Original:

Vol. 28, No. 25, p. 5.

17

FRIDAY

Fear of free thinkers

National Socialist informers in the public sphere

“Among the places visited by the police were Trump’s, one of the most popular cafes in the city, where half a dozen Jews were picked up, and also the Meudtner Cafe.”

Berlin

On June 17, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that in the last four days, the Nazi authorities have re-intensified their raids on cafés in Berlin and elsewhere in the country, which between June 13 and 17 have led to the arrests of 2,000 Jews. During the Weimar Republic, there had been a thriving Kaffeehauskultur—artists and intellectuals practically saw certain cafes as their homes, where they would spend half of their days and nights discussing art, literature, and politics. Under the Nazis, this phenomenon quickly disappeared; they suspected subversive activities among these free thinkers. The public sphere was infested with informers. By the time of the Juni-Aktion, in the context of which these raids were carried out, the original clientele had largely disappeared. Ostensibly, the raids were targeting “anti-social elements.” In fact, however, they constituted the first mass-arrest of Jews. The Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Gobbels, had summarized the intention with the pithy words: “Our password is chicanery, not the law.”

TAGS: antisemitism, artists, Berlin, cultural life, imprisonment, Journalism, JTA, June 17, Juni-Aktion, media coverage, Nazi policies, persecution, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, public sphere

SOURCE

Institution:

“Anti-jewish Drive ‘just Begun,’ Nazis Declare; Cafes Raided Again”

Collection:

Source available in English

14

TUESDAY

Marked

A new decree requires Jewish shops be flagged

Berlin

Despite the patriotism often espoused by German Jews and their manifold contributions to society, the Reichsbürgergesetz (“Reich Citizen Law”) of 1935 officially assigned an inferior status to Jews, declaring them to be mere “nationals” and further segregating them from the rest of the population. Over time, supplementary decrees were issued that provided the exact Nazi definition of what made a person a Jew and forced Jewish public servants into retirement. On June 14, 1938, the third such supplementary decree stipulated that Jewish-owned businesses were to be marked as such.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, document, economic persecution, June 14, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Gemeinnütziger Verein für regionale Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte Gelsenkirchen

Collection:

Reichbürgergesetz

9

THURSDAY

Stölpchensee

The last public bathing spot for Jews in Berlin

Berlin/Stölpchensee

In 1935, the Nazi party press had orchestrated a campaign to exclude Jews from public swimming pools, citing “unpleasant incidents” or warning the public of the “danger” allegedly posed by Jews. Suddenly, signs inscribed with texts like “Jews are not permitted access to this facility” were put up almost everywhere. Stölpchensee, one of the lakes just outside Berlin, was the last public bathing spot to which Berlin Jews had access. Fritz and Friedel F. were married and lived in Berlin, where Fritz owned a lamp store. In June of 1938, their weekend cottage at Stölpchensee was still a family escape from the city and harassment.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, family, Hate speech, Journalism, June 9, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution, photo, propaganda, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Private Collection William J. Davidson

Original:

“From the Freudenthal Family Album”

Chronology of major events in 1938

Destruction of the Main Synagogue in Munich

A postcard depicting the Main Synagogue in Munich. Private collection.

The Nazis destroy the Main Synagogue in the city center of Munich and replace it with a parking lot. The monumental Neo-Romanesque building was built in 1878. Just a few days before the demolition, the Jewish Community in Munich is told that it has to sell the Synagogue for 100.000 Reichsmark. The synagogue is the first of many that the Nazis will destroy in 1938.

View chronology of major events in 1938

5

SUNDAY

Jewish schools

A safe space

“In his essay ‘Halakha and Aggada,’ Bialik passes on an interpretation which he has heard from Achad Haam: ‘He who heeds the spirit will hear from between its [this Mishna's] lines the murmur of the heart and the trembling concern for the future of a people which ‘walks the path’ and holds in its hands none of its possessions but a book, and whose entire inner connection to any one of its countries of residence is based only on its spirit.”

Berlin

For many Jewish children, going to public school turned into hell under the Nazis. Just getting there could mean running a gauntlet of anti-Jewish slights. At school, exclusion by fellow students and teachers was the rule. In order to spare their children this ordeal, parents who could afford it sent their children to Jewish schools. Before 1933, most assimilated German Jews attended public schools. However, in the hostile climate of the Nazi regime attendance at Jewish schools grew. Dr. Elieser L. Ehrmann, a pedagogue and employee of the school department of the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany had developed curricula for teachers at Jewish schools which aimed to deepen the knowledge of Jewish holidays and the customs accompanying them and thus instill a positive Jewish identity. The excerpt shown here is from Ehrmann’s “Curriculum for the Omer and Shavuot [Feast of Weeks],” published in 1938 by the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany. That year, the first day of Shavuot fell on June 5.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, children, document, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, June 5, religion, schools, segregation, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Ehrmann, Eliezer L., and Reichsvertretung Der Juden in Deutschland, Berlin Schulabteilung. Arbeitsplan Fuer Omerzeit Und Schawuot. Berlin: Reichsvertretung Der Juden in Deutschland, 1938.

Collection:

23

MONDAY

Faster and faster

Leo Baeck turns 65

“And this year will be a difficult one; the wheel is turning faster and faster. It will really test our nerves and our capacity for careful thought.”

Berlin

In April 1938, Rabbi Leo Baeck, the president of the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany and as such the main representative of German Jewry, had presciently written, “And this year will be a difficult year; the wheel is turning faster and faster. It will really test our nerves and our capacity for careful thought.” Baeck had been an army chaplain in World War I and as a patriot must have been extremely pained by the persecution of German Jewry. With large parts of the community reduced to poverty, Jewish rights curtailed, Jews pushed to the margins of society, and no prospects for improvement, Rabbi Baeck’s 65th birthday on May 23 probably was quite a somber affair.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, commentary, economic persecution, impoverishment, Jewish Community, May 23, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, photo, prominent people, rabbis, religion, segregation, welfare organizations, WWI, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Lucian Loeb, Leo Baeck in his library, Berlin, 1935. Leo Baeck Collection, AR 66

Collection:

Original:

F 12073

22

SUNDAY

Ready for Germany

The despair of a nationalist German Jew

“I am a Jew! A Jew in a desperate position: a Jewish German who in spite of everything that has befallen him or perhaps because of it cannot shed his ties to Germany [...].”

Hildesheim/Berlin

The writer of this letter was a young man from Hildesheim, Fritz Schürmann (later Frank Shurman), born in 1915. Even though he is said to have struggled with antisemitism well before the Nazis rose to power, he joined the Deutscher Vortrupp (“German Vanguard”) in 1934, a group of young, extremely nationalistic Jews whose slogan was “Ready for Germany” and who hailed National Socialism as a force preventing Germany’s downfall. Given these views, it must have been especially painful for him to confront the bitter reality of rejection by German society. In this letter, he thanks a Mr. Dilthey in Berlin for the distinction of having spent time with him and dramatically informs him of his Jewish identity. “I am a Jew! A Jew in a desperate position: a Jewish German who in spite of everything that has befallen him or perhaps because of it cannot shed his ties to Germany […].” Denied his identity as a German by the Nazi regime, the writer communicates the crippling effects of the political situation on his psyche and the absurd notion of having to leave Germany in order to be able to be German.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, commentary, emigration, Hildesheim, letter, May 22, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, politics

SOURCE

Institution:

Frank M. Shurman Collection, AR 25219

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 25

21

SATURDAY

A silly ditty

Heinz Neumann celebrates his bar mitzvah with a song

“May God grant you all health, contentment and happier times again.”

Berlin

It is hard to imagine that the guiding hand of an adult was not involved in writing the toast that Heinz Neumann made at his bar mitzvah celebration on May 21 in Berlin: the way in which the boy expresses his gratitude for having been granted a carefree life by his parents despite the difficult times scarcely comes across as the style of a 13 year-old. Heinz promises to “keep in mind the ethical commandments of Judaism” and wishes everyone health, contentment and happier times. Luckily, in order to brighten things up a bit, one of his grandmothers and an aunt had composed a song with light-hearted lyrics based on the melody of a familiar German oompah tune in honor of the bar mitzvah. It can be assumed that the festive meal, crowned by a “Fürst Pückler Icecream Cake,” also raised the celebrants’ spirits.

TAGS: Bar Mitzvah, Berlin, children, family, Jewish Community, May 21, photo, religion

SOURCE

Institution: