27

Ludwig Katscher Collection, AR 6336

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder A

18

SUNDAY

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:

Collection:

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

15

THURSDAY

The plain truth

Ban to practice for lawyers

“[...] I must say it again and again, much as we miss you and long for you, we are happy and content that you are doing so well.”

Hamburg/Broadstairs, Kent

Julie Jonas in Hamburg and her daughters, Elisabeth and Margarethe, had sworn to report to each other truthfully on their emotional well-being. Almost daily, there was an exchange of postcards. For a few weeks, the two girls had been in England. Their father, the lawyer Julius Jonas, had outlasted several Nazi laws aimed at pushing Jews and opponents of the regime out of the legal professions. But with the issue of the “Fifth Decree Supplementing the Reich Citizenship Law” on November 30th, 1938, he was disbarred. December 15th was his birthday. Already on the day before, Julie Jonas had written to the children that their nerves had worn “rather thin” and that they weren’t at all in the mood for a birthday. Nevertheless she bravely tried to show her joy about the girls’ well-being.

TAGS: Broadstairs, children, December 15, family, Hamburg, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals

SOURCE

Institution:

Elizabeth Melamid Collection, AR 25691

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

14

WEDNESDAY

At least the children

England agrees to accept 10,000 Jewish children

“The Government’s decision was made known in the House of Commons by Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, who declared that any alteration in the existing rate of immigration to Palestine at this time would ‘prejudice’ the forthcoming British-Arab-Jewish negotiations.”

London

Even the total defenselessness of German Jews in light of the acts of violence perpetrated during the November pogroms did not lead to an adjustment in international refugee policy that would be worth mentioning. Therefore, the Jewish Agency for Palestine had demanded from the British to permit the immediate immigration of 10,000 Jewish children to Palestine. As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on December 14th, the British Mandatory Authorities viewed such a step as a danger to their diplomatic balancing act vis-à-vis the groups involved and rejected the request. It did, however, agree to temporarily admit them to England. Many Jewish parents were ready to make the painful decision to send their offspring abroad on their own, in order at least to spare them the constant hostility and the physical danger. Already before the attempt by the Jewish Agency, in November, the government had given the green light to the immigration of 5,000 unaccompanied children under the age of 17. The first group of children had gone to England at the beginning of December.

TAGS: children, December 14, Harwich, Journalism, JTA, kindertransport, kristallnacht, London, media coverage, November Pogrom, Palestine, refugees, violence, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Britain Rejects Plea to Admit 10,000 Child Refugees to Palestine; Fears Effect on Parleys”

Source available in English

11

SUNDAY

Nightmares

A Jewish child documents exceptional times

“Had today a very bad night with terrible dreams, and I woke up screaming many times. Probably this comes from the agitations I've experienced.”

Vienna

When, in November 1938, Gertrude Fichmann gave her 12-year-old son, Harry, a diary in which to record the family’s emigration experience, she had no idea at which point they would leave and where their journey would take them. Nor could she have anticipated just how eventful a time was coming up for Austrian Jewry in general and for her family in particular. As almost every day brought new, disturbing incidents, Harry would record the latest developments regularly and articulately. Witnessing the frightening events and watching the fear of the adults in his life clearly took a toll on him: on December 11th, he describes having spent the night tortured by nightmares.

TAGS: children, commentary, December 11, diary, emigration, family, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Collection:

Original:

9

FRIDAY

From exile to exile

A German jurist sticks with his Jewish family

“We are in the midst of a catastrophe of such a massive scope that we cannot even grasp it. This has long ceased to be just about the fate of a persecuted minority, this is about the future of humanity as such.”

New York/Basel

With the expressiveness of a poet, the jurist Paul Schrag on December 9th, 1938 describes to his friend Max Gutzwiller in Basel his circumstances after emigration. Since July, he had been living in a Manhattan hotel with his wife and baby. Apart from emigration and the professional uncertainties it occasioned, Schrag also had simple human matters to cope with. In September, his father had unexpectedly passed away, and now his sick mother needed to be taken care of. He experienced the catastrophe of humanity in the 1930s very profoundly and hoped for the onset of a “profound emotional and moral countercurrent.” A little bit of sanguinity was brought into his life by his little son, whose bliss remained untouched by current events and change of location.

TAGS: Basel, children, commentary, December 9, displacement, emigration, family, letter, New York, prominent people

SOURCE

Institution:

Paul Schrag Collection, AR 25161

Collection:

Original:

7

WEDNESDAY

Finally: positive answers!

A boy diarist documents the time before emigration

“First we waited with great anticipation for one reply, and now they are all arriving at once.”

Vienna

Every now and then, the diary of the Viennese boy Harry Kranner-Fiss deals with topics appropriate to a 12-year-old: doing mischief at school, excitement about new clothes, a “grown-up” haircut, playing with friends. But more often than not, Harry’s eloquent entries reflect his keen awareness of the threatened state of Jews in Austria in 1938: they deal with an uncle’s deportation to the Dachau concentration camp, his aunt being locked out of her apartment and the key being confiscated, his mother’s tears of fear and worry, with curfews, public humiliation and violence. No wonder that his stepfather was incessantly trying to find a way to leave the country. Promising reactions were slow in coming, but on December 7, 1938, just days after receiving a promise of an affidavit for immigration to the US, Harry was excited to record that from Australia too, a positive answer had arrived. According to an earlier entry, his stepfather had called on the British commission for Australia, which was visiting Vienna, in early November, but had been told to expect a waiting period of eight to nine months.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, antisemitism, children, commentary, Concentration Camps, Dachau, December 7, diary, emigration, immigration procedures, imprisonment, Jewish property, Vienna, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Collection:

Original:

4

SUNDAY

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:

Hertha Nathorff, Reichstagsbrand, ME 460

Collection:

Original:

Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden (IGdJ)

2

FRIDAY

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:

Original:

Kindertransport; 21-015/266

1

Thursday

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:

George Rooby Collection, AR 6550

Collection:

Original:

Science History Institute, Philadelphia

Source available in English

27

Sunday

An unexpected gesture

Resurrected from the garbage

Nuremberg

Thanks to his thriving practice in the Steinbühl neighborhood of Nuremberg, Dr. Adolf Dessauer had achieved a certain prosperity. His generous apartment offered a children’s room for his sons, Heinz and Rolf, maid’s quarters, space for his practice and a waiting room, a living and dining room, and, not least, a bedroom with furniture made of cherry wood. In 1937, due to the effects of anti-Semitic legislation targeting doctors, Dr. Dessauer was forced to give up his practice. Emigration was the only solution. But how to take the beautiful bedroom furniture abroad? The Nazis rendered this concern obsolete: During the November pogroms, in the night of November 9 to 10 (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”), the furniture was smashed to pieces and a portrait of the Nobel laureate, Paul Ehrlich, slashed and ruined. Only a few days after the shock of the brutal destruction, the Dessauers experienced a rare gesture of decency. A total stranger returned the portrait, which was by now perfectly restored.

TAGS: antisemitism, art, children, emigration, Jewish property, kristallnacht, Nazi laws, November 27, November Pogrom, Nuremberg, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Collection:

Portrait of Paul Ehrlich

25

Friday

The limits of hospitality

Asylum for Jewish children

The children will be housed there until arrangements for placing them in private homes and for their education have been completed.

London

The news of the brutal acts of violence perpetrated against German and Austrian Jews during the November pogroms sent shockwaves through Jewish communities. On November 15, a group of Jewish leaders in Britain requested that their government grant temporary shelter to Jewish youngsters who were to be returned to their countries later on. On November 25, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on the planned opening of a camp for 600 child refugees from Germany on the east coast of England. The British chapter of the World Movement for the Care of Children from Germany was to recruit families to offer foster homes for 5,000 children. The plan had government approval – provided the children were under 17 years of age and the costs of their support would not be a burden to the public.

TAGS: advocates, children, displacement, emigration, immigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, JTA, kindertransport, kristallnacht, London, media coverage, November 25, November Pogrom, refugees, violence, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Original:

91.13

Source available in English

23

WEDNESDAY

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:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 8

Source available in English

22

TUESDAY

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

20

SUNDAY

New hope for help

The Feldsteins in Vienna are hoping for help from the Feldsteins in Los Angeles

“I was very happy to hear that you will help us to come to America. I hope that your dear children are in the same age as I am and I shall get good friends.”

VIENNA/LOS ANGELES

For 19 years, Fritz Feldstein had been working at a bank in Vienna to the full satisfaction of his superiors. But, in 1938, after Nazi Germany annexed neighboring Austria, he lost his position. On July 5th, the family registered with the US consulate in Vienna, but for immigration, affidavits were needed. After months of deeply upsetting political changes, Fritz Feldstein ventured an unusual step. On Oct. 16th, he turned to a Julius Feldstein in Los Angeles who, he hoped, might be a relative, appealing to “the well-known American readiness to help.” Soon, a correspondence developed, also involving Fritz’s wife, Martha, and their daughter, Gerda. The 11-year-old was not only a skillful piano player, she obviously also had a knack for languages. On November 20th, she writes to the Feldsteins in California for the first time – in English.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, antisemitism, children, emigration, family, immigration, immigration procedures, Language skills, letter, Los Angeles, November 20, persecution, persecution of Jewish professionals, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Fritz Feldstein Family Collection, AR 3250

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

16

WEDNESDAY

Just help—no matter from where

Attempts to help those who remain in Germany

“We are helpless and unhappy that there is nothing we can do that would help our folks a little.”

Antwerp/Cleveland, Ohio

Martha Lippmann, the widow of a wool merchant in Stolzenau/Weser in Lower Saxony, and her mother were the last family members left behind in Germany when the November pogroms (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”) ravaged German Jewry. Her daughter, Gertrude, fled to Belgium; her older son, Erich, to America; and her younger son, Hans Martin, to England. News of the wave of anti-Jewish violence increased the urgency with which emigrants attempted to intercede on behalf of loved ones left behind in Germany. In a letter dated Nov. 16th, Max Stern, Gertrude’s husband, tells Erich about a planned appointment with a Belgian lawyer on behalf of Martha Lippmann, the goal of which is to obtain a temporary visa for her. Erich himself had contacted William Dodd, the former US Ambassador to Germany, thanks to whom he himself had made it to the US. But so far this appeal was to no avail.

TAGS: advocates, Antwerp, children, Cleveland OH, commentary, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, kristallnacht, letter, November 16, November Pogrom, prominent people, refugees, Stolzenau, transnational networks, violence, visa application

SOURCE

Institution:

Martha Lipmann Collection, AR 6355

Collection:

Original:

Source available in English

12

Saturday

Not a trace of uncle Arthur

Concentation camp as collective punishment

“For the time being, only two regulations have been announced: the first one was that by January, all Jewish businesses have to be liquidated. And the second, that a fine of 1 billion is being imposed upon the Jews. Brrrrrr!”

Vienna

Harry Kranner was a boy of 12 when the Nazis staged a wave of anti-Jewish violence unprecedented in scope and intensity – purportedly a “spontaneous outburst of popular rage” in reaction to the murder of an employee of the German embassy in Paris at the hand of a young Jew. However, Harry’s diary entries show that he was keenly aware of the events around him. In the early morning of November 10th, when the violent events of the night spilled over from Germany into Austria, two Gestapo officers had come to the family’s home in Vienna – ostensibly in search of weapons. Harry understood how extraordinarily lucky he was to have gotten away with nothing more than a scare. He had heard about Jews being locked into or out of their apartments. But one big worry remained: by November 12th, there was still no trace of his uncle Arthur, who had been arrested along with thousands of other Jews. Following a news report that all arrestees were to be deported to the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps from the Vienna Westbahnhof, Harry’s father and aunt rushed there, hoping to find uncle Arthur, but to no avail. Meanwhile, it was reported that the Jews were going to be charged a hefty penalty for the violence to which they themselves had fallen victim.

TAGS: antisemitism, children, commentary, Concentration Camps, Dachau, diary, economic persecution, family, family separation, imprisonment, Jewish property, kristallnacht, Mauthausen, Nazi policies, November 12, November Pogrom, Vienna, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Collection:

Original:

Source available in English

Chronology of major events in 1938

Elimination of Jews from economic life

A destroyed Jewish business in Magdeburg following the Pogromnacht of November 1938.

The National Socialist government issues an “Order on the Elimination of the Jews from Economic Life. ”From now on, Jews may not operate retail stores or practice a trade. The law also forbids Jews from selling goods or services. A few weeks later, on December 3, Jews will be forced to sell their real estate and surrender other assets.

View chronology of major events in 1938

9

Wednesday

Relative luck

Total destruction and a little bit of luck

“Not one piece remained intact in our home. All the dishes broken, edibles flung onto the floor, flour, sugar etc., all scattered, part of it trampled on, like cake etc., you can't imagine.”

Ludwigshafen/New York

Richard Neubauer was lucky. When, during the November pogroms, throughout the night from the 9th to the 10th (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”), Nazi thugs destroyed the property of his relatives in Germany, he was already in safety in New York. In this letter, his brother Fritz describes to him in vivid detail the horrific destruction wrought upon Jews and their belongings and the terror caused by the brutality. The Neubauer brothers had inherited the Neubauer Print Shop in Ludwigshafen. Due to the destruction of the free press through its forced conformity under the Nazis, the print shop had lost all its business. Thanks to some lucky coincidences, Fritz, his wife Ruth, and their two children were in possession of train tickets making it possible to legally cross the border into Switzerland. Ruth had managed to salvage them from the wreckage of their furniture.

TAGS: antisemitism, children, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, Jewish property, Journalism, kristallnacht, letter, Ludwigshafen, Nazi policies, New York, November 9, November Pogrom, persecution of Jewish professionals, refugees, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Otto Neubauer Collection, AR 25339

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Night of Broken Glass

The smoldering synagogue following the night of November 9 in Bamberg.

The night of November 9 is marked by violent assaults against Jews living in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. The pogroms are sanctioned by the government. More than 90 Jews are killed, and 267 synagogues are burned or otherwise destroyed. The windows of Jewish-owned businesses are smashed, and Jewish community centers and homes are looted and vandalized. National Socialist rioters defile Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, and schools while police and firefighters stand idly by. The attacks are a turning point in two senses: First, they represent the moment in which mounting legal discrimination against Jews gives way to organized, state-sponsored mass violence. Second, for Jews in the German Reich, they are the decisive sign that emigration is the only hope of survival.

View chronology of major events in 1938

8

TUESDAY

Political and other earthquakes

A child's perspective

“How lucky I've already started my diary! We do live in interesting times!”

Vienna

Days after his 12th birthday on April 15th, 1938, Harry Kranner, along with all his Jewish schoolmates, had been expelled from the Kandlgasse Realgymnasium in Vienna. By November, Harry’s mother, Gertrude, and his stepfather, Emil Fichmann, were making preparations for emigration. Harry shows great excitement about the prospect of traveling and the various pieces of equipment he’ll receive. In the November 8th entry in his new diary, given to him by his mother for the purpose of recording his emigration experience, he enthusiastically reports about his new leather gloves. But the bulk of the entry is concerned with the strong earthquake the night before.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, children, commentary, diary, emigration, expulsion, family, November 8, schools, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Collection:

Original:

Photograph of Herszel Grynzspan

Source available in English

7

MONDAY

Murder in Paris

An act of despair

Paris

On November 3rd, 1938, Herszel Grynszpan, a young Jew of Polish extraction, had received a message saying that his parents and two siblings had been expelled from their home in Hannover to Poland. The Polish parliament had recently passed a law according to which citizens who had spent five or more years abroad could be stripped of their citizenship. Fearing to be left irrevocably with over 70,000 Polish Jews, the Nazi regime had deported about 17,000 of them just days earlier. Herszel, who had managed to enter France in 1936, was living with his uncle and aunt at this point. Upset about the fate of his fellow countrymen, he walked into the German embassy in Paris on November 7th, shot to death a German career diplomat, 29 year-old Ernst vom Rath, and was arrested immediately.

TAGS: antisemitism, children, expulsion, family, family separation, Hannover, imprisonment, kristallnacht, Nazi policies, November 7, November Pogrom, Paris, persecution, photo, Polenaktion, Polish-born Jews, politics, prominent people, refugees, violence, Zbaszyn

SOURCE

Institution:

Bundesarchiv

Collection:

Original:

Bild 146-1988-078-08

4

FRIDAY

A girl leads the way

Hope for a future in Palestine

“I imagine that you are doing well there. According to your letter, it seems like a paradise to me. Dear Lotte, you can believe me, I'd like to be in your place, as life here is very sad and boring, especially now that Benno is not at home.”

Vienna/Gan Shmuel

The arrival of Gertrude Münzer’s first letter from Palestine was a cause for joy, relief and hope to her family that had remained behind in Austria. The Münzers were a well-integrated family, but after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, the tide turned and they had to endure increasing hardship, starting with their eviction from their home and Moses Münzer losing his job. With parental encouragement, Gertrude was the only member of her family to go to Palestine with a Zionist youth group. Inspired by her example, her older brother, Benno, had gone on hakhsharah. In his reply to Gertrude, dated November 4th, her father pleads with the 15-year-old girl to recruit support for him at the kibbutz or elsewhere to enable him to follow with the rest of the family.

TAGS: Anschluss, children, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, Gan Shmuel, immigration, Jewish Community, letter, November 4, Palestine, refugees, transnational networks, Vienna, Youth Aliyah, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Gertrude Knopf Family Collection, AR 11692

Collection:

Original:

Source available in English

21

FRIDAY

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:

Gertrude Knopf Family Collection, AR 11692

Collection:

Original:

Source available in English

20

THURSDAY

Kicked out of the family business

The end of a family business after three generations

“Pucki has ceased working in the factory. I am following him in the next few days. My private life is likely to be quite taken up by cooking and ironing at home.”

NEUSTADT, UPPER SILESIA/BRÜNN

Hans Joseph Pinkus’s great-grandfather had married into the Fränkel family in Neustadt, Upper Silesia, in the 19th century. The two families joined forces in running the “S. Fränkel” Company, a successful textile factory that became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of linen. Under normal circumstances, Hans Joseph might have followed three generations of Pinkuses in running the affairs of the company, but he was only 16 years old and in boarding school when it was “Aryanized.” On October 20th, 1938, his stepmother, Lili, wrote him a letter to let him know that his father was about to quit and that she would follow him. She didn’t let on as to whether “cooking and ironing at home” was an attractive alternative to her and kept her feelings to herself.

TAGS: Aryanization, Brünn, children, dispossession, economic persecution, family, Jewish property, letter, Neustadt, October 20

SOURCE

Institution:

John Peters Pinkus Family Papers, AR 25520

Collection:

Original:

Box 2, folder 16

5

WEDNESDAY

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:

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

Collection:

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

26

MONDAY

“We’re emigrating.”

A new year, a new start

HAMBURG

Would the sisters Helen and Eva Hesse remember this year’s Rosh Hashanah someday? For their parents, Wilhelm and Ruth Hesse, the new year’s celebration of 1938 was a break with tradition. The family had made the decision to emigrate from Hamburg. Helen was five years old at this point in time. Her little sister Eva had just turned two. Their father kept a diary for both his daughters during this period. Over the entry for Rosh ha-Shana 5699 in large, typeprinted letters are the words: “We’re emigrating,” the theme of this year’s new year celebration. The rest of the entry Wilhelm wrote by hand. Until then, however, he wanted his daughters’ lives to be as carefree as possible. That it went very differently for their parents is clear at the end of the diary entry. There Wilhem Hesse wrote: “Later they’ll be amazed what their parents had to suffer in these times. We’re emigrating.”

TAGS: children, diary, emigration, family, Hamburg, Jewish holidays, religion, September 26

SOURCE

Institution:

Helen and Eva Hesse Family Collection, AR 25327

Collection:

Original:

Box 1, folder 3

18

SUNDAY

By oath to do no harm

A Jewish physician worries about professional consequences of Nazi laws

“The last few weeks a Latin verse by Horace often drifts through my head, which in German translation goes something like this: And if the world collapses, it will strike dead an unshaken man.”

COLOGNE

An astonishing number of German physicians apparently not only had no qualms about being co-opted by the Nazi regime but actively subscribed to its racist and eugenic doctrines, conveniently ignoring their ostensible commitment to the Hippocratic Oath with its stipulation to do no harm. On top of propagating an ideology which declared Jews to be a danger to the “German race,” medical organizations in Germany expelled Jews, making it harder and harder for them to make a living. Under such circumstances, it’s not surprising that Dr. Max Schönenberg, a physician in Cologne, and his musician wife, Erna, supported their son Leopold’s emigration to Palestine in 1937, even though the boy was only 15 years old at the time. In this September 18th, 1938 letter to his son, Dr. Schönenberg touches upon various weighty topics, among them the regime’s recent decision to revoke Jewish doctors’ medical licenses and his uncertainty about his professional future (some Jewish physicians were given permission to treat Jewish patients).

TAGS: children, Cologne, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, impoverishment, letter, musicians, Palestine, persecution of Jewish professionals, refugees, September 18

SOURCE

Institution:

NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln

Original:

Best. 46

17

SATURDAY

Raised a Nazi

Erika Mann's book about the National-Socialist education system

NEW YORK

Erika Mann begins her book with a captivating description. She tells of a meeting with a Mrs. M. from Munich. At this time, Erika lived with her parents Thomas and Katia Mann in exile. Mrs. M. wanted to emigrate with her family too. This wish was incomprehensible to Erika Mann. After all, as affluent “Aryans,” Mrs. M. and her family had nothing to fear. But Mrs. M. made a more convincing statement: “I want the boy to become a decent human being–a man and not a Nazi.” This sentence would become the jumping-off point for Erika Mann’s study of indoctrination and the National-Socialist educational system. Her well-respected book appeared under the title “School for Barbarians : Education Under the Nazis” in the United States in 1938.

TAGS: book, children, displacement, emigration, family, Munich, New York, prominent people, refugees, school, September 17

SOURCE

Institution:

Original:

Erika Mann, School for Barbarians; Education under the Nazis,New York: Modern Age Books, 1938 ; LA 721.8 M312

4

SUNDAY

A last class photo

Gisela and her family right before emigration

DRESDEN

Gisela Kleinermann (top row, right) had recently turned 10 years old. With her arm around her classmate, she looks, with a slight smile, into the camera. At this time, Gisela may already have known that she will not be part of this class of the Jewish school in Dresden any longer. In late summer 1938, her mother Erna prepared her family’s emigration to the United States. Step by step, in recent years the Nazis forced segregation in public schools. In many Jewish communities—as well as in Dresden—new Jewish schools were founded as a result.

TAGS: antisemitism, children, Dresden, emigration, family, immigration procedures, Jewish Community, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution, photo, schools, segregation, September 4, visa application

SOURCE

Institution:

Class picture of Gisela Kleinermann, Erna Weingold Kleinermann Collection, AR 11787

Collection:

Original:

F 001

28

SUNDAY

“Illegal” immigrant

Gisella Jellinek becomes Nadja in Palestine

"Belated congratulations on your 18th birthday and I wish you whatever you wish for yourself, long life, health, heroism, courage, to be a good Haverah, and that your ideal will be realized, and not to forget (...) plenty of work."

Brünn/Rishon LeZion

It was under adventurous circumstances that Gisella Jellinek made her way to Palestine in June 1938. As part of a group of several hundred youths, she was smuggled into the area of the Mandate. The moment she came ashore in Palestine, she had to make use of the Hebrew language skills she had acquired at the Zionist agricultural training camp in Austria, in order to avoid being identified as an illegal immigrant by the British authorities. Roughly two months after her arrival, Gisella, who now called herself Nadja, turned 18. In this belated birthday note, her sister Berta wishes her “heroism, courage, and to be a good Haverah (kibbutz member).”

TAGS: August 28, Brünn, children, commentary, emigration, family, family separation, hakhsharah, immigration, Jewish Community, Language skills, letter, Palestine, Rishon LeZion, transnational networks, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Letters, Documents and Images of the Jellinek Family Confronting the Holocaust, created by Paulette Jellinek

Collection:

Berta Jellinek [to her older sister] Gisella Nadja Jellinek

21

SUNDAY

For an 18th birthday, current events

Hugo Jellinek congratulates his daughter and gives commentary on current events

"Bohemia is a tough nut on which this gang of criminals will break their teeth, or let's call it a Buchtel [sweet, filled yeast roll] on which these maniacal devils will choke. Despite the many local traitors, the government and the people are unified in their unflappable will to defend freedom and the achievements of democracy to the last drop of blood."

Brünn/Rishon LeZion

Hugo Jellinek was proud of his daughter Gisella, who had become a glowing Zionist during Hakhsharah and just months before had immigrated to Palestine as part of a group of daring youngsters. For her 18th birthday, not only did he send his first-born daughter congratulations, he also shared his thoughts about current events with her. From his new vantage point in Brünn/Brno (Czechoslovakia), where he had fled from Vienna after a warning, German maneuvers alongside the Czechoslovakian border were worrying him. But he was convinced that, unlike in the case of Austria, the Wehrmacht would face fierce opposition. He felt very bitter about the suspicion of and lack of solidarity with needy Jewish refugees among wealthier members of the Jewish community in Brno. Moreover, he was greatly worried by the eviction notices Austrian Jews were receiving, among them his relatives. Among all the worry and complaint was a silver lining, an acquaintance with a woman.

TAGS: Anschluss, August 21, Brünn, bureaucracy, children, commentary, displacement, document, emigration, family, family separation, hakhsharah, immigration, impoverishment, letter, Munich Agreement, Palestine, refugees, Rishon LeZion, transnational networks, visa application, welfare organizations, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Letters, Documents and Images of the Jellinek Family Confronting the Holocaust, created by Paulette Jellinek

Collection:

Letter from Hugo Jellinek to Gisella Nadja Jellinek

15

MONDAY

Vacation idyll

A sunny letter to father

"We're having a great time. The sun has been shining for two days now, so we were able to go swimming, but the radio is forecasting rain again tomorrow."

Nespeky/Prague

Hitler’s plans for Czechoslovakia could not have been clearer: on May 30th, 1938, he declared to the Wehrmacht (German army) that it was his “immutable resolve” to shatter the country “in the foreseeable future.” Already months before, he had incited the leader of the Sudeten German Party, which was partly bankrolled by Nazi Germany, to conjure up a confrontation by making unreasonable demands on behalf of the German minority in the country. Under the influence of events in Germany, anti-Semitism had increased. But, so far, it had only led to boycotts and physical violence in the border areas of Northern and Western Bohemia, which were predominantly inhabited by Germans. While this crisis was brewing in the background, the psychiatrist and writer Josef Weiner, his wife, Hanka, and their two young daughters were on vacation in the central Bohemian town of Nespeky. Hanka’s letter (in Czech) to her father, the renowned Prague lawyer Oskar Taussig, smacks of a perfectly idyllic holiday atmosphere and spares its reconvalescent recipient anything unpleasant.

TAGS: antisemitism, August 15, children, family, Jewish Community, letter, Munich Agreement, Nazi policies, Nespeky, politics, Prague, prominent people, Sudetenland, violence

SOURCE

Institution: