External links are disabled on the kiosk. Please visit archive links from desktop or mobile devices.

The following organizations have offered their materials for inclusion in the 1938 Projekt:
 
About Partners Education Contributors
Advanced Search

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.

BACK TO TIMELINE

26

TUESDAY

26

The League for Human Rights

“These Dogs of Hitler and Göring will never succeed”

“The Jewish sense of charity will not die, and these bastards Hitler and Göring will never get their wish to see the emigrants die in the gutter.”

Brünn/Rishon LeZion

Hugo Jellinek was a man of many talents. The outbreak of WWI forced him to quit medical school in Vienna. As a soldier, he was severely wounded in Samarkand and fell in love with his nurse, who later became the mother of his three daughters. The couple settled down in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. His young wife having died in 1926, he fled the Soviet Union in 1930 and ultimately returned to Vienna, where he utilized his knowledge of 8 languages as a translator and also worked as a freelance journalist. Thanks to a warning about impending arrest by the Nazis, he was able to escape to Brünn (Czechoslovakia) in June 1938. His eldest daughter, eighteen year-old Gisella Nadja, departed for Palestine the same day. In this colorful letter, Hugo shows fatherly concern for Nadja’s well-being, but also talks at length about the hardship he himself has faced as a refugee and reports that his cousin’s son is interned at the Dachau Concentration Camp. He mentions with gratification what he calls the “League,” probably referring to the aid center of the “League for Human Rights,” which was looking after the refugees, defying Hitler’s sinister goals. Ultimately, however, the most important thing for him was the fight for a country of one’s own.

TAGS: advocates, Brünn, children, commentary, Concentration Camps, Dachau, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, imprisonment, July 26, Language skills, letter, Palestine, refugees, Rishon LeZion, welfare organizations, WWI, WWI veterans, Youth Aliyah, 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

22

FRIDAY

22

Bread for strangers

A Rheinland business owner sees the US as a land of generosity

“Our main concern remains selling the house, the business we can sell twice over or liquidate, so as far as that is concerned, we don't have to worry too much.”

Neuwied am Rhein/New York

In this letter, Isidor Nassauer, based in Neuwied am Rhein, cooly describes his emigration plans to his friends, the Moser family, who are already in the US. Unsolicited, his brother-in-law has sent an affidavit, which due to a missing signature could not be used and had to be sent back. While waiting for the signed document, Mr. Nassauer is taking English lessons. Even though he has no idea how he will subsist in America, the fact that “so much bread has been baked for strangers” there gives him confidence. He is most concerned about selling the family house and seems certain that selling or liquidating the business (a brush factory) will be easy. In general, Jews were forced to sell their property far below its actual value.

TAGS: affidavits, commentary, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, immigration procedures, Jewish property, July 22, Language skills, letter, Neuwied am Rhein, New York, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Betty and Morris Moser Collection, AR 25497

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

9

SATURDAY

9

It will get easier

Encouragement for a seventeen-year-old

“Of course it takes a while to warm up to one another, especially if one does not know the language.”

Teplitz

Mrs. Pollak in Teplitz (Teplice), Czechoslovakia, was vacillating between relief that her daughter was safely out-of-reach from the Nazis reach and worry about 17-year-old Marianne’s physical and emotional wellbeing. After changing her initial plans to go to Palestine on Youth Aliyah, the young girl was now in England all by herself. The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany had heightened fears of a similar fate in Czechoslovakia. Refugees were kept out of the country, and local Jews had double the reason to worry – both as Czechs, and as Jews. With news from Vienna and Palestine bleak and Czechoslovakia’s future uncertain, Mrs Pollak made a loving effort to reassure Marianne that things would get easier for her in the new country over time.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, children, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, July 9, letter, Munich Agreement, Palestine, refugees, Teplitz, transnational networks, Youth Aliyah

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

John Peters Pinkus Family Papers, AR 25520

Original:

Box 2, folder 22

2

SATURDAY

2

Impeccable references

Paul Schrag gets to explore his options in the USA

“It is good that a departure is so rich in daily tasks, also in inconveniences, that one has little time to think. Never before have I been haunted so strongly by the demons of doubt than now, day and night.”

Brussels/Fribourg

The German lawyer Paul Schrag was employed at the Institut d’Economie Européenne in Brussels. He was planning to embark on the journey to the United States from Le Havre on July 15 with his Jewish wife, Suzanne, and their infant child. In his letter of July 2 to Prof. Max Gutzwiller in Fribourg, Switzerland, Schrag asks for a letter of reference for use in the United States. Gutzwiller, a fierce critic of the Nazis and also married to a Jewish woman, had left his chair for German Private Law and Roman Law at the University of Heidelberg in 1936. Schrag obviously enjoyed the esteem of his employers. The management of the institute had agreed to reserve the position of director general for him until the end of the year and even entrusted him with a “research mission” in order to enable him to look into his professional prospects in America without major pressure.

TAGS: Brussels, displacement, emigration, family, Fribourg, July 2, letter, prominent people, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Paul Schrag Collection, AR 25161

27

MONDAY

27

Deportation within 24 hours

The situation is precarious for Jewish immigrants in Yugoslavia

“I am telling you one thing: antisemitism won't stop in Germany, or in Austria, or in Hungary, or in Romania, or Yugoslavia, if no miracle will happen or people will be stirred up by a catastrophe.”

BELGRADE/NEW YORK

While antisemitism was by no means a new phenomenon in Yugoslavia—as a matter of fact, especially since World War I, the entire political spectrum found reasons to attack Jews—under the impact of events in Germany, the situation deteriorated in the 1930s. Fritz Schwed from Nuremberg was under no illusions regarding his and his family’s temporary refuge. In this lengthy letter to his old friend from Nuremberg days, Fritz Dittmann, who had fled to New York, Schwed describes the dismal situation of emigrants in Yugoslavia, who are routinely expelled with just 24 hours’ notice. Even older people who have resided in the country for decades are not exempt from this cruel policy. Emigrants are forbidden to work, and when they are caught flouting the prohibition, they have to be prepared for immediate expulsion. Concluding that “There no longer is room for German Jews in Yugoslavia, and it seems to me, nowhere else in Europe, either,” Schwed explores possibilities to immigrate to Australia or South America.

TAGS: antisemitism, Belgrade, displacement, emigration, expulsion, immigration, impoverishment, June 27, letter, New York, Nuremberg, politics, refugees, WWI

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gerda Dittmann Collection, AR 10484

Original:

Box 1, folder 3

22

WEDNESDAY

22

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

21

TUESDAY

21

A weekly lifeline

The Aufbau provides advice for a new start

“575 W. 159th St., Apt. 22 - beautifully furnished front room for one or two persons, running water, inexpensive.”

New York

As the influx of refugees from Nazi Germany intensified, what had begun in 1934 as the anniversary brochure of the German Jewish Club in New York quickly turned into a professional publication and a lifeline for the uprooted. With its offer of a wide range of cultural and athletic activities, the monthly was an emotional anchor for the newcomers, but it also offered practical help getting settled in the new country. This issue of the Aufbau from June 1938 features a large number of rental ads, mostly for fully furnished rooms, often in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Northern Manhattan, thereby giving some extra income to the owners or main tenants while providing affordable housing to refugees who usually arrived with very little money and property.

TAGS: advertisement, cultural life, displacement, emigration, immigration, impoverishment, Journalism, June 21, New York, refugees, Sports

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Zimmernachweis, Aufbau, Vol. 4, no. 8, p. 6.

19

SUNDAY

19

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:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gemeindeblatt der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin

Original:

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

13

MONDAY

13

Fire sale

Jews prepare for expulsion from Burgenland

“Here one learns what really counts in life. People no longer care about money any more, either, that has become irrelevant too.”

Eisenstadt

The Jewish community of Eisenstadt in the Burgenland region of Austria had never been a large one, but as the oldest Jewish community in the area, it dated back to the 14th century and had a rich cultural life. The moment Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938, Jews were vulnerable. Under the deeply racist Gauleiter Tobias Portschy, the Burgenland was the first part of Austria to expel its Jewish population. In June 1938, Hilde Schlesinger Schiff was in Eisenstadt helping her parents get ready to relocate. In a birthday letter to her daughter Elisabeth, Hilde calls Elisabeth “a true Jewish child, not settled, always ready to be on the move,” in contrast with her own emotional connectedness to Eisenstadt, from which she is now forced to uproot herself. Mrs. Schlesinger Schiff writes that she hopes her parents will soon be allowed to immigrate to Czechoslovakia, but bureaucratic hurdles remain. Meanwhile, she is clearly taken aback by the eagerness of non-Jews to snatch up the family’s property at a low price, calling it “grave robbery.”

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, bureaucracy, Burgenland Jews, displacement, dispossession, Eisenstadt, emigration, expulsion, family, immigration, Jewish Community, Jewish property, June 13, letter, Nazi laws

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

The letter of my mother (Hilde Schlesinger Schiff) written to me on my birthday in June 1938, AR 6418

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Chronology of major events in 1938

Mass Arrests and Expansion of Buchenwald

Prisoners carrying containers of soup in Dachau, June 28, 1938. Bundesarchiv, Bild 152-23-27A / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Photographed by Bauer, Friedrich Franz.

Between June 13–18, National Socialists carry out mass arrests. The Juni-Aktion (June Measures) are part of the mission Arbeitsscheu Reich. The campaign began in January (see entry from January 26) and continued in April with 1,500–2,000 arrests. In June, the National Socialists arrest an additional 9,000 men and intern them in concentration camps (KZ). Among those imprisoned are 2,300 Jews—a disproportionate number when compared to the share of Jews in the general population. Hitler himself has ordered a focus on Jews along with so-called “anti-social” elements (“beggars, homeless, and alcoholics”). Jews whose criminal record includes a prison sentence of at least 4 weeks are arrested again. The National Socialists deport the Jewish men to the concentration camps Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald. Buchenwald in particular will become infamous, as it is the destination for the largest number of those arrested during the mission Arbeitsscheu Reich. Guards force the prisoners to expand the Buchenwald camp into the largest KZ in central Germany. About 500 of the prisoners are forced to live in a former stable. They are fed 10 ounces of bread and 3 cups of thin gruel per day. The horrendous living conditions will lead to 150 deaths within the next 8 weeks.

View chronology of major events in 1938

12

SUNDAY

12

Anne knows better

The Franks celebrate the 9th birthday of their daughter

Amsterdam

Leaving behind an increasingly antisemitic Germany, the Frank family of Frankfurt am Main fled to the Netherlands shortly after the Nazis rose to power. They settled on Merwedeplein in Amsterdam’s River Quarter, where more and more German-speaking immigrants were finding refuge. So large was the influx of Jews that some in the Dutch Jewish community were worried it would affect their standing in society and cause antisemitism. The Franks’ older daughter, Margot, went to school on Jekerstraat. Anne attended the Sixth Montessori School, a mere 5 minutes away from the family home. Fifteen of her classmates were Jewish. She loved telling and writing stories. Anne was curious, demanding, interested and very articulate. As her good friend Hanneli Goslar’s mother would say, “God knows everything, but Anne knows better.” In 1938, Anne’s father, Otto, applied for immigration visas to the United States. June 12 was her 9th birthday.

TAGS: Amsterdam, antisemitism, children, displacement, emigration, Frankfurt am Main, immigration, immigration procedures, June 12, photo, prominent people, refugees, visa application

SOURCE

30

MONDAY

30

Mindset

Not enthusiastic, but with a will to succeed

“I think that if you were to decide for Palestine, you would not need any enthusiasm for it. The majority immigrate without any enthusiasm today, but you need the firm determination to assert yourself here in spite of all difficulties, meager income and hard work in a tough climate.”

TEL AVIV/ZURICH

Herbert Mansbach, a German dentistry student temporarily based in Switzerland, was lucky. A friend of his worked for the “Sick Fund” (Kupat Holim) of the General Workers’ Association in Israel (Histadrut) and was able to share valuable information with him pertaining to acceptance as a kibbutz member and employment in Palestine. The main prerequisites for kibbutz membership were affiliation with the HeHalutz pioneer youth movement and some knowledge of Hebrew. However, in order to be hired as a dentist in Tel Aviv, total mastery of Hebrew was a must. Herbert’s friend painted a sobering picture of the mental state of the new immigrants. The majority, he writes, come without enthusiasm—determination to succeed is more important.

TAGS: displacement, emigration, family, immigration, Language skills, letter, May 30, Palestine, refugees, Tel Aviv, welfare organizations, Zionism, Zurich

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Herbert Joseph Mansbach Collection, AR 7073

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

26

DONNERSTAG

26

Paperwork

Emigrants must overcome a sea of bureaucratic and financial hurdles

LÖRRACH

Since 1937, Lina and Siegmund Günzburger of Lörrach in southwest Germany and their son, Herbert, had been preparing their paperwork for emigration. The requirements amounted to nothing short of a nightmare. Prospective emigrants had to procure numerous personal documents, letters of recommendation, and affidavits. They were also required to prepare an inventory of all their belongings and to document that they had paid all their taxes. Apparently, the required documents also included this copy of the marriage certificate for Siegmund’s grandparents. Especially perfidious was the so-called “Reich Flight Tax.” Originally introduced in the waning days of the Weimar Republic to prevent capital flight in reaction to the government’s austerity policy, under the Nazis, it became a tool to cynically punish the Jews for leaving a country that was doing everything it could to make it unbearable for them to stay.

TAGS: affidavits, antisemitism, bureaucracy, displacement, document, economic persecution, emigration, family, immigration procedures, Lörrach, May 26, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, refugees, Weimar Republic

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Herbert Guenzburger Collection, AR 5947

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

16

MONDAY

16

Education disrupted

Ruth Wertheimer navigates antisemitic discrimination and emigration

Paris

Ruth Wertheimer was born in Halberstadt (Saxony Anhalt) in 1915. Thanks to the revenue from a successful corset and lingerie shop with several branches, the family was living comfortably. However, in 1929, several years before the Nazis’ ascent to power, the family business had already suffered economic damage due to a libelous, antisemitically motivated claim against one of its proprietors, Ruth’s aunt Johanna. In 1932, while attending a business school in Berlin, where the family had moved in Ruth’s childhood, she was subjected to such intense antisemitism from teachers and classmates that she decided to quit before graduating. The passport displayed here was issued on May 16 in Paris and also lists Paris as Ruth’s place of residence. Her mother and stepfather had moved there in 1935. In Paris, Ruth resumed her studies.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, Halberstadt, May 16, Paris, passport, refugees, schools

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ruth Worth Collection, AR 25024

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

14

SATURDAY

14

Opening night

A swashbuckler dazzles with help from an Austrian Jew

HOLLYWOOD

On May 14, 1938, American moviegoers lined up to see Errol Flynn in his latest swashbuckling adventure produced by Warner Brothers. Flynn’s turn as Robin Hood was especially thrilling thanks to the lush film score by an Austrian Jew whose music was no longer welcome at home. Although a citizen and resident of Austria, composer and conductor Erich Wolfgang Korngold felt the effects of Nazi cultural policy soon after 1933, since he had often worked in Germany. In this climate, he did not have to think twice about Max Reinhardt’s invitation in 1934 to compose the score for his Hollywood production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Korngold’s symphonic film scores broke new ground and established the typical “Hollywood sound.” In 1937, while on an extensive visit to Vienna to complete the orchestration of his opera “Die Kathrin,” he received an invitation from Warner Brothers to compose the score for “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” This assignment spared him the turmoil of the Anschluss. He returned to the US well before March 12, 1938. This photograph shows what appears to be a recording session for the Robin Hood score. The actor in the photograph is Basil Rathbone, who played Robin Hood’s nemesis, Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Korngold won an Academy Award for his compelling score—his second after “Anthony Adverse” (1937).

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, cultural life, displacement, emigration, Hollywood, May 14, musicians, photo, prominent people, refugees, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Picture of Erich Korngold orchestrating the 1938 American film “Robin Hood.” The star of the movie, Basil Rathbone, on the right.

13

FRIDAY

13

No time to lose

Jewish paper advises to quickly learn foreign languages

“It is really nothing new that the most important preparation for emigration is learning languages.”

HANNOVER

By May 1938, emigration seemed to be on the mind of every German and Austrian Jew. This article in the <i>Hannover Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt</i>, for example, exhorts prospective emigrants to lose no time and start studying English as soon as possible. According to the paper, at least two-thirds of German-Jewish emigrants were likely to settle down in English-speaking countries, and even those heading to Latin America would profit from a solid knowledge of English. On the other hand, proficiency in Spanish could be useful because of extensive trade relations between North and South America. The answer to the question “Spanish or English?” therefore was an emphatic “Both!”

TAGS: commentary, displacement, emigration, Hannover, Journalism, Language skills, May 13, media coverage, press article, refugees, South America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“English oder Spanisch?”, Hannover Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt, Vol. 15, No. 19, p. 1.

10

TUESDAY

10

Stuck in No Man’s Land

League of Nations intervenes for 56 expellees

Belgrade

The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938 had brought an abrupt end to 1,000 years of Jewish life in the Burgenland region, Austria’s easternmost state. The expulsion of the small Jewish population, carried out by the SS, local Nazi officials, and civilian collaborators, commenced immediately. This article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on the League of Nations’ intervention on behalf of 56 expellees who had ended up in “no man’s land” in the border area between Austria and Yugoslavia. The League’s High Commissioner for German Refugees requested the temporary accommodation of the displaced persons by Yugoslavia, to be followed by permanent resettlement elsewhere.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, Belgrade, Burgenland Jews, displacement, dispossession, expulsion, Journalism, JTA, League of Nations, May 10, media coverage, Nazi policies, refugees, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Yugoslavia Gives Haven to 56 Refugees on League’s Request”

Source available in English

5

THURSDAY

5

Leave the rest to the Kadosh Baruch Hu

Sigmund Hirsch encourages his nephew Julius not to worry about politics

“As for politics, don't you worry, my dear boy. Do your duty and leave the rest to the Kadosh Baruch Hu. Personal views no longer count, otherwise I would tell you that I personally do not believe there will be war right now. What will be done if it does come, God forbid, will become apparent then. Nobody is sufficiently prescient in order to predict what will be. It goes without saying that you will stay in Italy. But as I said, I consider any discussion of this topic misguided, since nobody wants this war which would only cause universal ruin.”

Genoa/Merano

In 1935, under mounting pressure, the orthodox Hamburg physician Henri Hirsch left Germany and joined his brother Sigmund in Genoa, Italy. Shortly thereafter, he was joined by his second wife, Roberta, and by some of his young adult sons, and moved with them to Merano. In 1938, Henri Hirsch died. In this letter to his nephew Julius, Sigmund Hirsch tries to assuage the young man’s worries about an impending war, exhorting him to put his faith in God and promising help. Since he had been based in Italy for a while, many seem to have pinned their hopes on him: with palpable regret, he relates how little he can do for the “thousands” of people asking him for help.

TAGS: commentary, displacement, emigration, family, Genoa, letter, May 5, Merano, persecution of Jewish professionals, refugees, religion

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Julius and Edith Hirsch Collection, AR 25585

Original:

Box 1, folder 22

1

SUNDAY

1

Compass Travel Bureau

Emigrating is not as easy as it may seem

“Would you like to have your relatives here? Do you need help surmounting the difficulties?”

New York

In an ad in the Aufbau aimed at German immigrants, the Compass Travel Bureau in New York offered “expert advice in all matters related to immigration and the handling of all the formalities of traveling.” The reference to “formalities” elides the excruciating bureaucratic hurdles facing prospective emigrants. Jews desperate to leave Germany first had to obtain quota numbers and a plethora of documents from various German authorities and to contend with the slow postal service as they sought sponsors in America.

TAGS: advertisement, affidavits, bureaucracy, displacement, emigration, immigration, immigration procedures, Journalism, May 1, New York, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Announcement”, Aufbau, Vol. 5, no. 6, p. 8.

29

FRIDAY

29

The best revenge

Paul Steiner dreams of Jewish self-determination in his diary

“The ‘civilized‘ world does evince indignation about the barbarity of the Germans, who truly do not deal with us very gently. But what do they do for hundreds of Burgenland Jews, who, for example, are making a tugboat in the middle of the Danube their shelter, or a patch of land between Germany and Yugoslavia?”

Vienna

A month and a half after the “Anschluss,” Paul Steiner is still incredulous. Everything seems so unbelievable, he writes in his diary, that “even ones own words are becoming astonishing and dubious.” He wonders what the outside world is doing for the Jews in light of German barbarity, especially for the Burgenland Jews, who were brutally expelled right after the “Anschluss” and ended up stranded in totally inadequate shelters while their belongings were appropriated by their former neighbors. Steiner also imagines the “revenge” that Jews will exact, shaming the world with their achievements once they are given the right to self-determination.

TAGS: Anschluss, April 29, Burgenland Jews, commentary, diary, displacement, expulsion, Vienna, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Original:

Paul Steiner Collection, AR 25208; Box 1, folder 7

26

TUESDAY

26

Starting over at 40

Moses Wainstein overcomes the hurdles of international bureaucracy

Marseille

Marseille was one of the most important ports of departure for the refugees on their way overseas. It was here that Moses Wainstein obtained the papers he still needed for his emigration to Uruguay. This certificate of vaccination was written in Spanish for submission to the authorities there. The former Berliner had already had his belongings shipped to Marseille by a German company. Wainstein was 40 years of age at this point.

TAGS: April 26, Berlin, bureaucracy, displacement, document, emigration, immigration procedures, Marseille, medical record, refugees, South America

SOURCE

Institution:

Deutsches Historisches Museum

Original:

Vaccination certificate issued on the steamer “Campana” for Moses Wainstein; Inv. No.: Do2 89/1008.4

Chronology of major events in 1938

Jews ordered to declare financial assets

A Jewish business vandalized in Vienna. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Herman Göring issues an order requiring Jews to declare all assets exceeding 5,000 Reichsmark. This includes assets at home and abroad. Those who do not comply face financial penalties as well as prison. Alf Krüger, the Minister of Economics, declares that the new regulations “pave the way for the complete and lasting elimination of Jews from the German economy.”  Three days later, in a meeting at Göring’s offices in the Aviation Ministry, they resolve “to transform Jewish assets in a way that does not allow for Jews to have any further influence on the economy.” Göring will later reveal that this meeting also resulted in a plan to “Aryanize” the German economy. He explains: “[…] First, the Jew being ejected from the economy, transfers his property to the state. He will be compensated. The compensation is to be listed in the debit ledger and shall bring a certain percentage of interest. The Jew shall have to live out of this interest.” After the November pogroms, the National Socialists use the financial data collected to force Jews to hand over a quarter of their assets to the National Socialist authorities. When efforts to make restitution begin after the end of World War II, these same data help identify rightful beneficiaries.

 

View chronology of major events in 1938

22

FRIDAY

22

Brain drain

The physicians Brinitzer emigrate to India

Bangalore

Jenny Brinitzer was born in Riga, Latvia in 1884. After studies in Berne, Berlin and Kiel, she managed to establish herself as the first female physician in Hamburg Altona. There, the mother of three worked for 20 years in a joint practice with her husband, the dermatologist Dr. Eugen Brinitzer. In 1933, Jews constituted about one fourth of Hamburg’s physicians. Jewish physicians who worked directly for health insurance funds or for the public health service had been dismissed within the first two years of the Nazi regime. Starting in 1935, the Nazis began circulating a list of 150 Jewish doctors in Hamburg as part of their campaign to separate Jewish doctors from their “Aryan” patients. In April 1938, Dr. Jenny Brinitzer and her husband left Germany and emigrated to Bangalore, India.

TAGS: April 22, Bangalore, displacement, emigration, Hamburg, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo, refugees, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Photographs of the Brinitzer Residence in Bangalore, India, undated (1938–46), Trude Kersten Collection, AR 25403

Original:

Box 2, folder 8

Source available in English

17

SUNDAY

17

Watch what you say

A friend advises caution in correspondence

“According to all experience, it is more than justified if your wife is extremely cautious in correspondence and asks you to be cautious, too. The mere suspicion of spreading ‘atrocity propaganda’ is enough to get one into serious difficulties.”

London

A WWI veteran, Alfred Schütz had studied law, sociology, and philosophy at the University of Vienna. Since the late 1920s, he had worked for the international banking house Reitler & Co. During the German invasion of Austria, he happened to be on a business trip to France. He opted to stay abroad, leaving behind his wife and child. A friend who had visited Vienna from London writes about his conversation with Schütz’s wife, Ilse. In his letter, he dissuades Alfred from returning to Austria due to the new regime’s attitude of suspicion towards the international banking industry. In light of the impending danger, a temporary separation from his family seemed like a better option to Schütz than coming back to Vienna.

TAGS: Anschluss, April 17, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, letter, London, Paris, persecution, prominent people, refugees, Vienna, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Alfred Schutz Collection, AR 25500

Original:

Box 1, folder 18

12

TUESDAY

12

Lost in transit

German shipping companies benefit from the Jewish plight

„Besides, you notified us of the loss so late that the deadline for reporting a loss has passed. The insurance company will flatly reject compensation for any loss after such a long time.”

Berlin/London

German shipping companies profited handsomely from the dire situation of the Jews. There was no way around them for emigrants who wanted to transfer their belongings abroad. By the end of 1937, 135,000 Jews had left Germany. The events of the year 1938 led to a new upsurge. The Berlin branch of the Gustav Knauer Shipping Company handled the belongings of Lotte Doerner (née Simon). Doerner and her husband had managed to leave Germany and settle in England. When unpacking their belongings, they noticed that their linens were missing. In the letter displayed here, the company politely informs Doerner that everything the company had picked up from her apartment had also been loaded into the van, and it could not offer any compensation. The Knauer company had also been commissioned to transport many of the 20,000 objects from German art museums that were classified as “degenerate” by the regime to the infamous Munich exhibit, “Degenerate Art,” and then into storage.

TAGS: April 12, Berlin, displacement, emigration, letter, London, Munich, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Collection:

Letter from Gustav Knauer to Lotte Dorner, Dorner Collection, Gift of Steven Dorner.

29

TUESDAY

29

A second Salzburg?

Max Reinhardt rebuilds his life and career in California

HOLLYWOOD

The Austrian-born theater and film director Max Reinhardt emigrated to the US in October 1937, accompanied by his wife Helene Thimig, an actress. By introducing technical innovations and elevating the position of the director, Reinhardt played a pivotal role in the development of modern theater. With his production of H. von Hoffmannsthal’s “Jedermann” in 1920, he became one of the co-founders of the Salzburg Festival. Shortly after he settled down in the US, plans emerged to found “another Salzburg” festival in California. This time, he wrote his friend Arturo Toscanini, he would be working “under more favorable climatic and political conditions, and perhaps with greater financial means.” Among his achievements in the US were staging Werfel’s “The Eternal Road” (1937) and founding the Max Reinhardt Workshop for Stage, Screen and Radio, a theater and film academy in Hollywood (1937–1939). He did not think very highly of US audiences.

TAGS: artists, cultural life, displacement, emigration, Hollywood, March 29, musicians, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo, prominent people, refugees, Salzburg

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Portrait of Max Reinhardt, Phot. Hänse-Hermann, Berlin, 1906.

Original:

F 4068A

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Soma Morgenstern

A man of letters meets an old friend in exile

Vienna/Paris

Soma Morgenstern held a doctorate in law, but he preferred making a living as a writer, authoring feuilletons on music and theater. Born in Eastern Galicia and fluent in several languages, including Ukrainian and Yiddish, he chose German for his journalistic and literary endeavors. After his dismissal in 1933 from the Frankurter Zeitung, whose culture correspondent he had been while based in Vienna, he barely managed to stay afloat with occasional journalistic work. The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany made his situation entirely untenable. He was forced into emigration, leaving behind his wife, a child, and many manuscripts. By March 23 he had made his way to safety in Paris, where he stayed at the Hôtel de la Poste with another famous Galician exile, his old friend, the author Joseph Roth.

TAGS: Anschluss, children, displacement, emigration, Journalism, March 23, Paris, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo, prominent people, refugees, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Portrait of Soma Morgenstern, Photograph by Otto E. Nelson, undated. Soma Morgenstern Collection, AR 6350

Original:

F 001

14

MONDAY

14

A taste of home

German-Jewish newspaper advertises German sausage in New York

“Finally, what you have been wishing for: genuine, good, German sausage, made from premium beef and veal at the lowest daily price.”

New York

After the tribulations of their forced emigration, often accompanied by a loss of status, property, and basic faith in humanity, German Jews might not have been expected to feel particularly nostalgic for their former home. This ad from the Aufbau, the New York-based German-Jewish paper published by the German-Jewish Club, shows that nevertheless, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany were not necessarily in a hurry to give up their eating habits.

TAGS: advertisement, displacement, emigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, March 14, New York, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Advertisement, Aufbau, Vol. 4, no. 4, p. 9.

2

WEDNESDAY

2

End of “The Eternal Road”

Kurt Weill celebrates his 38th Birthday in New York

New York

Unwelcome in Nazi Germany as a Jew, a socialist, and a composer of music considered “degenerate” by the regime, Kurt Weill was able to celebrate his 38th birthday on March 2 in safety. After attacks in the Nazi press and targeted protests, Weill had already emigrated to France in 1933. Rehearsals for the premiere of his opera “The Eternal Road” (libretto: Franz Werfel) provided him with an opportunity to travel to the United States in 1935. Due to numerous technical difficulties, the premiere was postponed until 1937. Weill seized the opportunity and remained in America.

TAGS: cultural life, displacement, emigration, March 2, musicians, New York, photo, prominent people, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kurt Weill Collection, AR 2754. Photo c. 1929

Original:

F 3483

26

SATURDAY

26

From Cologne to Kenya

A car mechanic seeks safety in East Africa

“Distinguishing marks: none”

Cologne/Ol Kalou

Despite the restrictive immigration policy of the British colonial power, twenty-year-old Paul Egon Cahn, a car mechanic from Cologne, managed to flee to Kenya with the help of this passport. Paul’s sisters, Erika and Inge, reached safety in England and Australia respectively. The siblings’ parents, Siegfried and Regina Cahn, remained behind in Germany. In many cases, refugees not only had to cope with the loss of their homes and property and the separation from their relatives but were also forced to take on the challenges posed by foreign climate zones and cultures.

TAGS: Cologne, displacement, emigration, family separation, February 26, Ol Kalou, passport, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Paul Egon Cahn Collection, AR 25431

Original:

Box 1, folder 10

25

FRIDAY

25

Heartache

Young lovers face separation

“I say it is a good thing not to see each other for a longer period, for only then can one see how much or how little people have changed.”

Hamburg/Merano

By 1938, the Hirsch family from Hamburg had emigrated to Italy. In light of the volatile situation in Europe, members of the family began to look into options for emigration to the United States or South America. Julius Hirsch had met Elisabeth Schiff on a visit to Belgium in 1935 and fallen in love with her. The Schiff family had no plans to leave Europe, and when visas for El Salvador were procured for Julius and other members of his family, he must have been pained at the prospect of being so distant from his beloved. This letter from a friend in Hamburg reassures him that a temporary separation is not such a bad thing. Forced to remain in Italy because the US denied him the necessary transit visa, Julius ultimately reunited with Elisabeth in England.

TAGS: bureaucracy, displacement, emigration, family separation, February 25, Hamburg, immigration procedures, letter, Merano, refugees, South America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Julius and Elisabeth Hirsch Collection, AR 25585

Original:

Box 1, folder 14

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Tel Aviv, Bauhaus, and “Grand Illusion”

Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

This view of Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv shows some of the typical buildings in the background to which it owes its unofficial name, “The White City.” Since 1933 and especially after the “Reichsbürgergesetz” came into effect in 1935, Bauhaus-trained architects had left Germany and were now putting their mark on Tel Aviv, either through their own creations or through their influence on others. The photo is dominated by the Migdalor building, which was built in 1935 and housed the city’s first air-conditioned movie theater. On the external wall there is a huge advertisement for Jean Renoir’s 1937 movie “Grand Illusion,” which due to its pacifist message was banned in Nazi Germany.

TAGS: artists, cultural life, displacement, emigration, February 23, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, photo, public sphere, refugees, Tel Aviv

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Tel-Aviv Towns and Villages”, Arthur Prinz Collection, AR 5103

Original:

F 27204

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Port of Tel Aviv opens

The opening of the port in Tel-Aviv. National Photograph Collection of Israel.

The port of Tel Aviv is completed and officially opened. When the Arab city of Jaffa closed its port in 1936 to counteract the rising number of Jewish immigrants, Tel Aviv established a port known as Sha’ar Zion, the Gate to Zion. During two years of construction, the capacity of the port was very limited, but it nevertheless took on an enormous symbolic importance for the Jews fleeing the National Socialists. With the official opening of the port, regular cargo traffic begins immediately, and the first passenger will arrive in April 1938. Two years later, when escape from Germany has become impossible and World War II has begun, the port will be closed for civilian usage and serve exclusively as a military port.

View chronology of major events in 1938

22

TUESDAY

22

Coffee and cake in “Frankfurt on Hudson”

A New Life in Washington Heights, NYC

While enjoying coffee, cake, card games and a pleasant entertainment program, those present will have the opportunity to talk about their concerns.

New York

Between the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933 and the year 1938, about 16.000 Jews had immigrated to the United States. Many German Jews had made their home in New York, especially in the neighborhood of Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, gaining it the nickname “Frankfurt on the Hudson.” The event schedule of the German-Jewish Club lists a “Family evening with Kaffee-Klatsch” which offers “artistic and musical interludes.” The event is geared towards the needs of the older members of the community, as “a substitute for lodge, singing club, social club and other associations,” promising participants an opportunity to discuss what they had on their minds. In addition to cultural activities in German, the massive influx of German-speaking Jews to Washington Heights led to the establishment of numerous new synagogues, beginning with “Tikvoh Chadoshoh”—“New Hope.”

TAGS: advertisement, cultural life, displacement, emigration, February 22, immigration, Jewish Community, New York, public sphere, refugees, religion, Synagogues

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Februar-Programm des Deutsch-Jüdischen Clubs”, Aufbau, no. 3, 4

Original:

Vol. 3, no. 4: 3

BACK TO TOP

Curated by Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin © 2018 Leo Baeck Institute

Website and exhibition design by C&G Partners