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

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5

FRIDAY

5

Kisses and best wishes

A sweet note to grandmother in Breslau

“I hope your pain has gotten better. Lots of kisses and best wishes, and a good שבת [Shabbes], also to the Blumenthals, your grandson, Michael”

Oldenburg/Breslau

Based on his handwriting and style, it seems that Michael Seidemann was quite young when he wrote this postcard to his grandmother, Louise Seidemann, in Breslau. Interestingly, the address from which he sent it was identical to that of the synagogue of the town, Oldenburg. Even though the earliest records of Jewish presence in Oldenburg are from the 14th century, it was only in 1855 that the congregation opened its first synagogue built specifically for this purpose. As a result of Emancipation, Jews came to contribute to Oldenburg’s commerce by selling shoes, books, bicycles, and musical instruments, as cattle dealers and in agriculture, among other things. Their share of the population rarely exceeded 1%. Nevertheless, in the 1920s, antisemitic thugs began attacking Jewish businesses. In 1933, the town had 279 Jewish inhabitants, out of a total of 66,951. By the time Michael wrote this postcard, only two out of dozens of Jewish shops and businesses remained in the town.

TAGS: antisemitism, August 5, Breslau, children, displacement, economic persecution, emigration, family, Jewish Community, Nazi policies, Oldenburg, persecution, postcard, refugees, religion, synagogue, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Herta Seidemann Collection, AR 25060

Original:

Box 1, folder 6

4

THURSDAY

4

Selective service

Bruno Blum's Jewish descent exempts him from military service

“We hereby testify that according to the documents presented to our office, Mr. Bruno Blum, born Aug. 11, 1907, in Buczacz, is a Full Jew.” [Volljude was the Nazi term for a person with at least three Jewish grandparents].

VIENNA

Article 1 of §15 of the Nazi Conscription Law (introduced on May 21, 1935) stipulated that “Aryan descent is a prerequisite for active military service.” In the 1936 amendment, the language was even clearer: “A Jew cannot perform active military service.” In order to get permission to leave the country, prospective male emigrants had to present a document to the local military authorities confirming their Jewish descent and thus proving that they were not simply seeking to shirk their duties by emigrating. On August 4, 1938, the registry of the Vienna Jewish Religious Community, based on the documentation available to them, attested to Bruno Blum’s Jewish ancestry on both sides as part of the paperwork he had to submit in order to get permission to emigrate.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, August 4, bureaucracy, document, emigration, Jewish Community, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, segregation, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Blum Family Collection, AR 25132

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

1

MONDAY

1

It can happen here

Jewish immigrants warn of the fragility of American Democracy

“From what has been expounded here, it follows for us Jewish immigrants who have experienced fascism in our own flesh that we must mobilize all our forces in order to secure the continued existence of the United States as a democratic political system. Here too influential groups are at work undermining the achievements of democracy.”

NEW YORK

In the August issue of the Aufbau, an unidentified group of young immigrants was given the opportunity to call for the preservation and activation of democracy in the United States. They argue that the fascist regimes in Europe used the economic crises created by the unbridled military buildup in their countries to legitimize the confiscation of Jewish property. While praising the Roosevelt administration’s generosity and its openness to social reforms for the benefit of those who had escaped fascism, the group warns against the reactionary forces attacking this policy and their attempts to undermine democracy in the United States. The Aufbau editorial board noted its reservations regarding the group’s assessment of the role of economic factors in history but wrote that it was happy to grant the young people space to voice their concerns.

TAGS: August 1, commentary, dispossession, Fascism, immigration, Jewish Community, Jewish property, Journalism, media coverage, New York, politics, press article, refugees, United States of America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Für lebendige Demokratie,” Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 9, p. 2.

27

MONDAY

27

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:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

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

Source available in English

15

FRIDAY

15

Something to brighten your Sabbath

A note to the rabbi of a beleaguered congregation

Chemnitz

After the prohibition of Jewish settlement in Chemnitz in the Middle Ages, it was not until the late 1860s that Jews could legally settle in the Saxonian city. By the end of the 19th century, the community had grown so large that its synagogue on Neugasse 3 no longer sufficed, and in 1899, Rabbi Dr. Mühlfelder festively inaugurated a new building at Stephansplatz. A number of smaller prayer rooms accommodated the religious needs of the Eastern European Jews who had been coming to the city since the beginning of World War I and over time began to constitute more than half of the city’s Jewish population. On a Friday in what must have been the congregation’s most difficult year to date, a woman named Gerda gave this photograph of the Synagogue to the congregation’s Rabbi, Dr. Hugo Fuchs, with a note expressing her hope that it might brighten his Sabbath.

TAGS: Chemnitz, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, July 15, photo, Polish-born Jews, rabbis, religion, Synagogues, WWI

SOURCE

Institution:

Chemnitz

Collection:

Exterior view of the Chemnitz Synagogue and street scene

Original:

F 1929

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Évian conference concludes without results

Lord Winterton speaking at the Evian Conference. Ullstein bild / Getty Images.

The Évian Conference concludes without results. Population density and unemployment, saturation with refugees, the economic Depression, and the fear that antisemitism might rise with the arrival of more Jews are among the excuses presented by the participants in the Évian-Konferenz for their refusal to take in more refugees (see entry from July 6). Only the Dominican Republic, the tiny island nation in the Caribbean, is ready to welcome additional refugees—in exchange for a substantial sum of money. Great Britain proposes the territories it has occupied in East Africa as a destination for a small number of refugees. The United States are willing to accept refugees as long as the total number does not exceed their regular quota of 27,370 German and Austrian immigrants. The conference concludes on July 15 without producing any real hope for those whose lives depend on escaping the Nazi regime. One of the few concrete steps to arise from the conference is a new commission, the Comité d’Évian, which is tasked with negotiating the conditions of Jewish emigration with German authorities.

 

View chronology of major events in 1938

8

FRIDAY

8

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:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

30

THURSDAY

30

A 5th birthday

Little Helen turns a year older

Hamburg

Wilhelm Hesse was a loving and profoundly involved father. Since the births of his daughters, Helen (1933) and Eva (1936), he had meticulously documented the girls’ development in diaries which he kept for them. In addition to little texts and poems he composed, he included numerous photographs as well as material referring to Jewish holidays. Occasionally, the frequently humorous, sometimes even childlike tone is interrupted by material documenting the political situation, such as a call by Rabbi Leo Baeck for Jewish unity and solidarity in the name of the Reich Representation of German Jews. But Helen and her sister Eva were lucky enough to be too young to grasp what was looming around them. June 30 was Helen’s 5th birthday.

TAGS: children, diary, Hamburg, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, June 30, photo, politics, prominent people, rabbis, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Helen and Eva Hesse Family Collection, AR 25327

Original:

Box 1, folder 3

25

SATURDAY

25

Liver dumplings, Christmas stollen, matzo balls

National Socialism destroys what was grown over centuries

Krumbach

In Anni Buff’s personal recipe book, dated June 25, 1938, traditional Bavarian dishes, like liver dumplings, Christmas stollen, and cottage cheese doughnuts, certainly outweighed traditional Jewish ones, such as matzo balls. The Jewish community in her native Krumbach was well integrated. Since its peak in the early 19th century, when it constituted about 46% of the population, its ranks had declined considerably, and by 1933, only 1,5% of Krumbachers were Jewish. In spite of this negligible presence of Jews, National Socialism with its rabidly antisemitic message took hold fast, and even before it became national policy, Jews in the little town were harassed by SA men. By 1938, the abuse had become so unbearable that Anni’s father Julius, who dealt in upholstery material, began to explore possibilities to find a new home on safer shores, such as the US, the Dominican Republic, or Shanghai. Not even the fact that he had lost a brother in WWI and had himself served in the 16. Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment—along with a young Austrian named Adolf Hitler—did anything to improve his standing with Nazi authorities.

TAGS: antisemitism, document, economic persecution, emigration, Jewish Community, June 25, Krumbach, Nazi policies, persecution, prominent people, WWI, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Anni Krantz Collection, AR 11284

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

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.

18

SATURDAY

18

Planted evidence

The Gestapo visits Adolph Markus

“If they wanted to arrest me, they also would have to take my two small boys, who otherwise would be without care, or they should wait approx. six weeks, until my wife is back from the hospital.”

Linz

Since discussing the possibility of emigration with his relatives in Vienna on April 20, Adolph Markus of Linz had taken up English lessons at the synagogue twice to three times a week. On April 29, his brother-in-law had been picked up by the Gestapo, and the Markuses’ tension and nervousness was beginning to rub off on the children. Two weeks later, Mrs. Markus was questioned by the Gestapo about the value of a house she owned and all her other property. Finally, on June 18, two Gestapo officers appeared at the family’s home: While going over the contents of some boxes, one of them tried to frame Adolph Markus by sneaking in a communist leaflet. Markus mustered the calm and self-assurance to point out to the officers that he had never been politically active in any way. His allusion to his frontline service in World War I, combined with the remark that if they were to arrest him, they would have to take along his two little boys, since their mother was in the hospital, made them change their mind. They left – threatening to return after six weeks if he wasn’t going to leave the country on his own accord.

TAGS: antisemitism, children, commentary, Communists, diary, economic persecution, emigration, family, Jewish Community, June 18, Language skills, Linz, persecution, Synagogues, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Diary, February 1938–December 1939, Adolph Markus, ME1090

Source available in English

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

10

FRIDAY

10

Without warning

Nazis tear down main Synagogue in Munich

“The correspondent understands that the Nazis offered a small sum for distribution among needy Munich Jews for compensation for the synagogue, which is valuable freehold property.”

Munich

Ostensibly for traffic-related reasons, the city of Munich informed the Jewish Religious Community on June 8 that it was to sell the magnificent, centrally located Main Synagogue and the lot on which it stood for a fraction of its actual value. On June 9, the demolition of the building, which for little more than 50 years had served as the spiritual and cultural center of the Jewish Community, began. According to this June 10 report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Chancellor Hitler had personally ordered the removal of the “eyesore.” Rabbi Baerwald, the spiritual leader of the community, received no more than a few hours advance warning in order to salvage the community’s most sacred objects. The recently acquired organ was passed on to a newly-built Catholic church. The loss of this building that had once been a symbol of pride, permanence, and belonging, was devastating to the Jewish Community of Munich.

TAGS: Jewish Community, Jewish property, Journalism, JTA, June 10, media coverage, Munich, prominent people, public sphere, rabbis, religion, Synagogues

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Hitler Orders Razing of Old Synagogue in Munich”

Source available in English

5

SUNDAY

5

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:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

31

TUESDAY

31

Adoption in Germany

Mrs. Rosenbaum from New York travels to meet her new child

“A local family interested in our work has kindly offered to host you and the child chosen by you in their home for a while so that you will have the opportunity to help the child get used to you, which will certainly be easier in the friendly atmosphere of a private home than if you had to live in a hotel with the child.”

WUPPERTAL-ELBERFELD/NEW YORK

The Central Office for Jewish Foster Homes and Adoption took its mandate for protecting mothers and children very seriously. When Frances and Bernard Rosenbaum of New York decided to adopt a German child, the agency offered Mrs. Rosenbaum accommodations in a private home while picking up the boy in Germany, so that the relationship would not have to begin in a hotel. The Central Office for Jewish Foster Homes and Adoption was part of the League of Jewish Women, founded in 1904 by Bertha Pappenheim in order to foster charitable activity while affirming Jewish identity. An outgrowth of this initiative was the development of professional social work.

TAGS: children, family, Jewish Community, letter, May 31, New York, prominent people, transnational networks, welfare organizations, Women, Wuppertal-Elberfeld

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Frederick Rosenbaum Collection, AR 6707

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Chronology of major events in 1938

Law on the Confiscation of Degenerate Art

"Boys on a Playground" by Otto Möller, date unknown. Otto Möller was an artist labeled degenerate by the Nazis. His work was removed from museums in Germany under this new law. Some was auctioned off in forced sales, and other works destroyed. Leo Baeck Institute.

The “Law on the Confiscation of Degenerate Art” legalizes the plunder of artworks deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis. This applies primarily to modern art that does not conform to the racial or aesthetic criteria of National Socialist ideology, and of course, it applies to all works by Jewish artists. By the end of May, 1938, the Nazis have already confiscated works from museums and other public art collections. With the passage of this law, the confiscated works became legal property of the state. Except in a few cases of “financial hardship,” the owners receive no compensation. Amazingly, this law legalizing the arbitrary looting of artworks will remain in force until 1968. The Allies will fail to remove the law from the books when they excise other elements of Nazi law from the German legal code after the war. The Monuments and Museums Council of Northwestern Germany will even reinforce the law in a September 1948 decision to replace the works rather than demanding their return.

View chronology of major events in 1938

29

SUNDAY

29

The Jewish Hospital in Hamburg

Despite being undermined by the Nazis, the hospital keeps up its work

“As a friendly keepsake of our common years at the I.K.”

Hamburg

Depicted here is the facade of the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg. The photograph is part of an album preceded by the above inscription dated May 29, 1938. The hospital was endowed by merchant and banker Salomon Heine, also known as the “Rothschild of Hamburg,” in memory of his late wife Betty and inaugurated in 1843. The poet Heinrich Heine, Salomon’s nephew and beneficiary, honored the occasion with his poem Das neue israelitische Hospital zu Hamburg, in which he called it “A hospital for poor, sick Jews, for human beings who are thrice miserable, afflicted with three vicious ailments, with poverty, bodily pain, and Jewishness!” Even though the Nazi regime had been undermining the hospital’s finances since 1933, it had withstood these measures and was still able to take care of its patients in May 1938.

TAGS: antisemitism, economic persecution, Hamburg, impoverishment, Jewish Community, May 29, photo, prominent people, public sphere, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Israelitisches Krankenhaus, Hamburg, photograph album, AR 6812

23

MONDAY

23

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:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

F 12073

21

SATURDAY

21

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:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Neumann and Jacks Family Collection, AR 25580

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Chronology of major events in 1938

The National Socialists in Austria adopt the Nuremberg Laws

A diagram explaining the Nuremberg Laws. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Hitler issued the laws at the 7th Congress of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) in September 1935. The Reichsbürgergesetz (Reich Citizenship Law) defines who shall be considered a Jew. The law furthermore differentiates mere citizens from Reichsbürger (citizens of the Reich). Reichsbürger are those citizens which have German or near-German blood. The Blutschutzgesetz (Law to Protect German Blood and German Honor), prohibits marriage between Jews and non-Jews. These laws codify the core elements of the Nazis’ antisemitic ideology. With their implementation in Austria, discrimination against Jews is not merely permitted, but integral to all state functions.

View chronology of major events in 1938

18

WEDNESDAY

18

Despite everything, music

Conductor Erich Erck directs Jewish Chamber Orchestra

MUNICH

After stints with various orchestras in Germany and Austria, in 1930, the conductor Erich Erck returned to Munich, where he had studied music. The Nazis forced him to relinquish his stage name and return to his family name, Eisner. His application for membership in the Reichsmusikkammer was rejected, since his Jewishness was seen as more damning than his combat service for Germany in WWI was redeeming. After he was banned from employment in 1935, he initiated the establishment of the Munich branch of the Jüdischer Kulturbund and became the executive director of its Bavarian State Association. He also took over the Orchestra of the Kulturbund (founded in 1926 as the “Jewish Chamber Orchestra”), in which capacity he appears on this photograph from the ensemble’s May 18, 1938 performance at Munich’s monumental Main Synagogue on Herzog-Max-Straße.

TAGS: antisemitism, cultural life, Jewish Community, Kulturbund, May 18, Munich, musicians, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo, prominent people, public sphere, segregation, Synagogues, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Original:

Erich Eisner as a conductor in the Liberal Synagogue in Munich, Erich Eisner Collection, Gift of Manfred Eisner

17

TUESDAY

17

The first woman rabbi

Regina Jonas on “Religious problems of the Jewish Community today"

Berlin

A few inconspicuous lines in today’s issue of the Jüdische Rundschau advertise a lecture in Berlin’s “Ohel Jizchak” Synagogue by “Miss Regina Jonas” on the topic “Religious problems of the Jewish Community today.” Regina Jonas had studied with much dedication at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin and fought hard to reach her goal of becoming a rabbi. Not wishing to rock the boat in these troubled times, even liberal rabbis who might have been positively inclined toward the ordination of women, such as Leo Baeck, were not willing to ordain her. Her final thesis was a halakhic treatise on the topic “May a Woman Hold Rabbinic Office?” It was Rabbi Max Dienemann who in 1935 made her the first female rabbi in history. Interestingly, in spite of the passionate opposition in some quarters and doubts regarding the validity of Regina Jonas’s ordination, she enjoyed the respect even of some orthodox rabbis, who henceforth addressed her as Fräulein Rabbiner or “colleague.” The Jüdische Rundschau apparently preferred to play it safe.

TAGS: advertisement, Berlin, cultural life, Jewish Community, Journalism, May 17, prominent people, public sphere, rabbis, religion, Synagogues, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Compact Memory, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main

Collection:

“Ankündigungen,” Jüdische Rundschau, Vol. 44, issue 39, p. 7.

27

WEDNESDAY

27

Furniture for emigrants

Avertisements mirror daily needs

Karlsruhe

Three prominently placed ads on the front page of the “Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt für Baden” make amply clear what is on people’s minds in April 1938: emigration looms large. Three businesses in Karlsruhe are offering related goods and services, such as passage to South America, Africa, and Asia, furniture for emigrants, and home sales. In the April 27 issue, the topic comes up from various perspectives: the shrinkage of congregations as a result of members going abroad, English classes for prospective emigrants, the departure of esteemed leaders, practical advice on how to get support from Jewish aid organizations during the emigration process, and more. Other parts of life seem to be taking their normal course. Lehrhaus activities, student concerts, Kulturbund events, personal ads and other topics counter-balance the abnormality of the situation.

TAGS: advertisement, April 27, cultural life, emigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, Karlsruhe, Kulturbund, Language skills, Ludwigshafen, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt, Vol. 16, No. 8: 1.

16

SATURDAY

16

At-risk youth

Passover in a home for boys

Berlin

In 1938, the first day of Passover fell on April 16. As they did every year, the inhabitants of the Jewish Residential Home for Youth and Apprentices in Berlin gathered around a festively set dinner table for the second Seder. Under the dedicated management of Paul and Friedel Joseph, the home provided its charges with opportunities that went well beyond practical needs like housing and vocational training. They also strove to provide them with cultural and intellectual stimulation that would expand their horizons. The boys and young men, ranging in age from 14 to 21, had been removed from their homes due to behavioral problems. According to Friedel Joseph, life in the home was still going on “relatively unimpeded” at this point, but the political situation cannot have been lost on its inhabitants. The Passover message of liberation from bondage under a tyrannical ruler must have resonated very strongly at this year’s celebration.

TAGS: April 16, Berlin, cultural life, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, photo, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Heinrich Stahl Collection, AR 7171

Original:

ALB 69

15

FRIDAY

15

50,000 matzot

Jewish Winter Relief helps Jews keep a kosher Passover

Berlin

The special dietary requirements for the Passover week constituted an additional financial burden for German Jews, many of whom were scrambling to make ends meet. The Jewish Winter Relief Organization distributed 50,000 matzot to needy Jews and served about 1,000 guests at two seders. Donors to the organization’s Passover Appeal received a copy of Rabbi Selig Bamberger’s translation of the Haggadah with a sticker on the inside of the cover thanking them for their contribution. This photograph of holiday paraphernalia is from an album belonging to Heinrich Stahl, the president of the Berlin Jewish Community, who launched the Jewish Winter Relief Organization with Rabbi Leo Baeck in 1935.

TAGS: April 15, Berlin, impoverishment, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, photo, prominent people, rabbis, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Heinrich Stahl Collection, AR 7171

Original:

F 7418

13

WEDNESDAY

13

A special 70th birthday gift

The children from the Ahawah orphanage thank Heinrich Stahl for his commitment

Berlin

Heinrich Stahl, chairman of the Berlin Jewish Community since 1934, was heavily involved in the work of the various Jewish relief organizations, for which there was growing need as Nazism took hold. On April 13, 1938, his 70th birthday, he received a gift from the Ahawah Children’s Home, a photo album which showed the wide range of activities pursued by the charges of this exceptional institution (see March 17). The album included several photographs from the Ahawah’s new branch, which had been opened in Palestine in 1934. A heartfelt warmth and gratitude shine through this rhymed dedication thanking Stahl for his service to the community.

TAGS: April 13, Berlin, children, document, Haifa, Jewish Community, Palestine, prominent people, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ahawah Children's Home, Collection AR 6427

Original:

ALB 78

11

MONDAY

11

Rose Luria Halprin Celebrates her Birthday

The American Zionist leader worked to rescue young German Jews through the Youth Aliyah

Jerusalem/Berlin

As a leading functionary in various Zionist organizations, most notably the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of North America, Rose Luria Halprin had moved to Jerusalem in 1934, where she worked as the liaison between the local Hadassah branch and the National Office in the US. Having befriended Henrietta Szold, who led the Youth Aliyah in Palestine, Halprin, too, became involved in efforts to rescue German-Jewish youth by bringing them to Palestine. The Youth Aliyah had been founded by the prescient Recha Freier, wife of a Berlin-based rabbi, on the very day the Nazis were voted into government, January 30, 1933. In the years 1935 to 1938, Halprin repeatedly visited Berlin. April 11, 1938 was her 42nd birthday.

TAGS: April 11, Berlin, children, Jerusalem, Jewish Community, Palestine, photo, prominent people, rabbis, transnational networks, Women, Youth Aliyah, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

American Jewish Historical Society

Collection:

Rose Halprin in 1934. Haddassah Archives at the American Jewish HIstorical Society.

9

SATURDAY

9

Carnival jesters at the passover ball

Jewish National Workers Alliance offers temporary cheer in Washington Heights

NEW YORK

Usually the Jewish National Workers Alliance, as the Labor Zionist fraternal order was known, occupied itself with serious matters. Among other things, it strove to strengthen the working class and offered help in cases of economic hardship, illness, or death of its members. In 1911, it had established the first modern insurance system for Jewish workers. On April 9, 1938 it strayed from its core mission and held a Passover Ball in the German-Jewish stronghold of Washington Heights in New York. Among other items, the program featured “Cologne humorists.” German immigrants would have understood that this referred to Cologne carnival jesting, a tradition associated with the Catholic carnival season that dates back to the Middle Ages. The venue was the ballroom of the Paramount Mansion, which also housed several institutions that promoted the interests of German Jewish immigrants.

TAGS: advertisement, April 9, Cologne, cultural life, immigration, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, Journalism, New York, politics, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Pessach Ball”, Aufbau, Vol. 5, no. 5, p. 7.

7

THURSDAY

7

Cutting Ties

A Berlin native leaves the Jewish community

Berlin

Was Hans Petzold, a 36 year-old native of Berlin, hoping to save himself by ending his affiliation with Judaism? Under a regime obsessed with racial purity, such measures made little difference. According to the “resignation card file” of the Berlin Jewish Community, Petzold filed to leave the Jewish religion (Judentum) on April 7, 1938. Curiously, an additional note indicates that he left the Jewish community the following month, on May 30. These files now held by the Centrum Judaicum Foundation at the Neue Synagogue in Berlin record the departures some 20,000 Berlin Jews from the faith or the community for many reasons going back to the 19th century. Some converted, some joined the orthodox secession community Adass Jisroel, and others simply moved away. After 1933, some may have hoped to escape persecution by the Nazi authorities.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 7, Berlin, document, Jewish Community, persecution, religion, Synagogues

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Collection:

Card indicating resignation from membership in the Jewish Community of Berlin for Hans Petzold

Original:

CJA, 2 A 1

2

SATURDAY

2

Repression, resilience and relief

Jewish welfare organizations alleviate suffering

Berlin

By 1938, the ability of Jews to make a living had been seriously curtailed by a series of laws aimed at humiliating, isolating, and impoverishing them. While not all Jews were affected equally by these changes, the number of Jews dependent on the services of welfare organizations, such as the Jewish Winter Relief, was constantly on the rise. The level of solidarity and the support for the Winter Relief were remarkable. Much of the money came from small donations, and the Kulturbund held cultural events in support of the organization. Volunteers from women’s and youth groups assisted in the fundraising efforts.

TAGS: April 2, Berlin, cultural life, economic persecution, impoverishment, Jewish Community, Kulturbund, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, photo, public sphere, segregation, welfare organizations, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Photo Abraham, Speisungen, fuer viele 1000 Mark, Sammlung Heinrich Stahl, AR 7171

Original:

F 7410

22

TUESDAY

22

Women’s Rights are Human Rights

The League of Jewish Women counsels young women on emigration

Berlin

Since its founding in 1904, the League of Jewish Women had worked to ensure the dignity and independence of Jewish women and especially to protect them from sexual exploitation by facilitating professional training. By 1938, another issue had come to the fore: emigration. On March 22, 1938, the Group of Professional Women within the League, represented by Dr. Käthe Mende, hosted a discussion for “female youth” about questions of career and emigration. The guest speaker was Lotte Landau-Türk, and the discussion was moderated by Prof. Cora Berliner, a former employee in the German Department of Commerce and a professor of economics who had been dismissed from public service after the Nazi rise to power in 1933.

TAGS: Berlin, document, emigration, Jewish Community, March 22, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, ticket, welfare organizations, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Collection:

Invitation to an event presented by the Group of Professional Women in the Berlin chapter of the League of Jewish Women on the topic of “Career and Emigration for Female Youth.”

Original:

CJA, 1 C Fr 1, No. 31, #9835, Bl. 32

18

FRIDAY

18

A new mission for World Jewry

Bratislava's Jewish paper calls for solidarity with Austrian Jews

“Austrian Jews have an old tradition as fully equal citizens who have always put their forces into the service of their homeland and have contributed to the latter's prosperity in all economic, social, and cultural fields”.

Vienna

The entire front page of Bratislava’s German-language religious-Zionist “Allgemeine Jüdische Zeitung” is dedicated to the Anschluss. Jews are called upon to stand by their Austrian coreligionists. An anonymous source notes the impoverished state of many Jews in Austrian lands and the resulting need to restructure social services as well as address the increasingly urgent issues of occupational retraining and emigration. The reader is reminded that Austria is still a member of the League of Nations and that Austrian law stipulates equal rights for religious and national minorities. Among other sources quoted is the British Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Butler, who reports having received assurances that the German government would “endeavor to achieve a moderation” of its policy towards minorities. The paper also reports that the President of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Wise, has appealed to the League of Nations to help Austrian Jewry. The rest of the picture is bleak: newspapers suspended, prominent Jews arrested, a Jewish theater closed, Jewish physicians dismissed, and other chicanery. The paper calls upon Jews everywhere to come to the aid of their Austrian brethren.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, Bratislava, commentary, cultural life, impoverishment, Jewish Community, Journalism, League of Nations, March 18, media coverage, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals, politics, press article, prominent people, rabbis, Vienna, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Nationalsozialistisches Regime in Ősterreich, Allgemeine Jüdische Zeitung, Vol. 6, p. 1.

Original:

Vol. 6, p. 1

Chronology of major events in 1938

The National Socialists arrest 150 public figures

A raid on the Jewish Community offices in Vienna on March 18, 1938. Bundesarchiv Bild 152-05 - 15A.

The spring of 1938 is marked by a series of assaults on Jews in Vienna and a number of other European cities. These Anschluss pogroms constitute an escalation of the National Socialist policy of persecution. Citizens humiliate, bully, and attack Jews publicly. Shortly after the Annexation, National Socialists in Austria arrest about 150 public figures. A third of those arrested are Jews, including writer Heinrich Jacob, librettist Fritz Löhner-Beda, cabaret artist Fritz Grünbaum, Social-Democratic politician and lawyer Robert Danneberg, laywer Jakob Ehrlich, lawyer and president of the Jewish Community in Vienna, Desider Friedmann, and spice dealer Hans Kotányi. In April, the National Socialists will deport the group in an action referred to as the Prominententransport (“VIP-transport”). It will be the first deportation to the concentration camp Dachau.

View chronology of major events in 1938

17

THURSDAY

17

House of love

A Jewish home for children in Berlin—and beyond

Berlin

The notoriously authoritarian Prussian education system had traditionally aimed for obedience and discipline, often breaking children’s wings early on. In the “Ahawah” (Hebr. for “love”) Children’s Home on Auguststraße in Berlin’s central borough, a different spirit reigned: children shared in decision-making through a “Children’s Council”, the goal being to transform them into citizens rather than subjects. Corporal punishment was forbidden and employees were encouraged to create the atmosphere of a home. Beate Berger, a nurse and head of the children’s home since 1922, took a group of children with her when she emigrated to Palestine in 1934 and returned to Germany many times in the ensuing years to rescue more children. The photos show costumed children at the Purim celebration of the children’s home.

TAGS: Berlin, children, emigration, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, March 17, Palestine, photo, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ahawah Children's Home, Collection AR 6427

Original:

ALB 78

16

WEDNESDAY

16

Colleagues across continents

A teacher from Frankfurt connects with a colleague in the United States

“We would like to meet people over there with whom we can also discuss our plans—not our personal plans but the Jewish-social ones. After all, the situation of Jewish youth is getting more serious from day to day, and we feel obligated to seize all possibilities that we see over there.”

Frankfurt am Main/Bonn

Having barely begun his career as a teacher at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt/Main, Hans Epstein lost his job shortly after the Nazi rise to power in 1933. After a brief intermezzo as a teacher at the famous “Philanthropin” in Frankfurt/Main, a progressive Jewish school with the motto “For Enlightenment and Humanity”, he became a co-founder of the “Anlernwerkstatt”, which prepared Jewish youngsters for emigration to the US. The mathematician Otto Toeplitz, a passionate educator who had lost his position at the University of Bonn in 1935, was now teaching children and organizing the emigration of students to the United States. In this letter, Epstein asks Toeplitz for a letter of recommendation and for contacts in the United States that might be useful for his endeavors.

TAGS: Bonn, children, emigration, Frankfurt am Main, Jewish Community, letter, March 16, persecution of Jewish professionals, schools, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Hans Epstein Collection, AR 6362

Original:

Box 1, folder I.13

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