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

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31

SATURDAY

31

Embracing tomorrow

A refugee gives advice to refugees

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

New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

30

FRIDAY

30

A totalitarian regime fears the free press

Victims of Nazi employment bans meet in exile

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

Paris

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ernst Feder Collection, AR 7040 / MF 497

Original:

Box 1, Diary, vol. 13, 1938

14

WEDNESDAY

14

At least the children

England agrees to accept 10,000 Jewish children

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

London

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

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

Source available in English

13

TUESDAY

13

With the blessings of the Nazis

A Jewish press product with the blessings of the Propaganda Ministry

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

VIENNA

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt (Berlin, Germany: 1938-1943)

12

MONDAY

12

Contradictory messages

The Nazi press agency spreads misinformation

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

Berlin

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

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

Source available in English

Chronology of major events in 1938

Aktion “Arbeitsscheu Reich”

Poster for the Reich Labor Service, 1938.

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

View chronology of major events in 1938

3

SATURDAY

3

Action, not anger

The “Aufbau” sounds a call to action

“One can only overcome hatred by rising above it oneself through positive action.”

New York

Reacting to the November Pogroms, thus far the most massive outburst of anti-Jewish violence in Germany, the December editorial of the Aufbau does not make do with expressions of pain and mourning but forcefully calls to counter Nazi brutality with positive action. “The answer to barbarism has always been enlightenment,” it quoted US Commissioner of Education J.W. Studebaker, a staunch believer in democracy and the central role of public discussion and civic education in making it function. The editorial reassured Jewish brethren in Germany that all of America was united in working on “putting an end to barbarism in Central Europe.” It wholeheartedly endorsed the government’s position, propagating education and enlightenment as means to fight back “this gravest of assaults on human culture.”

TAGS: antisemitism, commentary, December 3, Journalism, kristallnacht, media coverage, New York, November Pogrom, politics, press article, prominent people, transnational networks, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Editorial "Aufbau," Vol. 4, no. 13, p. 5

26

SATURDAY

26

The future of humanity and culture

A call to action in bad times

“If ever there was a need for brave hearts, clear minds and strong fists, it is today, as nothing less than the future of humanity and culture is at stake!”

New York

No one reading the November issue of the Aufbau could have missed the front-page editorial message in bold print: under the heading “The Great Trial,” forceful language is employed to decry the abject failure of “the heads of state of the so-called democracies,” who have sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Jewish refugees are left stranded in no man’s land in Bohemia, in Germany, the Nazis are dealing an “economic death blow” to the Jews, the British are jeopardizing the Zionist project, and “little more than a faint memory” remains of the Evian Conference, summoned in July to tackle the problem of resettling Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Surely, this is “an era of complete sinfulness.” Will those under threat finally brace up?

TAGS: commentary, dispossession, economic persecution, Evian conference, Jewish property, Journalism, media coverage, Munich Agreement, New York, November 26, politics, press article, refugees, Sudetenland, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

"Die große Prüfung," Editorial, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 12, p. 1

25

Friday

25

The limits of hospitality

Asylum for Jewish children

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

London

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Original:

91.13

Source available in English

17

THURSDAY

17

No reprieve

The wave of violence continues

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

Berlin

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

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

Source available in English

15

TUESDAY

15

A sensitive eccentric

A political activist surrenders

Berlin

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

80.135

Chronology of major events in 1938

Jewish children expelled from schools.

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

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

View chronology of major events in 1938

13

Sunday

13

A slide back to barbarism

Public opinion in Britain is unanimous

“The first lesson to draw from the persecutions,” Sir Archibald said, “is the urgent need for generous fulfillment of British obligations to world Jewry and the League of Nations under the Palestine Mandate.”

London

As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency would have it, the English were united in their dismay about the anti-Jewish violence in Germany. Expressing their “indignation and disgust” and referring to the recent anti-Jewish violence in Germany as a “slide back to barbarism” and “inhuman fury,” they condemned the pogroms orchestrated by the Nazis. Some, like the Sunday Times and Sir Archibald Sinclair, leader of the Liberal Party, used the events as an opportunity to reinforce the need for a national home for the Jews.

TAGS: advocates, antisemitism, Journalism, JTA, kristallnacht, London, media coverage, Nazi policies, November 13, November Pogrom, politics, prominent people, public sphere, violence, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“British, American Public Opinion Reflects Horror at German Events”

Source available in English

9

Wednesday

9

Relative luck

Total destruction and a little bit of luck

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

Ludwigshafen/New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Otto Neubauer Collection, AR 25339

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Night of Broken Glass

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

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

View chronology of major events in 1938

5

SATURDAY

5

More mosquitoes than in Palestine

Texan hospitality helps refugees ease into new beginnings

“The second thing is the almost unbelievable hospitality which is extended to everyone in this country. And yet, no major fuss is being made. Rather, people let you live with them in their homes, as if you were part of the family. The police officer or the salesclerk - no matter who - they're all accommodating, because they can't do it any other way.”

Houston, Texas

With a documented presence reaching back as far as the 12th century and as the second largest community after Berlin, Jews in Frankfurt were a profoundly established part of society. But under the Nazis, Frankfurt Jews, like all of German Jewry, were made to feel like unwelcome strangers in their own city and country, and large numbers of them were leaving Germany. The November issue of the “Jüdische Gemeindeblatt für Frankfurt” shows the omnipresence of the topic of emigration. Numerous ads were offering services and equipment specifically for emigrants. The “Aid Association of Jews in Germany” offered the latest news regarding immigration requirements to various countries but also a warning not to fall into the trap of fraudsters charging would-be emigrants hefty fees for useless advice. However, one contribution sticks out; in a letter from Houston, Texas, a former resident of Frankfurt shares her first impressions. The heat was challenging, potatoes didn’t feature prevalently enough on the menu, mosquito nets (“more mosquitoes than in Palestine”) and plastic flowers required some getting used to, not to mention giant spiders and flying cockroaches. On the other hand, there were built-in cupboards and large beds, as well as, best of all, the “almost unbelievable hospitality” of the locals.

TAGS: antisemitism, displacement, emigration, Frankfurt am Main, Houston TX, immigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, media coverage, November 5, press article, refugees, transnational networks, United States of America, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Collection:

Gemeindeblatt der Israelitischen Gemeinde Frankfurt am Main

2

WEDNESDAY

2

Protest by ballot

Endangered democracy

“All of us who are even somewhat familiar with day-to-day politics in America know that the President of the United States, whom all of us greatly revere, would never even think of interpreting these laws in a purely personal way. But what guarantees do we have that a successor won't read them that way?”

New York

The fact that they had eluded the dangers of Nazism didn’t mean that it was time for immigrants to let down their guard. The editorial of the November issue of Aufbau exhorted the newcomers to acquire knowledge about the workings of American politics in order to be able to prevent developments similar to those that had brought the present government to power in Germany. In particular, the author warns against the curtailment of rights by “constitutional” means. The most potent protest against attempts to undermine democracy, in his opinion, was “protest by ballot.” Only those candidates who stood for true Americanism, as he saw it—for peace and justice, or, in other words, for democracy—deserved to be elected.

TAGS: commentary, immigration, Journalism, media coverage, New York, November 2, politics, press article, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

"Die ernste Pflicht des Wählens" Editorial, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 12, p. 5

25

TUESDAY

25

Sudeten Jews under attack

Attacks on Sudeten Jews after the Munich Treaty

“The program for expulsion of thousands of Jews from Czechoslovakia and restriction of the economic activities of those who remain, outlined by minister without portfolio Stanislav Bucovsky, was adopted in its entirety yesterday as a resolution by the Committee of the Sokol Communities, representative body of the Czech youth athletic organization.” [original]

Prague

On September 29, 1938, the signatories of the Munich Treaty had decreed that Czechoslovakia was to cede to Germany its northern and western border areas, the Sudetenland, which was inhabited predominantly by Germans. Immediately after the incursion of German troops, there were eruptions of violence against Jews. Of the 25,000 to 28,000 Jews living in the area, thousands were driven to flee. On October 25, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on the catastrophic material effects of the mass flight: the losses were estimated at 7 billion crowns at least in wages and property left behind. To make things worse, since Munich, open expressions of antisemitism had also proliferated on the Czech side—both by the populace and those representing the government.

TAGS: antisemitism, dispossession, economic persecution, expulsion, impoverishment, Jewish property, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Munich Agreement, October 25, politics, Prague, refugees, Sudetenland, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“7 Billion Kronen Abandoned by Sudeten Refugees; Billion Salvaged” „7 Billion Kronen Abandoned by Sudeten Refugees; Billion Salvaged“

Source available in English

17

MONDAY

17

Joint summer camp promotes integration

The American Friends Service Committee promotes the integration of Jewish refugees

“Of particular pedagogical significance was the cooperative carrying out of all communal work. All participants engaged in all kinds of practical household activity and were instructed in gardening and agriculture. Familiarization with physical work thus obtained was not only pedagocically important, it also was an excellent school for the body and, along with intensive swimming, strengthened people's constitutions.”

Hyde Park, New York

Numerous Jewish organizations, such as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, German Jewish Children’s Aid and the Boston Committee for Refugees were dedicated to the rescue of refugees from Nazi Germany. In 1938, it was a non-Jewish body, the American Friends Service Committee, that came up with a particularly good project: from mid-June to the beginning of September, it ran a camp in the Hudson Valley for about 70 persons, mostly Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and about one third Americans, for the two sides to get to know each other by working, studying and singing together, sharing household chores, attending lectures and religious services and playing sports or games with each other. The author of this article in the October issue of the Aufbau is full of gratitude for what he calls “a remarkable contribution to the internal integration of our people in the country.”

TAGS: advocates, cultural life, displacement, Hyde Park NY, immigration, Journalism, media coverage, October 17, press article, refugees, religion, Sports, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Reinhold Herz, "Nichtjuden helfen," Aufbau, Vol 4. No. 11, p. 5

15

SATURDAY

15

“Race” and blood vs. humanity

The dissenters' despair

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

BERLIN

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Die Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

Collection:

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

13

THURSDAY

13

Dwindling paths of escape

Closed borders, deportations

“Premier Jan Syrovy has rejected a request for relaxation of the Government’s decision to deport refugees from Austria.”

Prague

Since the “Anschluss,” Czechoslovakia had enormously tightened its policy towards refugees from Austria, specifically Jewish ones. The official border crossings were closed to Austrian Jews – many had no choice but to enter Czechoslovakia via the dangerous paths of what was known as the “Green Border,” stretches of land not secured by checkpoints along the course of the border. Even international diplomatic interventions, such as those of the International League of Human Rights (as reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on October 13th, 1938), couldn’t sway Czechoslovakia from its restrictive course. Sir Neill Malcolm, the Commissioner of Refugees for the League of Nations, had called on the Czechoslovakian prime minister to reconsider the practice of deporting Austrian refugees. Without success.

TAGS: advocates, Anschluss, antisemitism, displacement, emigration, expulsion, immigration, Journalism, JTA, League of Nations, media coverage, October 13, persecution, politics, Prague, prominent people, refugees, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Czechs Refuse to Relax Policy on Refugees”

Source available in English

11

TUESDAY

11

Driven to suicide

Suicide of a democratically-minded editor-in-chief

PRAGUE

Since 1876, the Prager Tagblatt was known as a bastion of liberal- democratic positions. Over time, it acquired a staff of first-rate writers, including greats such as Franz Kafka, Max Brod, Kurt Tucholsky, Egon Erwin Kisch and Alfred Döblin – to name but a few. The paper was valued for its excellent reporting, its outstanding feuilleton and its unique style: even the political reporting was not devoid of humor. As a liberal-democratic paper with a predominantly Jewish staff, the Tagblatt had unequivocally positioned itself against the Nazi regime. Several of the roughly 20,000 political adversaries of the Nazis who had escaped to Czechoslovakia joined the ranks of the publication’s contributors. After the entry of the German Army to the Sudetenland in early October of 1938, the situation of German-speaking democrats came to a head in Czechoslovakia, too: according to this report from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, dated October 11, the editor-in-chief of the Prager Tagblatt, Rudolf Thomas, and his wife committed suicide out of despair over the situation.

 

TAGS: displacement, emigration, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Munich Agreement, October 11, politics, Prague, prominent people, refugees, Sudetenland

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

"Praha Jewish Editor Dies After Suicide Pact with Wife"

Original:

Box 3, folder 35

Source available in English

9

SUNDAY

9

Anti-Semitism in Italy too

Race-based laws of marriage

“Marriage between ‘Aryan’ Italians and members of the Hamitic (North African), Semitic, or any other ‘non-Aryan’ races was forbidden.”

Rome

The Fascist Grand Council of Italy, a central organ of the Mussolini regime, published a “Declaration on Race” at the beginning of October which in many places was reminiscent of the Nuremberg Laws. Anti-Semitic through and through, the document codified many regulations regarding marriage, Italian citizenship, and the employment of Jews in civil service in Italy. On October 9th, only a few days after its publication, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported about this Fascist body of legislation. “Intermarriage” between “Aryan” Italians and “members of the Hamitic (North African), Semitic or other ‘non-Aryan’ races” would henceforth be forbidden. Another regulation hit those Jews who had emigrated to Italy from Austria and Germany especially hard. All Jews who had settled in Italy after 1919, were to lose their Italian citizenship and be expelled.

 

TAGS: antisemitism, bureaucracy, displacement, emigration, expulsion, Fascism, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi laws, October 9, persecution, persecution of Jewish professionals, politics, public sphere, refugees, Rome, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Intermarriage Banned; Many Groups Exempted from Expulsion Edict”

Source available in English

4

MONDAY

4

“America First!”

Looking forward and not back

But freedom and justice are not handed to us; here too, we must work and fight for them!

New York

The claim of the editorial in the October issue of Aufbau was clear: reminding readers that they were now “Americans with all rights, but also with all duties.” It acknowledged the existence mainly of familial and cultural ties but at the same time emphasized the importance of facing the future rather than looking to the past. The slogan was “America First!,” which can be understood as a call to Jewish immigrants to integrate into American society. The author of the editorial also supplied arguments: Europe could no longer guarantee the fundamental values of freedom and justice. In the United States, however, with its Bill of Rights, it was worth it to stand and fight for these values. The Jewish Club, as publisher of Aufbau, positioned itself clearly within American society, and expected this attitude from its readers and members as well.

TAGS: commentary, emigration, immigration, Journalism, media coverage, New York, October 4, politics, press article, refugees, United States of America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

"America First" Editorial, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 11, p. 5

3

SUNDAY

3

Closed doors

Canada's restrictive immigration policy

Aid for the victims of “political persecution and unprovoked aggression” will be made a major feature of “national peace action week" [...]"

Ottawa

A central goal of “National Peace Action Week,” planned by the Canadian League of Nations Society, was to raise awareness among the Canadian public of the suffering of persecuted Jews. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on October 3rd, 1938 on the plan to establish a national committee of Jewish and other Canadian leaders for the purpose of sensitizing the public to the Jewish refugee crisis and requesting that appropriate measures be taken by the government. Because Canada had enforced restrictive isolationist policy against immigrants since at least the Great Depression, the country had no refugee policy. This already made it difficult for Jewish refugees to immigrate to Canada. An additional problem was widespread anti-Semitism among the public.

TAGS: advocates, antisemitism, displacement, emigration, Great Depression, immigration, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, October 3, Ottawa, persecution, politics, public sphere, refugees, transnational networks, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Canadian League Body to Form Group to Aid Refugees”

Source available in English

29

THURSDAY

29

Mass exodus

More than 20,000 Jews leave the Sudetenland

“Only about 2,000 Jews of a population of 22,000 have remained in the Sudeten German districts, which have also been deserted by the Czech population.” [original version in English]

Munich

When on September 29th the so-called “Munich Agreement” between Hitler, the British Premier Chamberlain, the French Premier Daladier, and the Italian dictator Mussolini was concluded, over 20,000 Jews had already fled from the regions of the Sudetenland. This was reported by the Jewish Telegraph Agency on the day of the Agreement. With a months-long propaganda campaign by the Nazis and raucous threats that the Wehrmacht would invade Czechoslovakia, it had already been clear to many Jews for weeks that they would have no future in the Sudetenland. With the Agreement, the Czech regions, in which the Sudeten German minority lived, would be surrendered to the German Reich. Czechoslovakia did not sit at the bargaining table in Munich.

TAGS: displacement, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Munich, Munich Agreement, politics, press article, prominent people, refugees, September 29, Sudetenland

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“20,000 Jews Evacuate Sudeten Area”

Source available in English

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Munich Agreement

Many Jewish lawyers had already been leaving Germany and Austria. Among them was Joachim Weichert of Vienna, who had been practicing law in Vienna for decades. Weichert Family Collection, Leo Baeck Institute.

Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy sign the Munich Agreement. In the absence of Czechoslovakia, which, like the Soviet Union, was not invited to the conference, the participating nations resolve that Czechoslovakia must cede the “Sudetenland” to the German Reich. The agreement calls for the evacuation of the narrow band of territory along Czechoslovakia’s northern, western, and southern borders within ten days. Two days after the agreement is signed, the Wehrmacht enters the Sudetenland. By allowing the conflict over the autonomy of ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakian borderlands to escalate into an international crisis, Hitler has succeeded in first isolating and then breaking up Czechoslovakia.

View chronology of major events in 1938

25

SUNDAY

25

Fluent English!

Language barriers in exile

“Fluent English in a couple weeks. Original, simple, scientific method.”

New York

Speak English fluently! This may have been among the resolutions of Jewish immigrants in the United States for the upcoming Jewish new year. The September edition of “Aufbau” featured a whole array of offers for learning English. Sundry advertisements wooed immigrants with, for example, “a low fee” and “original” methods in order to improve one’s English within a few weeks. These advertisements hit on a market. Because, to those who’d come to the United States, the English language posed an initial and legitimate, yet essential hurdle. Whoever wanted to work in the American environment and build a new life had to be able to be understood.

TAGS: advertisement, immigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, Language skills, New York, politics, refugees, September 25

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Unterricht, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 10, p. 10

Source available in English

22

THURSDAY

22

Abandoned synagogues

The congregations of Gliwice feel the consequences of emigration

“Many small congregations that belong to our association are completely abandoned. We must deal with their disbandment. Venerable houses of worship must be dispossessed of their purpose and sold.”

GLEIWITZ

On Rosh Hashanah, Arthur Kochmann had two wishes for the Association of Synagogues for Upper Silesia: that in the new year, every member’s wishes would be fulfilled, but also that Jews in Upper Silesia “would maintain their inner unity at all times” – two wishes which unfortunately had to come into conflict with each other many times in the fall of 1938. The number of emigrants from Gleiwitz had risen considerably over the past few months. Arthur Kochmann points at the dramatic consequences for many smaller synagogues in and in the vicinity of Gleiwitz: many would have to be closed and sold. For a long time, a provision for the protection of minorities from 1922 had protected many Jews in Gleiwitz from the anti-Semitic laws of the Nazis, but with its expiration in 1937, the reprieve came to an end.

TAGS: displacement, emigration, Gleiwitz, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, Jewish property, Journalism, media coverage, Nazi laws, press article, refugees, religion, September 22, Synagogues

SOURCE

Institution:

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Original:

Auf Deine Hilfe hoffe ich, Gott, in: Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt, vol. 3, no. 18, p. 1. Courtesy of USHMM

15

THURSDAY

15

Bad prospects

Refugees in Czechoslovakia

“None of the refugees, of course, is permitted to work. Among them are business people, professionals and craftsmen, many of whom were once comfortably well off. Without material resources, often cut off from family and friends left behind, uncertain as to the future, this refugee colony is rapidly becoming a psychological problem as well as an economic and political one.”

Brno (Brünn)

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency described the situation of Austrian refugees in Czechoslovakia with far-sightedness. If none of their precarious circumstances changed (work ban, impoverishment, missing prospects…) the situation could soon become “a psychological problem as well as an economic and political one.” The JTA estimated that in the middle of September 1938 there were more than 1,000 refugees in Czechoslovakia, most of them in Brno, less than 50 kilometers from the Austrian border. Now a police measure stipulated a bail of 2,000 Czech crowns (70 dollars) for persons who had already spent more than two months in Czechoslovakia. Otherwise they would face deportation. Who could pay this money on their behalf was completely unclear. Neither the Jewish community of Brno nor the League of Human Rights had the means to do so.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, Brünn, displacement, dispossession, emigration, expulsion, immigration, impoverishment, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, persecution, refugees, September 15

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency 

Collection:

“500 Refugees Face Expulsion from Czechoslovakia”

Source available in English

12

MONDAY

12

Fake generosity

Forced emigration from Burgenland

“Two hundred Jewish residents of Burgenland province were ‘invited’ to leave Austria by an emigrant-smuggling scheme.”

Eisenstadt, Burgenland

“Free-of-charge”: it may seem like a generous “offer,” but behind this “free-of-charge” offer was ice-cold calculation. The Nazis’ evil intent was that all Jews still remaining in Burgenland, Austria, should leave the region. In Nazi jargon, this was called cleansing. After the “Anschluss,” Burgenland was the first Austrian region in which they had begun to systematically dispossess and expel the Jewish population. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on September 12th that out of the 3,800 Jews, who had previously lived in Burgenland, 1,900 had already been expelled, 1,600 people had fled temporarily to Vienna, and another 300 were interned in ghettos in Burgenland. According to JTA, the “offer” of the emigrant-smuggling group was financed by the Gestapo with 100,000 marks from the assets of the recently dispossessed Jews of the region.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, Aryanization, Burgenland Jews, displacement, dispossession, economic persecution, Eisenstadt, emigration, expulsion, imprisonment, Jewish property, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi policies, public sphere, refugees, segregation, September 12

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Austria Spurs Smuggling of Jews over Border; Travel Agency Aids Gestapo Burgenland Purge”

Source available in English

5

MONDAY

5

Helpless League of Nations

550,000 more refugees expected

“Another 550,000 Catholics, Legitimists and ‘non-Aryans,’ will be obliged to leave the Greater Reich.”

Geneva

The League of Nation’s report was alarming. Sir Neill Malcom, the High Commissioner for German Refugees in the League, estimated that 550,000 more people would soon be forced to leave the German Reich. Non-governmental refugee organizations were already completely overwhelmed. What to do? The conference of Evian just two months earlier had failed. Large host countries, such as the United States, had not adjusted their immigration quotas. On September 5th, the JTA reported on Sir Malcom’s proposals – which, in light of the international situation, were themselves inadequate: countries which had not so far given refugees permission to work were encouraged to more strongly cooperate with each other and at least allow people to earn a small sum for a new start in exile.

TAGS: antisemitism, displacement, emigration, Evian conference, Geneva, immigration, Journalism, JTA, League of Nations, media coverage, persecution, politics, prominent people, refugees, September 5

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“550,000 More Must Leave Reich, Malcolm Tells League”

Source available in English

2

WEDNESDAY

2

Traitor!

Harsh judgment of Schuschnigg

“As I said before […] I consider Schuschnigg a traitor and if he were to fall into my hands today, instead of Hitler's, his fate would be even crueler.”

Paris

“A traitor!” The journalist and author Joseph Bornstein left no doubt with regard to his opinion of the former Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg. Indeed, with friendly but very pointed words, he made it clear in a letter to his friend Bosch that Bosch’s “faith in the good faith in Schuschnigg” is totally wrong. Many Austrian Jews had long placed their hopes in Schuschnigg, who had tried as Chancellor to defend Austria from the influence of National-Socialist Germany. After the sender of this letter, Joseph Bornstein, lost his German citizenship in 1933, he immigrated to Paris. There he very quickly joined the intellectual milieu of other German journalists and authors in exile. He continued his collaboration with Leopold Schwarzschild and was active as editor-in-chief for the intellectual journal “Das neue Tagebuch” (The New Diary).

TAGS: commentary, displacement, emigration, immigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, letter, Paris, Polish-born Jews, politics, prominent people, refugees, September 2

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Joseph Bornstein Collection, AR 4082

Original:

Box 2, folder 1

1

THURSDAY

1

“Israel” and “Sara”

When names become political...

“If the motives on which this regulation is based were not so abysmally cruel, there would be nothing from its content about which to complain. ‘Israel’ means ‘Fighter for God’ and ‘Sarah’ or ‘Sara’ […] means 'Princess.’

NEW YORK

In August 1938 a new decree had been issued. Jewish people with names that were—in the perspective of the Nazis—not “typically Jewish” were to bear (starting January 1, 1939, the latest) a second given name: “Sara” for women, “Israel” for men. The September issue of Aufbau put the perfidy of this regulation in a nutshell: “If the motives on which this regulation is based were not so abysmally cruel, there would be nothing from its content about which to complain. ‘Israel’ means ‘Fighter for God’ and ‘Sarah’ or ‘Sara’ […] means ‘Princess.’” Not only did the Nazis help themselves to the content of Jewish culture, but they also misused it in order to restrict the private sphere of Jews on a massive scale.

TAGS: antisemitism, commentary, Jewish Community, Journalism, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, New York, press article, public sphere, segregation, September 1

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Israel und Sarah, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 10, p. 5

13

SATURDAY

13

Free CUNY for Refugees

A lawyer campaigns for refugees' right to education

“I believe that their admission to the colleges of the City of New York would not just constitute an act of kindness but would at the same time also be a step in the required direction in order to help these people to become useful and educated members of our democracy.”

NEW YORK

Ellis Levy, a Jewish attorney who lived in New York, decided to take up the cause of the immigrants fleeing Nazi persecution. In a letter to Mayor LaGuardia, an excerpt of which was published in the August issue of Aufbau, he pointed out that many of the newcomers were arriving in the country penniless, often after having been forced to abandon their studies or professional training. At the time of Mr. Ellis’s intervention, a bill regarding the possibility of opening city colleges to non-citizens was about to be brought before the Board of Higher Education. The attorney asked Mayor LaGuardia to exercise his influence on the Board to bring about a positive decision. This, he argued, would serve both the needs of the immigrants and the interests of U.S. democracy. And, indeed, it was decided, effective September 1 of that year, to admit to city colleges persons with adequate prior education who were in the process of naturalization.

TAGS: August 13, displacement, immigration, impoverishment, Journalism, media coverage, New York, persecution, politics, press article, prominent people, refugees, United States of America

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Zum Besten von Einwanderern, Aufbau, Vol. 4, No. 9, p. 4

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