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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

29

THURSDAY

29

Blackmailed into emigration

To freedom via Cuba

“As soon as we have the details about the entry permit for Cuba, we will notify you.”

Schwandorf, Bavaria

The large-scale arrests of Jewish men during the November Pogroms – around 30,000 were incarcerated at the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps – fulfilled its purpose: it served to blackmail Jews into giving up on their remaining assets and emigrating. Among the 10,911 Jews held in Dachau alone were Georg Friedmann, owner of a fashion shop in Schwandorf (Bavaria) and his son, Bruno. Lillian Friedman, his wife, lost no time. Already in November, with her husband and son still incarcerated, she went to the travel agency of the Hamburg-America-Line in Munich for a consultation, which was followed by an intensive correspondence. Thanks to a wealthy relative in New York (who had heard about them for the first time in this context), they had received an affidavit. The plan was to travel to New York via Cuba. On December 29th, the Hamburg-America-Line issued a receipt to Mrs. Friedmann for the passage from Hamburg to Havanna of her son, Bruno, and her mother-in-law, Amanda Friedmann.

TAGS: affidavits, Buchenwald, Concentration Camps, Cuba, Dachau, December 29, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, immigration procedures, imprisonment, Jewish property, kristallnacht, New York, November Pogrom, Sachsenhausen, Schwandorf

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

George and Lillian Friedman Collection, AR 7223

Original:

Box 1, folder 4

9

FRIDAY

9

From exile to exile

A German jurist sticks with his Jewish family

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

New York/Basel

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Paul Schrag Collection, AR 25161

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

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

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Placing trust in strangers

Aid organization takes its responsibility seriously

A man who is good enough to fill out affidavits would certainly not take advantage of these people.

New York/Boston

Could Willy Nordwind of the Boston Committee for Refugees—an organization not dealing specifically with unaccompanied child immigrants—be entrusted with the well-being of a 16-year-old girl? The Relief Organization of Jews in Germany was not ready to take chances: rather than just sending Frieda Diamont on her way, the organization turned to the National Council of Jewish Women in New York to ascertain Mr. Norwind’s integrity. The Council’s Merle Henoch passed on the case to Jewish Family Welfare in Boston, Mass., where Nordwind, too, was based. For her there was no doubt: as generous a helper as Willy Norwind must be a trustworthy ally.

TAGS: advocates, Berlin, Boston, children, displacement, ethical dilemmas, family, immigration, Jewish Community, letter, New York, November 23, refugees, transnational networks, welfare organizations, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Original:

Box 1, folder 8

Source available in English

18

FRIDAY

18

Where is Paul Weiner?

Upsetting news from the family

“Paul, the poor guy, has been at a concentration camp for one week already, Bertha doesn't know where, and the apartment, apart from the bedroom, was wrecked entirely.”

Basel/New York

Willi Jonas and his wife Hilde owned a shoe shop in tranquil Basel, Switzerland. Deeply worried about their relatives in Germany, Willi Jonas sent his Swiss chauffeur to sound out the situation. In a November 18th, 1938 letter, the couple tell emigré friends in America about their loved ones’ experiences during and since the night of pogroms (later known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”). Louis Jonas, a cattle dealer in Waldbreitbach near Neuwied, has gotten away without material losses. However, after having had to spend 4 days in jail and being released only due to the fact that he is above 50, all he wants is to get out. The news from Worms is even more alarming: Paul Weiner has been taken to a concentration camp and nobody has seen fit to notify his wife, Berta (née Jonas), as to which. The couple’s home was almost entirely wrecked, some of their property stolen.

TAGS: antisemitism, Basel, Concentration Camps, displacement, emigration, family, family separation, imprisonment, Jewish property, kristallnacht, letter, Nazi policies, New York, November 18, November Pogrom, refugees, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Betty and Morris Moser Collection, AR 25497

Original:

Box 1, Folder 3

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

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

26

WEDNESDAY

26

What will he live on in America?

Refugee with no English and few skills needs help finding work

“We need not point out to you that Mr. Raskin is already past the age at which the native born experience difficulty in finding new employment. Mr. Raskin speaks little English. He knows no craft. His experience as a candy salesman is of no great help to him when applying for a new job.”

NEW YORK/BOSTON

Since the early 1880s, federal immigration law in the US included a provision seeking to keep out people likely to become a “public charge.” Under the impact of the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover reinforced the ban in 1930. Aid organizations were hard pressed to find employment for the newcomers: on October 26, a representative of the Employment Department of the Greater New York Coordinating Committee for German Refugees explains to Willy Nordwind of the Boston Committee for Refugees the challenges of finding work for a man who had managed to enter the country but barely spoke any English and had no work experience to boast save as a candy salesman. Nevertheless, the representative promises to continue his efforts on the immigrant’s behalf.

TAGS: Boston, displacement, Great Depression, immigration, Language skills, letter, New York, October 26, politics, prominent people, refugees, United States of America, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Willy Nordwind Collection, AR 10551

Original:

Box 1, folder 26

Source available in English

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Polenaktion

A photograph capturing the "Polenaktion".

The National Socialists deport about 17,000 Polish Jews from the German Reich. The mass deportation is referred to as the Polenaktion (Polish Measure), and it is a new high water mark in anti-Jewish discrimination. The Polish parliament issued laws in March and October that threatened to revoke the citizenship of Polish citizens living abroad. For example, passports that were issued abroad were declared invalid starting October 30, unless they were inspected and approved by the Polish Consulates. Through these measures, the Polish government hoped to prevent the mass emigration of tens of thousands of Polish Jews from the German Reich to Poland. When the German Embassy in Warsaw learned of the invalidation of Polish passports in October, the National Socialists responded with deportation orders, mass arrests, and transports to the Polish border.

View chronology of major events in 1938

19

WEDNESDAY

19

Adding insult to injury

After the death of her husband, Amalia Carneri struggles with having to sell her property

VIENNA/NEW YORK

Amalia Carneri had seen better days. Once a celebrated opera and concert singer, she now had to cope with the death of her husband, the mine inspector Heinrich Pollak, as well as being forced to leave her family home of many years in Vienna and the distressing political situation all at once. In this letter, dated October 19th, to the elder of her two sons, Fritz, who had fled to America, she describes at great length her difficulties selling her possessions. Even with the assistance of a dubious helper, she is forced to sell below value. Not knowing what her widow’s pension will be and with only a vague hope to join Fritz in America one day, she is in a state of palpable restlessness, and her boys are her only comfort.

TAGS: Anschluss, family, family separation, impoverishment, letter, New York, October 19, prominent people, Vienna, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Courtesy of Nancy Polk, Woodbridge, Connecticut

Original:

Letter of Amalia Carneri's to her son, Fritz Pollak

14

FRIDAY

14

New company, old network

What does emigration look like for an entrepreneur?

“In connection with my affidavit permit me to point out that I did not state my yearly income, as the Hochhauser Leather Co Inc. has been founded only a short time ago.”

NEW YORK/VIENNA

In Vienna, Hans Hochhauser, together with his brother, had been a successful manufacturer and exporter of leather goods. But just one day after the “Anschluss,” he had packed up his life and fled Austria with his wife, Greta, and his daughter, Ilse, on adventurous paths: turned back at the Czech border, the family traveled to Switzerland by train and from there to England on a chartered flight, from whence the family finally made it to the United States. Having arrived in New York, Hans Hochhauser had to start from scratch: his new company was called “Hochhauser Leather Co. Inc.” In this letter to the US Consulate General in Vienna dated October 14, 1938, accompanying an affidavit for his cousin, Arthur Plowitz, he pointed out that while his new company was still in its beginnings, he was able to take advantage of his old business network.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, bureaucracy, displacement, document, emigration, family, immigration, immigration procedures, letter, New York, October 14, refugees, transnational networks, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Hans and Grete Hochhauser Collection, AR 12070

Original:

Box 1, folder 4

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

30

FRIDAY

30

A distant relative

FRIDAY

“I appeal to your human sentiment and feeling for blood relations if I take the liberty of asking you to help me to emigrate to the States and procure the necessary affidavit for me.”

VIENNA/NEW YORK

It must have taken quite an effort for Eva Metzger-Hohenberg to write an imploring letter to her distant relative in Manhattan, Leo Klauber, a complete stranger to her. Her situation was precarious. There was no place for Jews in Germany anymore. Maria Metzger-Hohenberg appealed to Leo Klauber’s “humanity” and his “sense of a blood bond” and begged him to issue affidavits to her and her family. This letter from Vienna shows not only the desperate measures to which Jewish families had to resort, in order to make their emigration possible, but also drew a vivid picture of the situation in which many Jews found themselves in the Fall of 1938. Maria’s parents and her brother had to give up their butcher shop. Her husband’s wholesale business, which employed more than 140 staff members, was “aryanized.” In actuality, that meant it had to be sold for much less than its value. The fate of the Metzger-Hohenbergs was also that of countless other Jewish families during this time.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, antisemitism, Aryanization, commentary, dispossession, economic persecution, emigration, family, immigration procedures, Jewish property, letter, Nazi laws, New York, public sphere, refugees, September 30, transnational networks, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Laura and Leonard Yaffe Correspondence, AR 11921

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

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

17

SATURDAY

17

Raised a Nazi

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

NEW YORK

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Original:

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

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

31

WEDNESDAY

31

The main thing is get out

The growing sense of demoralization pushes Jews out of the country

“The Aryanization process is proceeding unstoppably, there's no halt to it. Will the miracles of the Old Testament come back? How beautiful it was back in the day! The passage through the Red Sea…..! The plague of locusts…..! The deaths of the firstborns…..! etc. But we're in the wrong place today, and the Old Testament's no longer allowed to be read.”

BONN/NEW YORK

Ludwig Gottschalk of Bonn did not mince words in this August 31st letter to his friends, Betty and Morris Moser, in New York. By now, Jews in Germany were living in such a state of demoralization and constant fear that the wish to leave was omnipresent, regardless of what was to be expected “outside.” According to his information, the U.S. Consulate General in Stuttgart was so overburdened by all the applications for immigration that new affidavits were currently not even being processed. The Gottschalks already had a waiting number and expected to be able to emigrate relatively soon. Meanwhile, they were learning English. Ludwig alluded to the changes that had occurred in Germany since his friends had left by calling them “Israel” and “Sara.” On August 17th, a decree had been issued forcing Jews to add one of these names to their given names in order to make their Jewish identity obvious.

TAGS: affidavits, antisemitism, Aryanization, August 31, Bonn, commentary, emigration, immigration procedures, Language skills, letter, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, New York, segregation, visa application

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Betty and Morris Moser Collection, AR 25497

Original:

Box 1, folder 3

25

THURSDAY

25

Adversity the mother of innovation

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

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

BERLIN/NEW YORK

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

 

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Felix Pinkus Family Collection, AR 25456

Original:

Box 1, folder 41

23

TUESDAY

23

News from the Kleinman(n)s

Kurt in Switzerland, sister and brother-in-law may follow

"My Jewish name is Elke, and since I speak Yiddish and you speak German, we should be able to understand each other very well."

NEW YORK/BASEL

Kurt Kleinmann of Vienna and Helen Kleinman in America had never met in person. After Kurt came up with the creative idea to contact a family with a similar name in New York, hoping that his American namesakes might be willing to help him procure an affidavit, an increasingly intense correspondence developed between the young man and the Kleinmans’ daughter. With determination, Helen took the matter into her hands. Three months after Kurt first contacted the Kleinmans, when Helen wrote this letter, not only was Kurt’s emigration underway, but Helen had also enlisted the help of an aunt to submit an affidavit for a cousin of his, with whom he had in the meantime managed to flee to Switzerland. What’s more she had enlisted yet another aunt to do the same for Kurt’s sister and brother-in-law, who were still stranded in Vienna.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, August 23, Basel, bureaucracy, emigration, family, family separation, immigration, immigration procedures, Language skills, letter, New York, procedures, transnational networks, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kurt and Helen Kleinman Collection, AR 10738

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

Source available in English

20

SATURDAY

20

650 reichsmarks and 50 pfennigs

Aboard the Columbus New York-bound

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

Berlin/Bremen/New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Collection:

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

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

8

MONDAY

8

Escape plan with a detour

A travel agency helps Ursula Meseritz with her travel planning to the USA

“Following up on your visit to our office today, we are sending you the itinerary and the bill.”

NEW YORK

As the only member of her family, 18-year-old Ursula Meseritz left Germany in July and embarked from Le Havre to New York aboard the R.N.S. “Britannic.” Adolf Floersheim, a former neighbor and a resident of the U.S. since 1937, provided an affidavit for the young woman. Her parents, Olga and Fritz Meseritz, who had arranged for her emigration, remained in Hamburg. A travel agency, Plaut Travels, on Madison Avenue in New York, apparently run by German-Jewish immigrants, prepared the itinerary for Ursula’s next journey to the West Coast, with a leisurely detour to the capital, and sent it to her on August 8th.

TAGS: affidavits, August 8, displacement, document, emigration, family separation, Hamburg, immigration, immigration procedures, Le Havre, letter, Los Angeles, New York, refugees, transnational networks

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ursula Meseritz Elgart Family Collection, AR 25544

Original:

Box 1, folder 14

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.

22

FRIDAY

22

Bread for strangers

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

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

Neuwied am Rhein/New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Betty and Morris Moser Collection, AR 25497

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

16

SATURDAY

16

An inappropriate insinuation

An American warns his Viennese cousin against coming to America to loaf

“I do not want you to be misled and to feel regret afterwards, so I am informing you in advance that you've got to work ambitiously to get ahead. If you have any illusions of leaving Germany to escape work and live a life of ease, you will be making a grave mistake.”

New York/Vienna

In May 1938, Betty Blum had contacted her nephew Stanley Frankfurt in New York. Her son Bruno had lost his position in Vienna, and it was unlikely that he would find other employment. She did not elaborate on the situation of Austria’s Jews in general since the country’s annexation by Nazi Germany but wondered whether Stanley could do something for Bruno. When Bruno received Stanley’s July 16 letter, he must have been both relieved and taken aback. While assuring him that he had been active on his behalf doing the paperwork necessary to prepare for his immigration to the US, his cousin in New York also saw fit to point out to him that if his intention was coming to America for the purpose of “living a life of ease,” he was on the wrong track. Was Stanley really so uninformed about the plight of Austrian Jewry under the new authorities? It can be assumed that his sincere efforts on his Austrian cousin’s behalf made up for the bafflement that must have been caused by his inappropriate insinuation.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, emigration, family, immigration procedures, July 16, letter, New York, transnational networks, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Blum Family Collection, AR 25132

Original:

Box 1, folder 5

Source available in English

12

TUESDAY

12

Namesakes

Linked only by their common last-name, Kurt and Helen take a leap of faith

“Before I go much further, please let me impress this fact - that my entire family are eagerly awaiting the day that you will arrive in New York [...].”

NEW YORK/VIENNA

When 28-year-old Kurt Kleinmann of Vienna wrote to the Kleinmans in America, he could not have hoped for a kinder, more exuberant response than what he received from 25-year-old Helen. After finding the address of a Kleinman family in the US, Kurt had asked the total strangers in a letter dated May 25 to help him leave Austria by providing him with an affidavit. He had finished law school in Vienna and was now running his father’s wine business. Helen readily adopts the theory that the Kleinmanns and the Kleinmans might actually be related to one another, promising her “cousin” to procure an affidavit for him within the week. Affably and vivaciously, she assures him that the Kleinmans will correspond with him to make the time until departure feel shorter.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, emigration, family, immigration procedures, July 12, letter, New York, persecution of Jewish professionals, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kurt and Helen Kleinman Collection, AR 10738

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

Source available in English

3

SUNDAY

3

No keeping up

Border regulations change at rapid pace

“You will say, why hasn't that been done yet, but that's because of the rapid succession of regulations & you can't get information that fast.”

FRANKFURT AM MAIN/NEW YORK

This letter from a father to his children is dominated almost entirely by concerns about transferring people and goods out of Germany. According to the writer, regulations were changing so rapidly that it was hard to keep track. Lately it had been decreed that both for articles to be shipped and for personal baggage, itemized lists had to be submitted which were subject to authorization. This could be rather time-consuming. The writer of the letter points out that the speed with which answers are given is not keeping up with the speed of the changes necessitating inquiries.

TAGS: commentary, economic persecution, emigration, family, family separation, Frankfurt am Main, Jewish property, July 3, letter, Nazi policies, New York

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gerda Dittmann Collection, AR 10484

Original:

Box 1, folder 3

1

FRIDAY

1

Radio, gramophone, newspapers, novels

How to learn a foreign language

“For the beginner, the native instructor is advantageous only if he has sufficient knowledge of the student's mother tongue to recognize the difficulties he is facing and enough didactic schooling to overcome them by adequate means.”

NEW YORK

In his article “Ten Commandments for Assiduous Language Learners,” published in the July issue of the Aufbau, Dr. Eugene I. Stern recommends making use of the entire arsenal available to the modern student of American English: radio, gramophone, newspapers, and novels. The meticulousness with which he describes what he considers the most promising methodology for language acquisition meets every stereotype associated with German Jews. Dr. Stern does not promise any shortcuts, and his assessment of the language learner’s prospects is not the most optimistic. He opens by declaring mastery of a foreign language to be an unattainable goal. Nevertheless, younger German-Jewish immigrants in America tended to acquire proficiency in English within a few years, while their counterparts in pre-state Palestine were notoriously slow and reluctant to pick up Hebrew. German Jews in America were assisted in their endeavors by various institutions, such as the National Refugee Service, the Adult Education Council, the YMCA, the YWCA, which offered free English classes to the newcomers.

TAGS: immigration, Journalism, July 1, Language skills, New York, Palestine, press article, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Zehn Gebote für Sprachbeflissene, Aufbau, Vol. 4, no. 9, p. 1.

27

MONDAY

27

Deportation within 24 hours

The situation is precarious for Jewish immigrants in Yugoslavia

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

BELGRADE/NEW YORK

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Gerda Dittmann Collection, AR 10484

Original:

Box 1, folder 3

26

SUNDAY

26

Shattered existence

How does one come to terms with National Socialism?

New York

The first major rupture in artist Gustav Wolf’s biography had occurred during World War I. He had volunteered for frontline duty and was badly injured. His brother Willy was killed in combat. The works in which he processed his wartime experiences leave no doubt about his feelings. Instead of glorifying war, he shows its horrors. His confrontation with antisemitism during and after the war led him to an increased awareness of his own Jewishness. In 1920 he accepted a professorship at the Baden Art School in Karlsruhe, trying to realize his ideal of an equitable partnership between teacher and student. After a year, he quit this “dead activity,” referring to the school as “an academy of schemers.” In 1929, he designed the set for Fritz Lang’s silent film “Woman in the Moon,” an early science-fiction movie. Upon the Nazi rise to power in 1933, he canceled his memberships with all the artists’ associations to which he had belonged. In his letter to the Baden Secession, he explained his decision with the following words: “I must first get my bearings again. The foundations of my existence have been called into question and shaken.” After extended stays in Switzerland, Italy and Greece, he returned to Germany in 1937. In February 1938, he boarded a ship to New York. June 26, 1938 was his 49th birthday.

TAGS: antisemitism, artists, emigration, June 26, Karlsruhe, New York, photo, prominent people, schools, WWI, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Portrait of Gustav Wolf with a pipe, 1938. Gustav Wolf Collection AR 3676

Original:

F 3513

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