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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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30

WEDNESDAY

30

No coming back

Polish parliament passes a new bill against Jewish returnees

“The law will affect thousands of Jews living in Austria, Germany, Palestine and elsewhere.”

Warsaw

In the wake of Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany, the Polish parliament (“Sejm”), fearing the return of up to 20,000 Polish citizens from Austria, passed a bill according to which Poles who had lived abroad for more than five years were to lose their citizenship. The situation of the Jews had improved somewhat under the Piłsudski government (1926–1935), but after the marshal’s death, especially in the atmosphere created by the “Camp of National Unity” (from 1937 onward), antisemitism was resurgent. Universities applied quotas to Jewish students and introduced “ghetto benches” for them, Jews were held responsible for the Great Depression, Jewish business were boycotted and looted, and hundreds of Jews were physically harmed, some killed.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, economic persecution, Great Depression, Journalism, JTA, March 30, media coverage, Polenaktion, Polish-born Jews, politics, public sphere, violence, warsaw, Zbaszyn

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Poland Enacts Law Denationalizing Thousands Living Abroad”

Source available in English

20

SUNDAY

20

Branded

Defamation spills over to Austria

Vienna

This stereoscopic image from March 1938 shows a lingerie store in Vienna with a sticker that says “Jewish business” attached to its window. Immediately after the German Army’s entry into Austria, celebrated in many places, on March 12, 1938, the local Jewish population began to suffer from the same kind of defamation as German Jews had since 1933. The picture is part of the Sammlung Schönstein (Schönstein Collection) at the German Historical Museum. At the beginning of the 1930s, Otto Schönstein (1891–1958) of Nuremberg established his Raumbild Verlag, which published albums of stereoscopic photographs. In 1937, Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s “personal photographer,” became involved in the publishing house, which was showing signs of economic difficulties, and used it for the dissemination of NS propaganda.

TAGS: Anschluss, economic persecution, March 20, Nazi policies, photo, propaganda, public sphere, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Deutsches Historisches Museum

Collection:

Image of a Lingerie shop in Vienna

Original:

Inv. No. Schönstein 4207

15

TUESDAY

15

Hitler’s Homecoming

Adolph Marcus reacts to Hitler's return to Linz

“From day to day the anxiety among the personnel is growing [...].”

Linz

From March 12 to 14, Hitler visited Linz, which he had considered his home town since his adolescence there. In his address to the local populace he stylized himself as the enforcer of the people’s will and invoked the German soldiers’ “willingness to sacrifice” and the “greatness and glory” of the German people. While many reacted with enthusiasm, others were seized by fear. In his diary, Adolph Markus captures the anxious atmosphere at his workplace in Linz days after the “Anschluss.”

TAGS: Anschluss, commentary, diary, economic persecution, Linz, March 15, prominent people, public sphere

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Chronology of major events in 1938

Adolf Hitler celebrates the annexation of Austria

Central Linz, Austria, following the Anschluss. Time Inc.

The Heldenplatz in Vienna is crowded when Adolf Hitler hails “the accession of my homeland to the German Reich.” According to the Führer, the annexation of Austria places the country in its proper role as a “bulwark” of the Reich. Hitler challenges the Austrian people to never let themselves be “exceeded by anyone anywhere in their fidelity to the greater German national community.” Many newspapers carry the speech the following morning, including Vienna’s Volks-Zeitung, whose masthead is henceforth emblazoned with a swastika.

View chronology of major events in 1938

24

THURSDAY

24

“Degenerate”

Nazi Germany's break with modernity

Munich

In the traveling exhibition “Degenerate Art,” initiated in Munich in 1937, the Nazis used 650 works of art confiscated from 32 museums in order to force their idea of art upon the populace: newer trends like expressionism, surrealism, or fauvism, to name just a few, were regarded as “Jewish-Bolshevist” and roundly disparaged. The front page of the exhibition catalog shows a piece titled “Large Head” from the workshop of the German-Jewish artist Otto Freundlich, one of the first exponents of abstract art. It was created in 1912 to symbolize hope for a new beginning. Even apart from Freundlich’s Jewish background and his artistic leanings, being a communist made him politically unacceptable in the eyes of the regime.

TAGS: antisemitism, artists, Communists, cultural life, document, February 24, Munich, Nazi policies, prominent people, public sphere

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Fritz Kaiser, Führer durch die Austellung Entartete Kunst, 193-?

Chronology of major events in 1938

Austrian Chancellor takes a stand for Austrian independence

Portrait of Kurt Schuschnigg in his office. Encyclopedia Brittanica.

In a dramatic speech to Parliament, Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg takes a stand for the independence of Austria. The Christian-Socialist chancellor declares that his government, including the National Socialist ministers Seyß-Inquart und Glaise-Horstenau, will uphold the constitution of 1934. Several European and US radio stations broadcast the speech. Von Schuschnigg warns Austrian and German National Socialists seeking an alliance that “Austria will go thus far and no further [. . .] Red-White-Red, until we are dead!”

View chronology of major events in 1938

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Tel Aviv, Bauhaus, and “Grand Illusion”

Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

F 27204

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Port of Tel Aviv opens

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

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

View chronology of major events in 1938

22

TUESDAY

22

Coffee and cake in “Frankfurt on Hudson”

A New Life in Washington Heights, NYC

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

New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

Vol. 3, no. 4: 3

20

SUNDAY

20

Imminent danger

Dark premonitions fill the pages of the diary of a Jew from Linz

“Meanwhile the Nazi demonstrations are taking on ever-expanding dimensions, making the immense threat to Austria appear closer and closer.”

Linz

The Austrian Adolph Markus had started a diary on January 12, the day Hitler forced the “Berchtesgaden Treaty” on the Austrian chancellor, Schuschnigg. The treaty stipulated the release of National-Socialist prisoners, gave free rein to Nazi political organizing, and granted a greater measure of participation in government activities to their political representatives. Markus personally witnessed the thuggish behaviour of the released prisoners and their reception by sympathizers in the streets of Linz. In his diary entry on February 20, he records the events of the preceding day and reveals his worries for his country.

TAGS: Anschluss, commentary, diary, February 20, Linz, Nazi policies, prominent people, public sphere

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Source available in English

29

SATURDAY

29

Religion, culture and the struggle for human dignity

Synagogues adapt to the changing needs of Jewish life.

Berlin

This drawing shows the interior of the Prinzregentenstraße Synagogue in Berlin (Wilmersdorf). Built in 1930, the building was designed to fulfill the needs of a liberal congregation. As shown in the picture, the synagogue boasted a magnificent organ. Rabbi Leo Baeck gave the sermon at the opening ceremony. From 1933, when Jews began to be pushed out of Germany’s cultural life, the synagogue also became a Jewish cultural center.

TAGS: art, Berlin, cultural life, January 29, Jewish Community, prominent people, public sphere, rabbis, religion, segregation, Synagogues

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

"Synagogue Prinzregentenstrasse." Werner Stein Collection, AR 10775

Original:

2005.87

22

SATURDAY

22

Victory of the underdog

The theater of the Berliner Kulturbund features a powerless hero who wins over his antagonist.

Berlin

With Adolphe Adam’s comic opera “If I were King” and Ladislaus Bus-Fekete’s “Cape of Good Hope,” the Berlin Kulturbund offered its guests lighthearted distractions. The Jewish audience in Berlin in 1938 must have been receptive to an opera in which the powerless but honest hero wins and the bad guy gets his well-deserved punishment.

TAGS: advertisement, artists, Berlin, cultural life, January 22, Jewish Community, Kulturbund, musicians, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kulturbundbühne (Berlin): Kulturbund deutscher Juden, MF B1080

Original:

Vol. 6, no. 1: 11

14

FRIDAY

14

Staged normalcy

The Berlin Jewish Community: Between practical and intellectual needs

Berlin

The January issue of the Berlin Kulturbund magazine conveys a sense of normalcy—local businesses advertise merchandise and services like cosmetics, women’s apparel and car repairs, while the Kulturbund schedule offers Eugene Scribe’s “The Ladies’ Battle.” The comedy must have provided a welcome respite from the worrisome situation.

TAGS: advertisement, Berlin, cultural life, January 14, Jewish Community, Journalism, Kulturbund, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kulturbundbühne (Berlin): Kulturbund deutscher Juden, MF B1080

Original:

Vol. 6, no.1

11

TUESDAY

11

“Who won’t betray us in the end?”

Theater becomes the last cultural resort

Berlin

As German Jews were getting arrested or being forced to leave the country, the performances put on by the local branches of the Jewish Kulturbund (Culture Association) were among the few places of refuge where Jews could enjoy culture as in earlier days. Among other things, in the winter season of 1937/1938 the Jüdischer Kulturbund Berlin performed Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Director: Dr. Kurt Singer) and Scribe’s The Ladies’ Battle (Director: Fritz Wisten). Since 1935, the Kulturbund’s venue had been the theater at 57 Kommandantenstrasse, the former Herrnfeld Theater, where popular Jewish plays had once been staged.

TAGS: advertisement, artists, Berlin, cultural life, January 11, Jewish Community, Journalism, Kulturbund, musicians, prominent people, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kulturbundbühne (Berlin): Kulturbund deutscher Juden, MF B1080

Original:

Vol. 6, no. 1: 3

9

SUNDAY

9

Where strength and joy flow

A new Jewish Community Center in Hamburg

“We are responsible for the spirits and souls of the people. We cannot let them be crushed by everyday worries and hardship, be beaten down by the running battle of life, or whither away in the close air and restless drudgery.” (p.3)

Hamburg

In his opening speech at the inauguration ceremony for the new Jewish community center in Hamburg, Max M. Warburg, scion of a renowned family of bankers, describes the challenges the community is facing at the present moment and states the mission of the building and its leadership in troubled times. Describing theater as a source not only of “uplift and joy” but also of “moral fortitude,” Warburg declares the community center to be intended first and foremost as a home for the performances of actors and musicians of the Jewish Kulturbund.

TAGS: artists, cultural life, Hamburg, January 9, Jewish Community, Kulturbund, musicians, prominent people, public sphere, segregation, Speech

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Max M. Warburg Collection, AR 1211

7

FRIDAY

7

Improvisation impinged

Werner Dambitsch and his “Excentric [sic] Jazz Orchester”

This ID grants permission to participate in Jewish events. The holder is permitted to work, but the Reich Association does not guarantee employment.   

Breslau/ Berlin

Werner Wilhelm Dambitsch was born on June 23, 1913 in Breslau (today Wroclaw, Poland). Werner was interested in music from an early age, but he had to purchase his first instrument, a saxophone, with money he had earned himself. He did this in 1932 at the age of 19 and founded with four friends the ‘Excentric [sic] Jazz Orchester’. In order to perform, the combo had to join the “Reichsverband der jüdischen Kulturbünde in Deutschland” (Reich Association of Jewish Cultural Federations) and was forced to change the name to “Erstes Jüdisches Jazz-Orchester” (First Jewish Jazz Orchestra). While the association did not guarantee steady income or employment, at least it allowed the artists to perform at events attended by Jewish audiences. This image shows Werner Dambitsch’s Kulturbund membership card.

TAGS: Berlin, Breslau, cultural life, document, ID, January 7, Kulturbund, musicians, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Werner Dambitsch Collection, AR 11719

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