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

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

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

BACK TO TIMELINE

4

SATURDAY

4

Lifesaver

Frank Fenner from Michigan gives affidavit for nephew in Vienna

“...That I am willing and able to receive, maintain and support all those herein mentioned, and do hereby guarantee to save harmless the United States or any State, city or village or township thereof against any aliens herein mentioned becoming a public charge.”

Mendon, Michigan

Close to 50 years before issuing an affidavit of support for his nephew, Karl Grosser, in Vienna, Frank W. Fenner had himself immigrated to the United States from Europe. A restaurant and confectionery owner in Mendon, Michigan, he pledged to support his young relative until the 26-year-old became financially independent. Finding a sponsor was a key prerequisite for obtaining an immigration visa that was often hard to fulfill. The visa process began by registering with the nearest US consulate, at which point a number on the waiting list was assigned. The length of the list depended on the number of Jews from a given country allowed to enter the US according to the quota system that had been in place since 1924. Despite the severe refugee crisis, quotas were not raised in 1938. During the waiting period, applicants had to procure all the required documents as well as certified copies. Prospective immigrants were lucky if their documents were still valid when their numbers came up.

TAGS: Affidavit, bureaucracy, emigration, family, immigration procedures, June 4, Mendon MI, politics, refugees, transnational networks, United States of America, Vienna, visa application

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Carl A. Grosser Collection, AR 10559

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

30

MONDAY

30

Mindset

Not enthusiastic, but with a will to succeed

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

TEL AVIV/ZURICH

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Herbert Joseph Mansbach Collection, AR 7073

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

28

SATURDAY

28

Brit Shalom

Martin and Paula Buber move to Jerusalem

Jerusalem

In 1933, the distinguished philosopher of religion Martin Buber decided to relinquish his honorary professorship at Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main in protest against the Nazi rise to power. Consequently, the regime forbade him to give public lectures. In the years to follow, Buber founded the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education and countered the Nazis’ efforts to marginalize and destroy German Jewry by strengthening Jewish identity through education. It was not until May 1938 that he followed a call to the Hebrew University to assume the new chair for Social Philosophy and moved to Jerusalem with his wife Paula, a writer. The couple settled down in the Talbiyeh neighborhood in the Western part of the city, which at the time was inhabited by both Jews and Arabs. It borders on Rehavia, then a major stronghold of immigrants from Germany. Buber was among those envisioning peaceful coexistence in a bi-national state.

TAGS: emigration, Jerusalem, May 28, Nazi policies, Palestine, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo, politics, prominent people, refugees, segregation, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Portrait of Martin Buber, 1930. Henry Schwarzschild Collection, AR 10024.

Original:

F 11336

26

DONNERSTAG

26

Paperwork

Emigrants must overcome a sea of bureaucratic and financial hurdles

LÖRRACH

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Herbert Guenzburger Collection, AR 5947

Original:

Box 1, folder 2

24

TUESDAY

24

Soldier, pacifist, cabaret artist

Fritz Grünbaum interned at Dachau

“I see nothing, absolutely nothing. I must have accidentally gotten myself into National Socialist culture.”

DACHAU

After three decades of making his fellow Austrians laugh, cabaret artist Fritz Grünbaum’s career was brought to an abrupt end by the Anschluss. His politics alone would have sufficed to make him intolerable for the new regime: Grünbaum had returned from action in World War I not only a decorated soldier but also an avowed pacifist. As for Nazism, he did not mince words. Since 1933, he had been getting more political, and when during a 1938 performance a power outage caused the stage lights to go out, he commented glibly, “I see nothing, absolutely nothing. I must have accidentally gotten myself into National Socialist culture.” His last performance at the famous cabaret “Simpl” in Vienna just two days before the Anschluss was followed by an artistic ban on Jews. Grünbaum and his wife Lilly, a niece of Theodor Herzl, tried to flee to Czechoslovakia but were turned back at the border. On May 24, he was interned at the Dachau concentration camp. Grünbaum was also known as a serious art collector, mostly of modernist Austrian works, and a librettist.

TAGS: Anschluss, artists, Concentration Camps, cultural life, Dachau, imprisonment, May 24, persecution of Jewish professionals, photo, politics, prominent people, refugees, Vienna, WWI, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Wien

Original:

Fritz Grünbaum at roll call in Dachau; Inv. No. 24631

16

MONDAY

16

Education disrupted

Ruth Wertheimer navigates antisemitic discrimination and emigration

Paris

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ruth Worth Collection, AR 25024

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

14

SATURDAY

14

Opening night

A swashbuckler dazzles with help from an Austrian Jew

HOLLYWOOD

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

13

FRIDAY

13

No time to lose

Jewish paper advises to quickly learn foreign languages

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

HANNOVER

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

10

TUESDAY

10

Stuck in No Man’s Land

League of Nations intervenes for 56 expellees

Belgrade

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

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

Source available in English

7

SATURDAY

7

A mother fights for her son

The Blums pin their hopes on America after job loss in Germany

“Bruno, my eldest son, has for many years contributed to our livelihood. Now, having lost his position and without any hope to get another one here, he intends to leave this country. But unfortunately, almost all countries close themselves against immigrants. Therefore I don’t see an other possibility as to try to get a permit to enter the U.S.A.”

Vienna/New York

Immediately after the Nazi takeover of Austria, Jewish shops and businesses had been put in the hands of “Aryan” provisional managers. In the course of this “Aryanization”—really the expropriation and theft of Jewish property—30-year-old Bruno Blum, a resident of Vienna, lost his job at the “Wiener Margarin-Compagnie” after little more than four years. Understanding that her eldest son’s chances to find a new job under Nazi rule were scant, Betty Blum approached her cousin Moses Mandl in New York for help with an affidavit. When she did not hear back from him, she wrote this letter to her nephew, Stanley Frankfurter, asking him to coax Moses Mandl into helping or turn to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) for assistance.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, Aryanization, dispossession, economic persecution, emigration, family, immigration procedures, Jewish property, letter, May 7, Nazi policies, New York, persecution of Jewish professionals, refugees, Vienna, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Blum Family Collection, AR 25132

Original:

Box 1, folder 5

Source available in English

5

THURSDAY

5

Leave the rest to the Kadosh Baruch Hu

Sigmund Hirsch encourages his nephew Julius not to worry about politics

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

Genoa/Merano

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Julius and Edith Hirsch Collection, AR 25585

Original:

Box 1, folder 22

4

WEDNESDAY

4

Monetary hurdles

The Reich Office of Foreign Exchange Control requests large sums from emigrating Jews

Berlin/Dresden

Before Martha Kaphan could travel to Mandatory Palestine, she had to deposit the considerable amount of 800 Reichsmark at the Dresdner Bank. The Reich Office of Foreign Exchange Control, which played a major role in the exploitation of Jewish emigrants, demanded the sum for the issuance of her tourist visa. Thousands of Jews tried to enter Palestine illegally by means of  tourist visas with the intention of applying for permanent visas later. Apparently, Martha Kaphan did not emigrate for long. The British Consulate confirmed her departure on December 24, 1938. The deposit was paid on December 29, 1938 in Breslau, and the account was closed on January 10, 1939.

TAGS: Dresden, economic persecution, emigration, immigration, immigration procedures, May 4, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, official document, Palestine, refugees, visa application

SOURCE

Institution:

Deutsches Historisches Museum

Original:

Deposit Confirmation for the Receipt of a Tourist Visa for Palestine; Do2 2000/1000

1

SUNDAY

1

Compass Travel Bureau

Emigrating is not as easy as it may seem

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

New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

26

TUESDAY

26

Starting over at 40

Moses Wainstein overcomes the hurdles of international bureaucracy

Marseille

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Deutsches Historisches Museum

Original:

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

Chronology of major events in 1938

Jews ordered to declare financial assets

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

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

 

View chronology of major events in 1938

22

FRIDAY

22

Brain drain

The physicians Brinitzer emigrate to India

Bangalore

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

Box 2, folder 8

Source available in English

17

SUNDAY

17

Watch what you say

A friend advises caution in correspondence

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

London

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Alfred Schutz Collection, AR 25500

Original:

Box 1, folder 18

12

TUESDAY

12

Lost in transit

German shipping companies benefit from the Jewish plight

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

Berlin/London

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Collection:

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

4

MONDAY

4

Hope for US leadership

A new initiative for the refugees begins to take shape

Washington, D.C.

On April 4, 1938, Arthur Sweetser, a member of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, met with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the meeting, the two discussed the situation of German and Austrian Jews urgently seeking ways to emigrate. Roosevelt brought up the idea of an international conference. His reasoning was simple: only under determined US leadership could the problem be solved and other nations be convinced to take in Jewish refugees. It remains disputed whether the idea of a joint debate on the situation of the Jews under the Nazi regime came from Roosevelt himself or rather from high-ranking State Department officials.

TAGS: April 4, emigration, Evian conference, League of Nations, photo, politics, prominent people, refugees, United States of America, Washington D.C.

SOURCE

Institution:

Library of Congress

Collection:

President Franklin Roosevelt, 1938. Harris and Ewing Photograph Collection, Library of Congress.

Original:

LC-H21- C-820 (P&P)

29

TUESDAY

29

A second Salzburg?

Max Reinhardt rebuilds his life and career in California

HOLLYWOOD

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

F 4068A

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Soma Morgenstern

A man of letters meets an old friend in exile

Vienna/Paris

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

F 001

14

MONDAY

14

A taste of home

German-Jewish newspaper advertises German sausage in New York

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

New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

2

WEDNESDAY

2

End of “The Eternal Road”

Kurt Weill celebrates his 38th Birthday in New York

New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Kurt Weill Collection, AR 2754. Photo c. 1929

Original:

F 3483

26

SATURDAY

26

From Cologne to Kenya

A car mechanic seeks safety in East Africa

“Distinguishing marks: none”

Cologne/Ol Kalou

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Paul Egon Cahn Collection, AR 25431

Original:

Box 1, folder 10

25

FRIDAY

25

Heartache

Young lovers face separation

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

Hamburg/Merano

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Julius and Elisabeth Hirsch Collection, AR 25585

Original:

Box 1, folder 14

23

WEDNESDAY

23

Tel Aviv, Bauhaus, and “Grand Illusion”

Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

F 27204

Chronology of major events in 1938

The Port of Tel Aviv opens

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

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

View chronology of major events in 1938

22

TUESDAY

22

Coffee and cake in “Frankfurt on Hudson”

A New Life in Washington Heights, NYC

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

New York

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

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

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Original:

Vol. 3, no. 4: 3

17

THURSDAY

17

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine!”

Children set out on their journeys to Palestine with Youth Aliyah

“Joy and pain are fighting against each other, as are courage and fear, mourning and hopefulness. One cries, the other laughs. Here the pain of separation is stronger, there the self-painted picture of the future outshines all grief of separation.”

Berlin

Immediately after the Nazis seized power, on January 30, 1933, Berlin-based Recha Freier founded the Jüdische Jugendhilfe (“Committee for the Assistance of Jewish Youth”) soon to be known as Jugend-Alija (“Youth Aliyah”). The organization’s goal was to bring Jewish children past the age of elementary school to safety in Palestine. In the youth supplement of the Israelitisches Familienblatt of February 17, 1938, the children’s feelings are described as they depart for Palestine: Not only did they have to cope with the separation from their parents and families, but also with the uncertainty about their future.

TAGS: Berlin, children, emigration, family separation, February 17, Journalism, media coverage, Palestine, press article, refugees, welfare organizations, Youth Aliyah, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Aufbruch der Jugend”, B1032

Original:

Vol. 4, no. 2

14

MONDAY

14

Kibbutz Giv’at Brenner

German Jews find a new home in Palestine

Giv'at Brenner

Kibbutz Giv’at Brenner was established in 1928 by young immigrants from Poland and Lithuania who were soon joined by a group from Germany. As in many other kibbutzim, conditions at Giv’at Brenner were initially harsh, causing some members to leave. In the 1930s, due to the absorption of new immigrants, the kibbutz grew. Over time, a thriving agriculture and various industrial enterprises, including a cannery and a factory for irrigation equipment developed. The picture presented here shows the carpentry shop of the kibbutz in 1938. A unique feature was Beit Yesha, a vegetarian convalescent home established in the mid thirties—the first of its kind in a kibbutz.

TAGS: emigration, February 14, Giv'at Brenner, immigration, Palestine, photo, Polish-born Jews, refugees, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Manager of cabinet making factory at Givath Brenner Kibbutz, Gertude van Tijn Collection

Original:

F 19577

13

SUNDAY

13

Between deceit, lies and propaganda

The future of Germany's Jews according to the SS

“In 20 years Germany will be free of the bulk of its Jewish population, Das Schwarze Korps, organ of Chancellor Hitler’s elite guards, declares in its current issue in a leading article accusing the Jews of not wanting to emigrate.”

Berlin

In early 1938, a variety of assumptions regarding the future of the Jews circulated. The official SS organ Das Schwarze Korps (The Black Corps), for example, surmises that after the exclusion of Jews from “the spiritual and political life of the nation,” the physical separation from the majority of Jews within about twenty years will be no chimera. According to this notice disseminated by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), Das Schwarze Korps, claims that the Jews are not willing to leave Germany and that the “small number” of Jewish emigrants should not be ascribed to “foreign exchange and other problems” but rather to the unwillingness of Jews in other countries to “lift a finger to give the emigrants or would-be emigrants a home.” In fact, by 1937, as many as 130,000 (out of a total of 600,000) Jews had left the country.

TAGS: antisemitism, Berlin, displacement, emigration, February 13, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, propaganda, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Nazi Organ Sees Germany Free of Jews in 20 Years”

Source available in English

10

THURSDAY

10

Hoping for a breakthrough

The refugee crisis

Geneva

Already in 1936, the League of Nations had appointed Sir Neill Malcolm as “High Commissioner for German Refugees.” In light of the increasing stream of refugees from Nazi Germany, an inter-governmental conference was convened in February 1938 in Geneva under the aegis of the League of Nations. The orthodox paper Der Israelit reports on the first day of the gathering, which was attended by delegates from 14 states. Through the Nuremberg Laws, Jews had been downgraded from “citizens of the Reich” to mere “subjects.” As soon as they left Germany, they could be stripped off their citizenship entirely. Two members of the liaison committee, N. Bentwich from London and M. Seroussi from Paris, therefore demanded the extension of refugee status to stateless migrants as well.

TAGS: antisemitism, displacement, emigration, February 10, Geneva, Journalism, League of Nations, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, politics, press article, prominent people, refugees

SOURCE

Institution:

Compact Memory, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main

Collection:

„Die Staatenkonferenz in der Flüchtlingsfrage.“ Der Israelit , Vol. (1938), Nr. 6.

6

SUNDAY

6

Émigrés on ice

The rich social-life of German-Jewish refugees in New York includes winter sports.

Yonkers, New York

Among the many kinds of physical activity offered to the readers of the Aufbau by the German-Jewish Club, such as ping-pong, skiing, swimming and even a Katerbummel (a morning stroll after a night of heavy drinking), there was also an invitation to go ice-skating in Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonkers, New York. A familiar activity among sympathetic fellow German-speakers at a venue featuring a Tudor revival bathhouse may have awakened memories of better days in Europe. Despite their traumatic experiences under Nazism and their forced departure, many German Jews continued to feel a profound cultural connection to the country they had called their home.

TAGS: advertisement, cultural life, displacement, emigration, February 6, Jewish Community, New York, refugees, Sports, Yonkers NY

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Februar-Programm des deutsch-jüdischen Clubs,” Aufbau, Vol. 4, no. 3, p. 3.

BACK TO TOP

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

Website and exhibition design by C&G Partners