S
chool
years and apprenticeship, till November 1938.
I was born on the 14th day of
January 1919 in Frankfurt (Main), Germany. I was living there together with my parents and
two elder brothers, Ernst and Walter. My father was a doctor and was working in Frankfurt
as a general practitioner. He was born in Langelonsheim on the Nahe where his family and
forefathers had been living for many generations. They had mostly been engaged in the wine
business. - Langelonsheim is situated inside a large wine-growing area not far off the
Rhine-valley. My mother, Clara Natt ne Bischheim was born in Frankfurt. Her family had
been living there for generations. During the first world-war my father had been an
officer in the German army and had received many decorations including the Iron Cross
First Class.
My childhood was comfortable and pleasant
except that I suffered frequently from colds, asthma and bronchitis. At first we were
living in an apartment at Mittelweg 28 on the first floor. Later we moved to a larger flat
at Holzhausenstrasse 14. From the age of 6 to ten years I went to the Schwarzburgschule,
then from 10 to 16 to the Reform-Real Gymnasium "Musterschule". - - Around 1930
political tensions in Germany got worse, especially between the right-wing and left-wing
parties. I was too young to appreciate what was going on, but in my class in the
Musterschule we had frequent discussions about politics and parties. Though most teachers
were not Nazis, many were quite right-wing. They believed that Germany had not really lost
the first world-war, the treaty of Versailles was an insult to Germany and completely
unfair and Germany should have colonies like the other big powers at the time. - Quite
often I went to town by bicycle to watch political demonstrations or to listen to
discussions between individuals or groups, often between members of the Nazi-party and
communists or social-democrats. Frequently these arguments became quite nasty and
sometimes ended in fighting. The Nazis had their specially trained SA (Sturm Abteilung or
storm troops) who were trained for street fighting and terrorizing and some groups of the
left had also their fighting units. For me to watch it was just an adventure. (I don't
think my parents knew that I went there quite frequently. ) - In my class at the
Musterschule we were only three or four Jewish students. We were generally left alone. At
least in our presence the "Jewish Problem" (as all the time it was referred to
by the Nazi propaganda) was not discussed. I was lucky to be in a class with no really
convinced Nazis, most boys came from middle-class families and generally the Musterschule
had a liberal tradition. In class I was sitting together with a non-Jewish student, Arnold
Klingler and we had become good friends. (After the war I was unable to trace him.)
When at the end of January 1933 Hitler came
to power there was much excitement and euphoria, at least among the right-wing groups. For
days there were demonstrations. But within the Jewish community there was much anxiety,
fear and panic, though quite a few thought and hoped, especially during the first years of
the Nazi-regime, that it would not last much longer. At my class in school we Jewish
students became more isolated. Due to these developments our family and I myself became
more interested in Jewish culture and values. Just to mention one small experience which
however was typical for many people's racist attitude: It was 1935. The Olympiad was
taking place in Berlin. The American long-distance runner Owen, a negro, had just won a
long-distance race and had a gold medal. I was sitting in a cinema and watching this event
on the newsreel. Behind me were sitting two men and they were discussing this. One of them
said: "He is really an excellent runner". However the other one said: "But
he is a negro. He is not a human being, he is a wild animal".
The situation at school became more
difficult. Sometimes some Christian students came to me and showed me the vicious anti
Semitic paper "Der Sturmer" with its terrible accusations and cartoons against
Jews and asked me if this was true. Of course I told them that it was not true but I could
not say too openly that these were all lies. - In 1935 it was decided that I should leave
school at the end of that school year, at the end of the Untersekunda (the tenth school
year), as under prevailing conditions there was no point for a Jewish student to try to
stay for another three years for the final exams, the Abitur.
I left the Musterschule at the end of the
Untersekunda. This was March 1935, just before Easter. (At that time in Germany school
years started and finished at Easter.) Before the end of that year at school, spring 1935,
the class went on a three-day outing to the Eiffel, a range of mountains near the river
Mosel. We traveled together with our teacher Dr. Banholzer. At night we slept at
youth-hostels. At the entrance of each youth-hostel, hotel and restaurant was written:
"Forbidden for Jews". However the teacher and students (many of them members of
the Hitler-youth kept quiet about the Jewish students in the class. (Dr. Banholzer was one
of the few teachers who refused till the end of the Nazi-period to become a member of the
Nazi-party.)- But if somebody would have reported this to the party or to the Gestapo, our
teacher would have been in big trouble.
At that time almost everybody among the
Jewish population tried to emigrate from Germany or was preparing himself for emigration.
Other countries did not want Jewish immigrants with academic or intellectual professions,
but rather those with a trade or those trained for agricultural work. This also applied to
those wishing to emigrate to Palestine. In the meantime I had become a member of the
"Werkleute", a Jewish Zionist youth-organization. Their aim was to prepare its
members to emigrate to Palestine and to live and to work in a kibbutz. -My parents,
especially my father did not like it that I had become Zionist and that I wanted to
emigrate to Palestine to live in a kibbutz.
But these were bad, confusing times. Jewish
parents who under normal circumstances would have advised their children about their
future and would have tried to help them were now helpless. Often they did not know
themselves what to do and also did not know how to advice their children. Only one thing
was clear: Due to the enormous pressure everybody had to try to leave Germany as quickly
as possible. But it was a sad picture to see the helplessness and later even panic and
desperation of our parents, family and Jewish friends, especially those who for some
reason were unable to emigrate.
At that time Jewish organizations and
meetings were still allowed. There was a Jewish cultural society(Jiidischer Kulturbund)
with lectures, cultural activities and study-classes. Jewish organizations and youth
groups were allowed to meet at certain places, mostly in buildings belonging to the Jewish
community. Also our youth group, the "Werkleute" were meeting at such locations.
However after the "Kristallnacht" in November l938 all these activities were
forbidden and all Jewish organizations dissolved. Together with my friends in the
"Werkleute" at weekends we made outings into the forests round Frankfurt and
during the week we had meetings to study the bible, Hebrew and Jewish history and Zionism.
As in school I hardly had any social contact with my non-Jewish fellow students, most of
my friends were now in this youth group.
At outings we avoided encountering groups of
the Hitler-youth who were quite often in the forest too for exercises and outings. I
became also leader of a younger group. When with this group I made once again an outing
into the town-forest (Stadtwald), we were about 7 or 8, and we were playing with the ball,
a forest-keeper came along on his bicycle. He told us off that here it was forbidden to
play ball. He continued on his bicycle and we moved on. For a moment I glanced back at
him. At that moment he looked also back at us and suddenly he got very excited. He shouted
at me that I must come to him immediately and he screamed: "You dammed Jew-boy with
your Bolshevik look, what was the meaning of this look?" (Du verdammter Judenjunge
mit dem Bolschewistenblick.) I told him that there was no meaning and he shouted again:
"Be careful or I shall arrest you and you will come to a concentration camp!"
But he let us go and this time I did not look back at him.
After having left school I became apprentice
in a cabinetmaker's workshop in Frankfurt am Main - Bockenheim, Falkstrasse 31. The owner
and boss was Mr Julius Steegmuller. It was a small workshop, we were 4 or 5 people working
there. At that time it was already difficult for a Jewish person to find a place to learn
a trade. As Mr. Steegmuller had many Jewish clients, through one of his clients I got this
job. But soon after I had started to work there an article appeared in one of the local
papers about Jew-slaves. In this article they wrote about various workshops in Frankfurt
where had been employed Jewish apprentices. They noted the names of the owners, also Mr.
Steegmuller, and also wrote about them that these disgusting Jew-slaves accepted Jewish
apprentices at a time when there were not sufficient places for Aryan apprentices. A week
later Mr. Steegmuller was ordered to come to the Gestapo and he was asked why he had
accepted a Jewish apprentice. He replied that he had taken me because he has many Jewish
clients. He was told that he should dismiss me. However he did not dismiss me and I stayed
there for three years. As all the people who were working there were no Nazis, but most of
them were Socialists, they were nice to me and I had quite a good time there and I also
enjoyed working as a cabinet maker.
During the three years of my apprenticeship
I went twice per week to the trade school for cabinet makers which was not far from the
railway station in Frankfurt. In the class was another Jewish boy, Zwi Selka. (Later he
was also in Holland in Wieringen where I was too and he is now here in Israel living not
far away from us.) In the class were young German apprentices with whom we had almost no
contact. The teacher was very patriotic and made often speeches about the great future of
the German people. Patriotic songs were quite often sung at the end of lessons. Two
lessons per week were about Nationalsocialisme, the race-theory and related subjects. The
teacher referred to us Jewish students as "foreigners" and told us to stay away
during these lessons.
But once some students came to me and asked
me if I could lend them two Marks. I gave them this amount and then I forgot all about it.
After some time I noticed them looking at me. Then they came to me and asked if I don't
want back this money. I told them that I had forgotten about it and they gave me back
these two marks. Later some other student told me that this was an experiment. They had
been told at their Hitler youth meetings that Jews were very greedy for money and if they
lent to somebody they always wanted very high interest. This they wanted to try with me.
-However thereafter they became much friendlier to me.
Though at my work I felt relatively
comfortable the general situation in Germany got worse all the time. After having
eliminated most of their opponents and enemies during their first years in power (by
putting them into concentration camps or killing them) now the Nazis paid more attention
to the Jews and to what they called: "The Jewish problem". The articles and
cartoons against Jews in the press became nastier all the time, their saying: "The
only good Jew is a dead Jew" was quoted frequently. It was all calculated to poison
the population with anti Semitic hatred, by blaming the Jews for everything wrong on earth
and also by describing them as very powerful controlling communism as well as capitalism.
They were described as a dark dangerous power bent on world-domination and on destroying
the Aryan race. Of course they were blamed for Germany losing the first world war, for the
treaty of Versailles and for the superinflation and economic crisis after the war. I
remember well when groups of S. A- (storm troops) or Hitler-youth were marching through
the streets singing: "Wenns Judenblut vom Messer spritzt, dann gehts nochmal so
gut." (when Jewish blood is dripping from the knife then everything goes much
better.) or similar nasty songs. But they showed also their ambition to conquer the whole
world when they sang: "Heute erobern wir Deutschland, morgen die ganze Welt."
(Today we are conquering Germany, tomorrow the whole world.)
Anyway, in "Mein Kampf' Hitler had
stated clearly that in his new order for Europe there would be no room for Jews, whom he
regarded as sub-human. Everything had to be "judenrein" (free of Jews). In the
meantime many Jews emigrated from Germany. Ernst, my eldest brother emigrated to England
in 1937. My second brother, Walter emigrated in June 1938 to the U. S. A. Also most of my
uncles and aunts with their children had left, mostly to England. Up to now my father
could still work as a doctor. I was living with my parents, but for us Jews still living
in Germany there was an atmosphere of tension and loneliness as more and more of our
family and friends were leaving. As one read newspapers one felt threatened because of the
continuous anti-Jewish propaganda. Though we ourselves had not been attacked or abused
physically one heard frightening stories and there was a feeling of utmost insecurity.
My three-years apprenticeship came to an end
in spring of 1938. I continued working at Mr. Steegmuller for a few more months. Then I
left to prepare my emigration. I applied for the "Werkdorp" at Wieringen in
Holland. This was a training-camp for young Jews from Germany and Austria to learn crafts
and agriculture and after the training to emigrate further to Palestine or to other
countries overseas. Now I was waiting for a reply to my application and also for a Dutch
visa to be able to enter Holland. In the meantime I was learning typewriting and I took
also drawing-lessens at an architect, Mr. Focker, at his office in the building of the
former Karmeliter-monastery which is in the old city of Frankfurt.
