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1-Introductions & Background in Germany

I want to ask you about your childhood to begin. What was your childhood like?

I was born in Bühl, in Baden, in Germany in 1922. I had a fairly normal childhood so far as I know, except for the fact that my mother passed away when I was 6 years old in 1928. Then my father married again two years later. My second mother and he had another child in 1931. When I was 9 years old, my brother came along and he also lives here in San Francisco now.

I was in about fourth grade or something like that, when the Nazis came to power. By the way I have a picture of me in my grade school classroom which you might want to see.

That's my grade school classroom, in the years 1931 to 1932, and I am right here at this corner. Now one other thing that I'd like to point out on this picture is this. You see, after the Nazis came to power, I was pretty much isolated. I had to sit in the last row of chairs in the room by myself, and the other kids didn't much communicate with me or interact with me. They were all members of the Hitler Youth. I became quite isolated. They made fun of me obviously as a Jewish boy.

I only kept one friend. among all these people on this picture and that's this boy here (points). He remained friends with me. Many, many years later, about 56 years later, when my wife and I went back to my home town, I called him up and we met again. He lived in a little town. He became a school superintendent. He came on the train and we met, we embraced and immediately renewed our friendship. That was my only friend during the Nazi period. I was not quite 11 years old when the Nazis came to power on January 30th, 1933.

What were your early experiences with anti-Semitism?

I've mentioned my difficulties in school of course. It became particularly uncomfortable during physical education because that's the time when kids are active, right? I never knew when somebody - when we were jogging, let's say, or marching somewhere - I never knew when somebody wouldn't try to trip me up and make me fall down or injure me in some other way. When we had swimming lessons, I never knew when somebody would keep my head under water. That sort of thing happened.

I remember a specific incident that happened, not in my school, but generally in the town. A little over two months after the Nazis came to power they instituted a Nationwide Boycott Day, on April 1st, 1933, where by orders of the Nazi government, all Jewish businesses were boycotted. That means they had the brown-shirted storm troopers standing outside all the Jewish businesses. They scrawled graffiti on the walls and on the show windows. My father had a retail shoe store and I still remember - I was eleven years old - I still remember the storm troopers standing in front of my father's store. The door was closed, the business was closed of course on that day, but I still remember the graffiti scrawled on the walls and on the windows. That was the first big indication, the first visible indication of the Nazi anti-Jewish policies, which I still remember.

Can you explain the Hitler Youth? What they did?

The Hitler Youth. The boys were in the so-called Hitler Jugend, or Hitler Youth. The girls were in the Bund deutscher Mädchen, means the Association of German Girls, which was the counterpart of the Hitler Youth. They were a little bit like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, but not much. They were indoctrinated with Nazi philosophy. They were very active physically, and they got paramilitary training. They wore brown uniforms to class. On their belts were daggers. Imagine ten, eleven year-old boys carrying daggers. Of course that made them feel really macho. On their daggers was engraved the words Blut und Ehre meaning "Blood and Honor." That's was what these little guys were privileged to wear- they considered that privilege. I didn't.

Were you friends with any non-Jewish kids in your school?

They became less and less. Eventually there was only one boy, whose picture I showed you, who remained friends with me.

How did you feel when you were near the Hitler Youth? Were you scared, were you intimidated?

Definitely. Definitely, I was intimidated.

Did you know immediately that something was wrong?

Oh yes. I was very much aware of what the situation was. I finally left Germany in 1937, so I was going to school under the Nazi regime from 1933 to '37, four years.

Many years later, when I returned to Bühl on a visit, I visited one of my teachers, again, one of the few people that I - who was still "friends," so to speak. He told me that already in 1936 they received orders - not official orders yet - but sort of word of mouth and through the grape vine from the Nazi authorities - to kick out the Jewish students from the school. I was going to high school at that time. But he told me, many years later, that they kept me in the school anyway. Of course, the following year the orders were made official. But that year I left Germany.

There were two other Jewish students in my high school. One left with his parents and went to Chile. The other was murdered in Auschwitz. The other one came from a family with a father who was very proud of his combat service in World War I, and he was very proud of the medals that he got. He never considered leaving Germany. He and his wife and both the daughters were murdered in Auschwitz.

I might show you a picture of my parents. This is my father and my mother.

Did you have a close relationship with both your father and your mother?

Yes, yes, I had a close relationship with them. Of course my mother died when I was six years old. Then my father married again. Here's a picture of my father and his second wife.

Did you ever discuss with your father the events that were occurring?

Oh yes, we were discussing them. Very much so.

What were his feelings?

He understood that there was no future for Jewish children in Germany, and that's why in 1937 he sent me to the United States.

By the way this is a picture of my father and my second mother and my little brother and I. Yes, in 1937, he and mother took me to Hamburg and put me on the ship. It was an American ship: the SS Washington of the United States lines. When I got on that ship, I immediately felt a breath of relief because I was no longer in Germany.

By the way, this is what I looked like at that time when I left Germany. I was fifteen years old. This is my father and I.

How were you able to get a ticket to go to from Bühl to Hamburg?

They were able to. You see, at that time the German policy was to make life impossible for us in Germany, and to make us emigrate. To drive us out. About half the Jews in Germany left before the war started. There were half a million Jews in Germany when Hitler took over and half, or perhaps a little more than half, emigrated before the war started in 1939.