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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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1

FRIDAY

1

Hotel Métropole

A luxury hotel turned Gestapo quarters

Vienna

Situated on Morzinplatz in Vienna’s central 1st District, the Hotel Métropole had been built for the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873. The luxurious building, designed by architects Carl Schumann and Ludwig Tischler, boasted a magnificent dining room and a splendorous inner court. After the Annexation of Austria, the Gestapo confiscated the hotel from its Jewish owners, and on April 1, 1938, the secret police began operations in their new headquarters in Vienna. With a staff of 900, it was the largest of the Gestapo offices in the Reich. The first order issued from the new headquarters was to transport a group of Austrian prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp. This photograph shows a tablecloth used at Hotel Métropole in better days.

TAGS: Anschluss, April 1, Concentration Camps, Dachau, dispossession, economic persecution, imprisonment, Jewish property, Nazi policies, photo, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Wien

Collection:

Tablecloth from Hotel Metropol

Original:

Inv. No. 20526

2

SATURDAY

2

Repression, resilience and relief

Jewish welfare organizations alleviate suffering

Berlin

By 1938, the ability of Jews to make a living had been seriously curtailed by a series of laws aimed at humiliating, isolating, and impoverishing them. While not all Jews were affected equally by these changes, the number of Jews dependent on the services of welfare organizations, such as the Jewish Winter Relief, was constantly on the rise. The level of solidarity and the support for the Winter Relief were remarkable. Much of the money came from small donations, and the Kulturbund held cultural events in support of the organization. Volunteers from women’s and youth groups assisted in the fundraising efforts.

TAGS: April 2, Berlin, cultural life, economic persecution, impoverishment, Jewish Community, Kulturbund, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, photo, public sphere, segregation, welfare organizations, Women

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Photo Abraham, Speisungen, fuer viele 1000 Mark, Sammlung Heinrich Stahl, AR 7171

Original:

F 7410

3

SUNDAY

3

Denied the right to make a living

Lawyers and market vendors are banned from their professions

Vienna

According to this JTA notice, April 3, 1938, marked an additional milestone in the curtailment of the professional freedom of Austrian Jews. From this day on, the Ministry of Justice could revoke at will the licenses of Jewish lawyers, with the exception of those who had been admitted to the bar before 1914 or were war veterans or the direct descendents of war veterans. Between 800 and 900 lawyers were estimated to be affected by the new provision. Another professional group that was impacted by the effects of Nazi policy was market vendors. Jews operating mobile as well as permanent stands were no longer entitled to make a living this way. Moreover, in the short period since the Nazi takeover, the first “Aryanizations” of Jewish-owned factories had already taken place.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 3, Aryanization, economic persecution, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, persecution of Jewish professionals, Vienna, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Austria Acts to Bar Jews from Law, Public Markets; 3 Arrested”

Source available in English

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)

5

TUESDAY

5

One man can only do so much

An Austrian in Buffalo overwhelmed by calls for aid

“Yesterday, within a single day, I received a whopping 11 requests for immigration affidavits, among them requests from mutual friends.”

Buffalo, New York/Vienna

Thanks to a Rockefeller fellowship awarded to him in 1933, the distinguished Viennese economist Fritz Machlup had left Austria years before the “Anschluss.” In 1935, he was appointed Professor of Economics at the University of Buffalo. As was to be expected, after the Nazis established their hold in Austria, friends and colleagues pinned their hopes on him as a guarantor. In this April 5 missive to his friend Alfred Schütz, he expresses concern that his letters of support might lose credibility because he had written so many, but nevertheless includes a note in English offering to assist Schütz in establishing himself in the US.

TAGS: affidavits, Anschluss, April 5, Buffalo NY, emigration, immigration procedures, letter, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, transnational networks, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Alfred Schutz Collection, AR 25500

Original:

Box 1, folder 17

6

WEDNESDAY

6

Ausdruckstanz

Jewish Cultural Association presents Elsa Caro

Hamburg

The April 6 event at the Jüdischer Kulturbund (Jewish Cultural Association) in Hamburg was dedicated to dance. Elsa Caro, also known by her stage name, Juana Manorska, used challenging music not originally intended for dance as the inspiration for her performance. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the fixed, formulaic repertoire of movements in classical ballet seemed limiting and outdated to some. German dancers, among them Elsa Caro and the “half-Jewish” Gret Palucca, were at the forefront of those experimenting with new forms, a movement that gave birth to Ausdruckstanz, also known as “Expressionist Dance” or “modern dance.”

TAGS: April 6, artists, cultural life, document, Hamburg, Kulturbund, musicians, prominent people

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Hamburg Jewish Community Collection, AR 193

Original:

Box 1, folder 4

7

THURSDAY

7

Cutting Ties

A Berlin native leaves the Jewish community

Berlin

Was Hans Petzold, a 36 year-old native of Berlin, hoping to save himself by ending his affiliation with Judaism? Under a regime obsessed with racial purity, such measures made little difference. According to the “resignation card file” of the Berlin Jewish Community, Petzold filed to leave the Jewish religion (Judentum) on April 7, 1938. Curiously, an additional note indicates that he left the Jewish community the following month, on May 30. These files now held by the Centrum Judaicum Foundation at the Neue Synagogue in Berlin record the departures some 20,000 Berlin Jews from the faith or the community for many reasons going back to the 19th century. Some converted, some joined the orthodox secession community Adass Jisroel, and others simply moved away. After 1933, some may have hoped to escape persecution by the Nazi authorities.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 7, Berlin, document, Jewish Community, persecution, religion, Synagogues

SOURCE

Institution:

New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

Collection:

Card indicating resignation from membership in the Jewish Community of Berlin for Hans Petzold

Original:

CJA, 2 A 1

8

MONDAY

8

Change of heart

Once friendly to the Jews, a Catholic priest decries “uninvited guests.”

“Nobody called the Jews to the countries of Europe. They came as uninvited guests and pushed themselves so strongly to the forefront of all public professions, not always by excellent performances, that the least one can say is there came to exist a gross disproportion.”

VIENNA

In Austria’s new reality, opinions could change very quickly. In a news item from April 8, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that Catholic clergyman, Pastor Breckle of Trinity Church in Vienna, wrote an article in “Catholic Action,” that referred to the Jews as “uninvited guests” in Europe. Breckle accused the Jews of “pushing themselves to the forefront” and praised Hitler’s approach as “free and humane.” Breckle had until recently been considered friendly toward the Jewish community.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, April 8, Church, Hate speech, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, prominent people, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Austrian Catholic Organ Attacks Jews; Lauds Hitler’s ‘solution’”

Source available in English

9

SATURDAY

9

Carnival jesters at the passover ball

Jewish National Workers Alliance offers temporary cheer in Washington Heights

NEW YORK

Usually the Jewish National Workers Alliance, as the Labor Zionist fraternal order was known, occupied itself with serious matters. Among other things, it strove to strengthen the working class and offered help in cases of economic hardship, illness, or death of its members. In 1911, it had established the first modern insurance system for Jewish workers. On April 9, 1938 it strayed from its core mission and held a Passover Ball in the German-Jewish stronghold of Washington Heights in New York. Among other items, the program featured “Cologne humorists.” German immigrants would have understood that this referred to Cologne carnival jesting, a tradition associated with the Catholic carnival season that dates back to the Middle Ages. The venue was the ballroom of the Paramount Mansion, which also housed several institutions that promoted the interests of German Jewish immigrants.

TAGS: advertisement, April 9, Cologne, cultural life, immigration, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, Journalism, New York, politics, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

“Pessach Ball”, Aufbau, Vol. 5, no. 5, p. 7.

10

SUNDAY

10

Forgone conclusion

Austrians (except for Jews) ratify the Anschluss

“A person who exercizes the right to vote even though he is barred from the right to vote, or is aware of descending from three fully Jewish grandparents, or as a person of mixed blood (at least two Jewish grandparents) married to a Jewish person, must immediately return this voter ID to the city hall and abstain from voting. Otherwise, he will be subject to severe punishment.”

Vienna

The entry of German troops into Austria on March 12 had preempted Chancellor Schuschnigg’s planned plebiscite on unification with Germany on March 13. The Nazis rescheduled the referendum for April 10 in conjunction with the first all-German Reichstag elections. Catholic bishops, under the leadership of Archbishop Theodor Innitzer, had issued a “solemn declaration” in which they called upon Catholic voters to cast their ballots in favor of the “Anschluss.” According to official figures, close to 100% of voters affirmed what was already an established fact. The document presented here is a voter ID to be used only by the addressee named on the front page. It explicitly excludes Jews from participating.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, April 10, Church, document, ID, Nazi policies, politics, prominent people, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Wien

Collection:

Voter ID for referendum on April 10, 1938 (no. 225)

Original:

Inv. No. 26028/9

11

MONDAY

11

Rose Luria Halprin Celebrates her Birthday

The American Zionist leader worked to rescue young German Jews through the Youth Aliyah

Jerusalem/Berlin

As a leading functionary in various Zionist organizations, most notably the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of North America, Rose Luria Halprin had moved to Jerusalem in 1934, where she worked as the liaison between the local Hadassah branch and the National Office in the US. Having befriended Henrietta Szold, who led the Youth Aliyah in Palestine, Halprin, too, became involved in efforts to rescue German-Jewish youth by bringing them to Palestine. The Youth Aliyah had been founded by the prescient Recha Freier, wife of a Berlin-based rabbi, on the very day the Nazis were voted into government, January 30, 1933. In the years 1935 to 1938, Halprin repeatedly visited Berlin. April 11, 1938 was her 42nd birthday.

TAGS: April 11, Berlin, children, Jerusalem, Jewish Community, Palestine, photo, prominent people, rabbis, transnational networks, Women, Youth Aliyah, Zionism

SOURCE

Institution:

American Jewish Historical Society

Collection:

Rose Halprin in 1934. Haddassah Archives at the American Jewish HIstorical Society.

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.

13

WEDNESDAY

13

A special 70th birthday gift

The children from the Ahawah orphanage thank Heinrich Stahl for his commitment

Berlin

Heinrich Stahl, chairman of the Berlin Jewish Community since 1934, was heavily involved in the work of the various Jewish relief organizations, for which there was growing need as Nazism took hold. On April 13, 1938, his 70th birthday, he received a gift from the Ahawah Children’s Home, a photo album which showed the wide range of activities pursued by the charges of this exceptional institution (see March 17). The album included several photographs from the Ahawah’s new branch, which had been opened in Palestine in 1934. A heartfelt warmth and gratitude shine through this rhymed dedication thanking Stahl for his service to the community.

TAGS: April 13, Berlin, children, document, Haifa, Jewish Community, Palestine, prominent people, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Ahawah Children's Home, Collection AR 6427

Original:

ALB 78

14

THURSDAY

14

Persecution in Austria, release from Dachau

Nazis in Austria pass a series of laws and directives

Vienna

Little more than a month after the Nazi takeover of Austria, a cascade of new regulations and actions taken by the new regime leaves little room for optimism. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports for April 14 from Vienna that Jews within 50 kilometers of the Czechoslovak border are to be expelled. Nazi commissars will be put in charge of Austrian businesses at the latter’s expense. According to the JTA, in the case of hundreds of Jewish-owned businesses, this provision has already been enforced. Finally, a law has been introduced establishing new procedures for determining the racial status of illegitimate children. The one positive item in this substantial dispatch is the prospect that all Jews currently interned at the Dachau concentration camp will not only be released but will also receive permits to enter Palestine.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, April 14, Aryanization, children, Concentration Camps, Dachau, dispossession, economic persecution, expulsion, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi laws, Nazi policies, Palestine, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Jews Along Entire Czechoslovak Border Slated for Expulsion by Nazis”

Source available in English

15

FRIDAY

15

50,000 matzot

Jewish Winter Relief helps Jews keep a kosher Passover

Berlin

The special dietary requirements for the Passover week constituted an additional financial burden for German Jews, many of whom were scrambling to make ends meet. The Jewish Winter Relief Organization distributed 50,000 matzot to needy Jews and served about 1,000 guests at two seders. Donors to the organization’s Passover Appeal received a copy of Rabbi Selig Bamberger’s translation of the Haggadah with a sticker on the inside of the cover thanking them for their contribution. This photograph of holiday paraphernalia is from an album belonging to Heinrich Stahl, the president of the Berlin Jewish Community, who launched the Jewish Winter Relief Organization with Rabbi Leo Baeck in 1935.

TAGS: April 15, Berlin, impoverishment, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, photo, prominent people, rabbis, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Heinrich Stahl Collection, AR 7171

Original:

F 7418

16

SATURDAY

16

At-risk youth

Passover in a home for boys

Berlin

In 1938, the first day of Passover fell on April 16. As they did every year, the inhabitants of the Jewish Residential Home for Youth and Apprentices in Berlin gathered around a festively set dinner table for the second Seder. Under the dedicated management of Paul and Friedel Joseph, the home provided its charges with opportunities that went well beyond practical needs like housing and vocational training. They also strove to provide them with cultural and intellectual stimulation that would expand their horizons. The boys and young men, ranging in age from 14 to 21, had been removed from their homes due to behavioral problems. According to Friedel Joseph, life in the home was still going on “relatively unimpeded” at this point, but the political situation cannot have been lost on its inhabitants. The Passover message of liberation from bondage under a tyrannical ruler must have resonated very strongly at this year’s celebration.

TAGS: April 16, Berlin, cultural life, Jewish Community, Jewish holidays, photo, religion, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Heinrich Stahl Collection, AR 7171

Original:

ALB 69

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

18

MONDAY

18

54 years

Printmaker Michel Fingesten celebrates his birthday in exile

Trieste

After studies at the Academy of Art in Vienna, the printmaker Michel Fingesten had traveled extensively and ultimately settled in Germany. Neither the Austrian national’s Jewish descent nor his penchant for the erotic endeared him to the Nazis. The increasingly unbearable racial politics of the regime made him decide to stay in Italy after a family visit to Trieste in 1935. Fingesten is known mainly as an illustrator and as a prolific, imaginative designer of book plates. April 18, 1938 was his 54th birthday.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 18, art, artists, emigration, persecution of Jewish professionals, politics, prominent people, Trieste, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Michel Fingesten, "Ex Libris for AH," undated. Margarete Wilbum Collection, AR 11342

Original:

2002.33

19

FRIDAY

19

A letter from home

Maria Wolf writes to her husband, Arthur, away on business in Czechoslovakia

Vienna/Tannwald

For Arthur Wolf, a fervent Austrian patriot and veteran of WWI, the Nazi takeover of Austria in March meant the collapse of his world, the loss of his homeland and equal rights. Wolf was the manager of a textile factory in Tannwald (then Czechoslovakia). His Russian-born wife, Maria, had stayed behind in Austria with the couple’s son, Erich (b. 1923). Given recent events, the tone of Maria’s April 19 letter to Arthur is remarkably playful. She marvels about 15 year-old Erich’s poetry, speaks warmly about their mother-son relationship and expresses longing for Arthur, avoiding any obvious references to current events.

TAGS: Anschluss, April 19, children, family, family separation, letter, Tannwald, Vienna, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Arthur Wolf Papers, AR 25270

Original:

Box 2, folder 5

20

SATURDAY

20

Safe for now

WWI combat veterans still protected

Vienna

Residents of Linz, Adolph Markus, his wife, and their two children were among the relatively few of Austria’s roughly 200,000 Jews not living in Vienna. On April 20, 1938 Markus went to visit his family in the capital in order to discuss the difficult situation and explore options for emigration. While his brother Rudi was prepared to lose his job any day, he opined that Adolph, as WWI combat veteran, had nothing to worry about. Indeed, combat veterans were exempt from certain anti-Jewish measures, as were Jews who had lost their father or a son in combat for Germany or its allies.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, April 20, commentary, diary, economic persecution, emigration, family, Linz, Nazi policies, Vienna, WWI veterans

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

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

Source available in English

21

THURSDAY

21

A Jewish cinema institute?

The Propaganda Ministry plans films to promote Jewish emigration

Berlin

According to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, on April 21, the Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany authorized the creation of a Jewish Cinema Institute. The name was misleading. It was not intended to serve the cultural enrichment of the Jewish community. The main purpose of the Institute was supposed to be the production of movies showing life in Palestine and urging German Jews to emigrate. In other words, the plan was just another part of the Nazi scheme to rid Germany of its Jews. At the same time, Der Stürmer, one of the most viciously antisemitic newspapers in Nazi Germany, declared that Jews should not be allowed inside cinemas and theaters.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 21, Berlin, cultural life, emigration, Journalism, JTA, media coverage, Nazi policies, Palestine, propaganda, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Collection:

“Reich Authorizes Films Urging Jewish Emigration”

Source available in English

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

23

SATURDAY

23

The Prater amusement park

Site of humiliation and torture

Vienna

This advertising brochure shows the Prater, a large public garden and popular amusement park in Vienna’s central 2nd district, in the 1930s. Here, on Saturday, April 23, hundreds of Viennese Jews were rounded up and subjected to beatings and maltreatment in front of jeering onlookers. Some were forced to eat grass. Jews of both sexes, regardless of age and health, were made to run in circles until they collapsed. Many of those thus humiliated suffered heart attacks, some died.

TAGS: advertisement, Anschluss, antisemitism, April 23, public sphere, Vienna, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

North Carolina State University

Collection:

Booklet on the Riesenrad at the Prater in Vienna, Austria, circa 1937.

24

SUNDAY

24

Our name should perish with us

A Jewish physician describes a nightmarish visit to her hometown

“Father says he doesn't want to sell the company. The name - it should perish with us [...].”

Laupheim

The diary of Dr. Hertha Nathorff (née Einstein) paints a vivid and at times nightmarish picture of the Jewish physician’s experiences in Nazi Germany. On April 24, she describes a visit with her parents in her native Laupheim in Swabia. Many Jewish shops had been sold, and their owners had emigrated. The Nazis’ efforts to malign and isolate the Jews had been so successful that passers-by were afraid to greet her. Her father had informed her that he was not going to sell the company which had been in the family’s possession for four generations and that he would prefer that it perish along with their name. The degree of isolation experienced by German Jews at the time is also evident in another episode mentioned in the diary: Dr. Nathorff is amazed at the fact that her former professor had the courage to send her regards through a patient.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 24, commentary, diary, dispossession, economic persecution, emigration, family, Laupheim, persecution of Jewish professionals, public sphere, segregation

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Hertha Nathorff, Memoir, Reichstagsbrandt, ME 460.

25

MONDAY

25

Race, not religion

Fired for his "race", a baptized physician receives an offer of aid from Canada

“If you come, we will do our best by you and try to help you. You may assure the Canadian High Commissioner that we will be responsible for you, so that you will not become a charge on the country.”

Vienna/Winnipeg

In gloomy times like these, a letter promising a work opportunity in Canada constituted a much needed ray of hope. Although in possession of what Heinrich Heine famously referred to as “the admission ticket to European culture”—a certificate of baptism—Anton Felix Perl was dismissed on “racial” grounds from his position as a resident at the General Hospital in Vienna in 1938. Luckily for Dr. Perl, he had the support of a prominent advocate, the Archbishop of Winnipeg, who gave him valuable advice regarding emigration to Canada as well as promising practical help in this letter dated April 25, 1938.

TAGS: advocates, Anschluss, April 25, Church, emigration, letter, persecution of Jewish professionals, prominent people, Vienna, Winnipeg

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Letter from Alfred Sinnott to Anton Felix Perl, April 25, 1938. Perl Family Collection, AR 25190.

Original:

Box 1, folder 1

Source available in English

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

27

WEDNESDAY

27

Furniture for emigrants

Avertisements mirror daily needs

Karlsruhe

Three prominently placed ads on the front page of the “Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt für Baden” make amply clear what is on people’s minds in April 1938: emigration looms large. Three businesses in Karlsruhe are offering related goods and services, such as passage to South America, Africa, and Asia, furniture for emigrants, and home sales. In the April 27 issue, the topic comes up from various perspectives: the shrinkage of congregations as a result of members going abroad, English classes for prospective emigrants, the departure of esteemed leaders, practical advice on how to get support from Jewish aid organizations during the emigration process, and more. Other parts of life seem to be taking their normal course. Lehrhaus activities, student concerts, Kulturbund events, personal ads and other topics counter-balance the abnormality of the situation.

TAGS: advertisement, April 27, cultural life, emigration, Jewish Community, Journalism, Karlsruhe, Kulturbund, Language skills, Ludwigshafen, welfare organizations

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt, Vol. 16, No. 8: 1.

28

THURSDAY

28

Liesl

Political opponents in jail

“I continue to do all that is necessary in your matter. The gentlemen are most accommodating, but due to being overburdened, they cannot handle everything so quickly.”

VIENNA

During the years of the authoritarian regime installed in Austria in 1934 (“Austrofascism”), the police prison at Rossauer Lände in Vienna (nicknamed “Liesl” by the locals) had already been used as a lockup not only for criminals but also for political dissidents. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938 (“Anschluss”), the first 150 Austrians were taken to the Dachau concentration camp from this notorious prison. Some, like Edmund Wachs, were held there in “protective custody,” a convenient tool used by the nazis to rid themselves of Jews and political opponents, since it could be imposed arbitrarily and left the prisoners little or no recourse to legal support. In this postcard, Edmund’s brother, the attorney Dr. Karl Wachs, reassures Edmund that he is doing everything he can to press his case and asks him for patience.

TAGS: Anschluss, antisemitism, April 28, Concentration Camps, Dachau, family, family separation, Fascism, imprisonment, Nazi policies, persecution, postcard, Vienna

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Collection:

Edmund and Berta Wachs Collection, AR 25093.

Original:

Box 1, folder 6

29

FRIDAY

29

The best revenge

Paul Steiner dreams of Jewish self-determination in his diary

“The ‘civilized‘ world does evince indignation about the barbarity of the Germans, who truly do not deal with us very gently. But what do they do for hundreds of Burgenland Jews, who, for example, are making a tugboat in the middle of the Danube their shelter, or a patch of land between Germany and Yugoslavia?”

Vienna

A month and a half after the “Anschluss,” Paul Steiner is still incredulous. Everything seems so unbelievable, he writes in his diary, that “even ones own words are becoming astonishing and dubious.” He wonders what the outside world is doing for the Jews in light of German barbarity, especially for the Burgenland Jews, who were brutally expelled right after the “Anschluss” and ended up stranded in totally inadequate shelters while their belongings were appropriated by their former neighbors. Steiner also imagines the “revenge” that Jews will exact, shaming the world with their achievements once they are given the right to self-determination.

TAGS: Anschluss, April 29, Burgenland Jews, commentary, diary, displacement, expulsion, Vienna, violence

SOURCE

Institution:

Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin

Original:

Paul Steiner Collection, AR 25208; Box 1, folder 7

30

SATURDAY

30

Black triangles

Undesirables taken to Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Buchenwald

April 30 1938 marked the tenth and last day of “Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich,” a punitive campaign targeting individuals deemed “work-shy” and “asocial.” The designation was sufficiently broad to target a vast array of elements deemed “undesirable” by the Nazis. Between 1,500 and 2,000 men thus classified were taken to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in this first wave of such arrests, including Jews. They were identified by black triangles on their prison uniforms.

TAGS: antisemitism, April 30, Buchenwald, Concentration Camps, document, imprisonment, Juni-Aktion, Nazi laws, Nazi policies

SOURCE

Institution:

Bundesarchiv Bild

Collection:

Table of Colored Classification Symbols for Prisoners in Concentration Camps

Original:

Image 146-1993-051-07

31

WEDNESDAY

31

April 31 (necessary dummy post, publish and don’t delete me; same for German version)

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TAGS:

SOURCE

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