The War Years in Berlin: Four Testimonies Mrs.A; Elisabeth Freund; Rachel Becker; Hermann Samter From the testimony of Mrs. A. Source: Yad Vashem Archive 0.2/29 (English in the original) With the kind permission of the Wiener Library, London. [Mrs. A. worked as a nurse in Berlin. After she was dismissed in 1933 from the hospital due to her non-Aryan origin, she began working in the Jewish hospital. Her husband left for England in 1939. She did not manage to follow him and was left in Berlin with her little daughter. Being half-Jewish, she was protected from deportation.] …I asked Mrs. A often in the course of our conversation: what was the worst part of life in Berlin? She replies without hesitation: the perpetual fear of being transported. Mrs. A.'s daughter was the first Typhus patient in Berlin. She got the infection through Magermilch (low-fat milk). The Nazis took this without signs of panic and she received treatment in the Jewish Hospital as a matter of course. When Mrs. A's daughter was about four years old, she asked her mother to buy her some cherries. Fresh fruit was not obtainable on Jewish ration cards an d the child, who saw them in a shop, asked first for a pound of cherries and then, when refused that by her mother, for at least one. Her mother explained that on Jewish cards one could not get even one. The little girl exclaimed: 'I'm fed up with all this. I shall go into a church and become "Aryan"'. It must be added that the shopkeeper heard all this and yet did not give the child one cherry! As the air raids on Berlin increased in number, the patients in the hospital were put in the cellar and nursed there. This was very terrible because of the darkness. Electricity was in short supply and for a certain number of hours per day the current was cut off. Mrs. A. said that during this period, she often risked her life trying to procure some candles… One day Mrs. A. was travelling on the tram wearing her nurse's uniform and the yellow star. Being very tired, she fell asleep and leaned on the shopping bag of a woman who moved it a little to make her more comfortable. A middle aged man started shouting at this woman, telling her not to trouble herself about a Judenschwein (Jewish swine) saying: 'what do you think these would do to us if things were to go wrong' (i.e. we lost the war) This in 1941. Mrs. A handed in her silver and most of her jewellery when asked to do so. She felt it could be traced to her too readily through the insurance societies. Some items, not insured, she asked her dressmaker to hold in safe keeping for her. After the war the dressmaker claimed that everything was destroyed by bombs. And so it might have been. Mrs. A's mother was sent to Theresienstadt and Mrs. A. watched the elderly woman leave and stood in the doorway trying to sort out her thoughts. She was approached by the Portierfrau (wife of the janitor) who had watched the transport and said: can I have your mother's two winter coats now that she does not need them any longer?' Mrs. A. has this to say in her defence: If she had not grabbed them immediately, the Gestapo would have had them the next day…. From the testimony of Elisabeth Freund. Source : Yad Vashem Archive 033/2202 [Elisabeth Freund lived in Berlin. Her husband was an executive in a German corporation who was dismissed in 1933 since he was a Jew. He worked until 1938 as an employee in a firm. Their three children were sent abroad. In 1941, Elisabeth Freund was conscripted to forced labour, first in a laundry and then in a munitions factory. In 1941 they managed to emigrate to Cuba, and from there in 1944 they went on to the United States. She wrote the following report in Cuba in December 1941] … The Aryans have problems with food too, but they may buy at all hours. There is not enough merchandise. In the morning there are long lines of women in front of the shops. It is extremely difficult to find potatoes. The last crop was bad and there are shortages of vegetables…. The Aryans get significantly more than we Jews. We have had a "J" stamped on our ration cards for a long time, so that we could not go and get food under false identity. There are no extra rations for us, no canned food, no fish, no chicken, no smoking materials, no coffee and especially no milk…. Milk is given to Jewish children only when they are very young. I am always angered by the fact that there is no candy for Jewish children. It is so vile. Other children receive very little too, but what difference would it make if Jewish children would get some candy or synthetic honey…. [Sunday] strolls are not as pleasant as they used to be. Until now one could find at least a few benches in the Tiergarten [one of Berlin's parks] on which one was permitted to sit. All the benches have been recently painted. They now all have signs reading "not for Jews". This, while there is a shortage of labour and lack of paint… Kaethe tells of her mother. The elderly woman lives all alone in Frankfurt. The Jews there received eviction notices. We heard the same from Leipzig. A family has the right, if at all, to one single room. All the Jews are to be crowded into "Jewish Houses". The mother received a questionnaire, which she is unable to fill out on her own. It requires detailed information about her assets and a list of all her furniture and smaller possessions. They may dispossess all the Jews over there too and confiscate all their belongings, as is presently being practised in the small towns. But this could also be a preparation for the deportation of all Jews to Poland. Such deportations have been carried out from Vienna and Prague to the Polish ghettos in Galicia. There are terrible rumours about these deportations. But for the moment, the worst is that this elderly woman has nothing to eat, because food is being sold to Jews only in very few shops. She is sick and cannot walk the distances to far away parts of the city every day. Kaethe wants to go there as soon as possible to take care of her mother. This however is not so simple, because the Gestapo in Frankfurt/Main does not permit Jews from elsewhere to stay in town without a special license. Kaethe therefore cannot stay there overnight…. We have not been allowed to buy clothing for the past two years, ever since the ration cards for clothing have been distributed to "Aryans" only. The worst are the stockings. We do not even get a supply of thread to mend stockings… There is great commotion in our circles, in all of Jewish Berlin. About one thousand Jewish tenants received notification that they would have to move out of their apartments. They have to vacate them within five days. The Gestapo demands that the Jewish Community find accommodations for these families. Jews may not move into houses belonging to Aryans…. The Jews are not be concentrated in non-Aryans houses, houses that belong to Jews or had belonged to Jews in the past…. The justification given for this measure is that many apartments were destroyed by air raids…. Of course there is a housing shortage in Berlin, but it is mostly due to the fact that in spite of the war, half of the city is being torn down for the construction of the new Berlin. This is Hitler's favorite project. The prisoners of war are such cheap labor that the construction goes on in spite of the war as long as there is a supply of building materials. The authorities and offices have to move to residential houses because entire neighbourhoods are been torn down in the city center… It is terrible that the apartments have to be vacated within five days. It is being taken very seriously. The head of the Jewish housing department, who asked for an extension of the time limit, was sent immediately to a concentration camp. The move has to be completed within these few days. Everyone will have to spare as much room as he can. We also will give one room in our small apartment. Many women in the factory [where Elisabeth Freund worked] are affected by the cancellation of their rental contracts. They are asking for vacation time in order to look for apartments. As the Gestapo is behind these measures, they permit them to go on leave. The Community, which was by no means prepared for such sudden challenge, provides addresses of Jewish houses. Finding apartments is very difficult, especially for families with children. One of the kindergarten teachers is totally desperate. She wants to move in with her mother, who lives in a rented furnished room. This, however, is impossible because the mother lives in an Aryan house. Although she has not as yet received orders to move, Jews are not allowed to move in to such a house, even if this would not constitute an addition to the space rented by Jews. We got rid of our [free] room in a second. An old couple will move in. They are quiet people who already had to flee once, in 1918 from the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg. They were lucky to be the first ones to show up. Our doorbell was ringing continuously because of that room. My husband has to notify the Jewish Housing Department about the rental of that room. Hundreds of people are standing in line at their offices as early as 7 a.m. and it takes eight hours of waiting to arrange that matter. I have asked the factory for one day's leave to rearrange the apartment and create space for the new tenants. We secretly get a paper from the kiosk. It is not being brought to our house any longer, and as Jews, we are not permitted buy it, since Jews are not supposed to read German newspapers any longer. However, the lady selling papers is so nice and always keeps one copy for us…. The atmosphere in our circles is terrible. Some have found rooms, most of them found very poor housing. All the women are very depressed. They have had to sell furniture once again, and the prices they got were ridiculous because of the sudden increase in offers of Jewish belongings. It is not only the question of housing. This will be solved somehow in the next few days. The potatoes are in very short supply. Aryans hardly get any, and Jews get none at all. There are more and more signs in food stores "goods in shortage are not being provided to Jews". There are searches for food in Jewish homes all over. Everything worsens, and the worst is that the hopelessness of our situation is becoming increasingly clear to everybody. The same goes for me. I have lost my nerve. I don't know how I am going to survive…. At the beginning, work in the factory was something new, and even the way we were treated was relatively decent. But it gets worse and worse. Even the prisoners of war are being treated better than we are, even if it is only because of the consideration for the German prisoners in the hands of the enemy…. But with the Jews, no consideration is necessary. The Jews have become convicts of sorts…. The worst situation is that of the boys who work here. There is a whole group of them, aged 14 and above. I often talk to them when I meet them. My own son is almost 14… I hope he will not become as serious and embittered as these boys. He is lucky to be in his English school [in England]. He can study and grows up in equality and among friends. The only hard part is that he is separated from his parents. Those poor boys at the factory. It is not the work, but the hopelessness of their situation. There is one, Kurt, a fast growing tall boy in pants that have become much too short for him. His arms stick out of sleeves that are too short. Even adolescents don't get ration cards for clothes. Kurt worked in a Jewish Community Training workshop for a year. He is very interested in technology and wanted to become an electric engineer. I ask him: isn't it interesting for you here? There must be a lot one can learn'. Oh, what do you know. Only the Aryan boys are apprentices. They are being trained. We Jewish boys may not learn anything…. We are to remain unskilled labourers…. I cannot even study at home. My parents also work in a factory, and I have to help with the housework. I always want to read in the evenings, but mostly I fall asleep.' The other boys agree with this. They have only Sundays free, and even then they have very little free time. And where should we go? We may not go to the woods and certainly not to the parks. If someone has a bicycle, he can perhaps go out and bathe somewhere in the open - we are not permitted to enter public beaches. But this too is dangerous. If the Hitler Youth catch us or if someone does not like our noses, we are beaten, and we will always be in the minority. It is much too dangerous to go out in a group of more than two or three.'… The community's funds have decreased, and the needs constantly grow. The problems and pressures have become unbearable. This summer, for example, one of the major problems was what to do with school children. In almost all families, the parents work in the factories and the children have been left with no supervision. Where was one to accommodate these poor, stressed children who are in such need of a vacation. In past years, the School Department had organised excursions in the woods. This was extremely difficult, because the Gestapo declared that the children could ride public transportation only in small groups of no more than six children…. In addition, one had to find a place where the children could play without being harassed and beaten by some scoundrels. This year however, the Gestapo strictly forbade these excursions. What options remain? The parks are forbidden too. Many of the children don't even have a yard, let alone a garden in which they can play. And even if they have one, they may not play there because the neighboring houses complain about the noise. The Jewish Community has finally found a solution. It is turning every empty space in the Jewish cemeteries into playgrounds with sandboxes for the smaller children. And the older children have the task of cleaning the tombstones and weeding the paths. This way the children are kept busy and enjoy the good air, and at the same time the graves are being tended…. In the Germany of today, the cemeteries are not only the last restingplace for old people, but the only place young children can play… An old worker with white hair pushes some fruit into my pocket. He does it secretly of course. He had heard we get no fruit, and he has his own garden. It is very nice and courageous of him, because it could cause him a lot of trouble… I am being transferred to another department [of the factory]…. It is a department for petrol lamps and stoves for army use, probably for the Russian front…. The first eight days are terrible…. The small wires pierce my fingers and they bleed…. In the first weeks, my fingers are so inflamed and in such pain, that I wake up at night. Then my fingers become hard…. What do I need delicate fingers for? I will probably never do any work but factory work for the rest of my life. Since I have been in the radio factory, I have not done a single drawing. I have no time for it. I am too tired in the evenings. I am happy when I manage my housework in the few free hours of the evening. There is so much washing and mending to be done. My stockings are in terrible shape. I am so exhausted in the evenings that I go to bed early and fall asleep the moment I lie down. There have been so many air raids lately. There was an alarm every night in the past week. No real sleep at night and no sufficient nutrition…. And there is a new order: As of 19 September, every Jew in Germany has to have a large yellow star sewn to his clothes in a visible way whenever he goes out in public. The word "Jude" [Jew] has to be written on the star in letters that look like Hebrew. Even children of 6 years and more may not play in the street without the star. The order causes enormous agitation at the factory. People speak of nothing else. The Testimony of Rachel Becker Source : Yad Vashem Archive 03/1806 [Rachel Becker was a teenager during the war, the daughter of a mixed marriage (her father was a Jew). As a Mischling (of mixed race) she was not deported, but in all other respects treated as a Jew. She worked in Weissensee - the large Jewish cemetery of Berlin. The testimony was written in English in the original in 1960] The Great Action of March [should be February] 1943 On that certain morning, the Gestapo in one well-organised sudden move rounded up all the Jews still living in Berlin and brought them straight from their places of work, mostly munitions factories or the like, where they worked in closed teams, clearly marked with their yellow Starts of David, to a few concentration points scattered throughout the city [of Berlin]. Thus in a few hours of that fateful morning in March 1943 all those who until now did not even want to believe the strange rumours according to which the Jews, being ostensibly deported for "resettlement" somewhere in the east…were not put to work but to death, were suddenly shaken out of their complacency and faced, at last, with the whole and cruel truth… I myself, by one of these unexplainable strokes of luck…had not felt well on that morning and not gone out to work at the cemetery. My father, of course, had left at about 4:30 a.m., as usual, in order to reach his working place with a repair team at the German Reichsbahn (railway) by 6 a.m. My mother before leaving for her work, she had started to work as a bookkeeper since my father, a few years ago, had been taken to forced labour, earning about 32 Pfennig per hour, minus 15 % Jew tax, went down to the corner telephone booth in order to phone Weissensee Cemetery about me not being able to come to work. Having got the connection, her explanations had been cut short by the excited voice of the administrator, who warned her not to let me out of the house, not to phone herself anymore. Something terrible is going on', and the line went dead. At this very moment, still standing in the telephone booth, she saw the notorious Silberstein van stopping just in front of our house. (The Germans having disowned the country wide known moving firm of Silberstein & Co…were using the vans since the very beginning of the deportations for moving out the Jews). The "fetcher" got out ¯ my mother looked on glued like Lot's wife to her observation place ¯ went into the house next to ours, returned after a few minutes of eternity and got back into the van, which quickly drove off… The Imprisoned Jews At The Various Concentration Points Of course mother did not leave for work that day. And father did not return from his. However, by the next morning the " judischer Mundfunk" (Jewish mouth radio [the network spreading information and rumours by word of mouth] - the amazing means of communication kept up by the Jews who long ago had been cut off from their telephones, their radios being confiscated, scattered throughout the big city, forbidden to use any public conveyances apart from and to work, which recorded quickly, and mostly 100% accurately, whatever news there were) already by next morning had located most of the captured, who still had parts of their families outside, at the respective places where they were held ¯ and informed the relatives, just where to look for them. By noon of the second day, the Germans passing by at certain places throughout Berlin saw, without understanding, clusters of weeping, frantic women (the non-Jewish wives of the Jewish men held inside) in front of these concentration points, trying desperately to see their husbands, or at least, smuggle to them food, a clean shirt or shaving material. Yes, mother too, after having warned me not to open the door on any account, had taken off with a parcel of food and few things. She returned, after hours of waiting outside the building of the Jewish community in Oranienburger Street, where father was said to be kept, where she and hundreds of other wives had tried in vain to make sure that her husband was inside…or at least to bribe the guards to take the parcels to their addressees. Many times police tried to disperse them ¯ but the women always returned. However at the end of the week the Mundfunk reported the first releases of Jewish husbands of mixes marriages and one day my father returned home. The mixed marriages, the majority of which were Jewish men married to non-Jewish women…had been a headache to the people concerned with the Endloesung (the Final Solution)… After having spent these days, stuffed together with hundreds of others, with sanitary conveniences nearly nil, and food little more, father was…released… The Jewish Community Institutions After the Action Until March 1943 the activities of the Jewish community had even though on a much reduced scale, still gone on. Now, with one stroke, all the various buildings and institutions belonging to the Jewish Community were confiscated by the Gestapo, the staff deported, and apart from the Jewish Hospital (where sick Jews were nursed until they were strong enough for deportation ¯ and which housed the Gestapo HQ) the cemetery in Weissensee and the big old building in the Oranienburger Strasse, all other belongings of the erstwhile famous and flourishing Berlin Jewish community were taken over by the Germans. However the Gestapo having more or less accomplished the final solution of the Jews in Berlin…decided to keep the records and archives of the Jewish community and having just deported all the clerks handling the archives until now, they picked a few of the men about to be released for sorting out, keeping and packing away of the communities archives. …My father was one of the chosen and did not have to return to the railway team…And he even got the stamp: "place of work: Gestapo" on his yellow tramway permit, thus providing the utter paradox of a Jew employed by the Gestapo. Work in the Jewish Cemetery After the Action This….brings me back to the point where I actually wanted to start this narrative: the day after. Still partly dazed and numbed by the happenings of the last few days…I returned about a week later to Weissensee. And here, where, strange as it may sound, we youngsters who had been put to work at this sinister place after the Jewish schools had been closed in 1942, had found a kind of sanctuary, I experienced the second shock. When I had left a week earlier, this place had been teeming with workers, gardeners, employees and perhaps two hundred teenagers. Now there were about eight grown-ups and three teenagers ¯ two boys and myself. The Jewish cemetery in Weissensee…with its many old trees, shrubs, hedges, flowers and lawns, gave you always more the impression of a large quiet park or garden than a graveyard. In the years before the persecution, hundreds of workmen, gardeners, guards, in addition to the administrative, clerical, funeral and burial staffs, had been employed to maintain the many thousands of graves and the grounds. Yet even during the war, right until the day of the action, the modern nursery had still worked full speed, and a number of a few dozen gardeners tried, in vain of course, to maintain some resemblance to the former well-kept place, taking care of the graves which still were being visited. Funerals were still held in the quiet dignified manner the German Jews have adopted for the burial of their loved ones, and even one of the flower shops at the main entry was still busy. Returning now, and finding the huge place suddenly gone "dead" brought the whole significance of last week's happenings perhaps for the first time right down to the depth of my 15 year old understanding of the world around me. It was unbelievable and yet true. The vast grounds were empty of human life….the offices, the telephone exchange, the kind old Rabbi Levy's flat on the premises ¯ all deserted. And yet, life somehow went on. There even crystallised itself some kind of pattern in the new order. The administration was taken over by one of the former employees, the pitiful groupof workers now did all and even themselves: when there were dead, they prepared them, the dug the graves ¯ one of them being a carpenter - …Jews in Berlin were still, and until the very end, decently buried in wooden coffins, blacked with tar-paint. When there were no burials, they busied themselves with attempts to maintain some kind of order and cleanliness in the prayer-hall and all other buildings. …And so it came about that in war-torn Germany, the Gestapo restless and relentless devising the means for the "final solution", a Jew and three Jewish teenagers sowed flowers, replanted the seedlings, grew them, and sold them (either to the few non-Jews who came to visit the graves of their husbands or using them for wreaths still ordered for the funerals). The Flower Shop on the Cemetery Grounds Yes, even the flower shop itself was reopened: the manager, sales-girl and producer of the wreaths and coffin decoration for the funerals being myself, and two boys, my assistants. Now it proved lucky that I had, since we youngsters were sent to work on the cemetery (in 1942), been trying to learn as much as possible from the professional staff of the nursery. For me this whole business meant not only being saved from work in a factory. Since my early childhood I had dreamed to become a gardener and to spend my life among growing and blooming things. So I had well-used this wonderful opportunity, had tried my hand at growing of the plants in the green houses, had learned the technique of winding of the wreaths and other decorations. In short, I was trying to learn all there was. And now, this had made me, the 15 year-old girl, the expert. "My" flower shop did actually flourish nearly to the end of the war, that is about late autumn 1944. And as far as is known to me, was the only source of income in any of the Gestapo occupied institutions of the former Jewish community… Our trio usually was extremely busy. Wreaths and the green fir decorations placed on the coffin before the funeral ceremony, were done well in advance, and only decorated with flowers at the last moment…When work in the flower beds was done, the daily supply of flowers cut, etc., plants replanted, etc. etc., we still found time to care for a few graves, which still were visited. This huge old garden never held a scare for us ¯ on the contrary, we were happy to escape there from all the fears and anxieties which accompanied our every moment "outside". Here, we could leave behind the drawn and tired faces of our parents ¯ struggling each day with the question of barest existence here we forgot even that we were hungry. (Never before, and never after the "great action" did a Gestapo or SS-man enter the grounds of the cemetery). And even later, when the daily bombings started, we sometimes walked for hours, when the connections were broken down, but to work we would go. Often you could see the two boys, the girl and a handcart accompanied by Rabbi Riesenburger, setting out to get material. The old fir trees, numerous hedges and shrubs were now our chief suppliers of the necessary raw material for the decorations. And many were the times when the Rabbi, who had come to Weissensee after the "big action", (having a wife who was born a non-Jew) was climbing up first in order to reach a specially fine branch…Yes, there was a wonderful fellowship between the four of us… The Yom - Tovim (Jewish holidays) at the Cemetery When the time from the holidays…came, celebrations were held to which Jews came under great danger, as Weissensee was way out north from the city, and Jews were not allowed to use public conveyances apart from to and from work. When Sukkot (the feast of the Tabernacles) approached, we decided to build a sukka, and so the Rabbi and the three youngsters set it up, hidden behind thick hedges and lovingly decorated. The Burials of Urns Oh, there would be still much to tell of the life in Weissensee during these years, for example about the urns, made of cardboard, and packed in wooden boxes, being sent from such places as Dachau, Sachsenhausen, etc. etc., containing (or did they?) the ashes of "inmate no. X". These had been prisoners of concentration camps, who had, being married to non-Jewish wives, either been deported simply by mistake, or caught violating one of the uncountable laws and restrictions to be kept by Jews. We had to inform the widow, and the urn was buried in a special field we had set aside for such urns. Or, I could tell about the day when we planted a whole field of zinnias ¯ the seedlings we had grown ourselves ¯ I do not remember the date, but it was during the time when the English bombers came in broad daylight to drop their explosive loads, and when we came out from the shelter, we found a large crater where we had been planting half an hour before… Life Outside the Cemetery While we on our little island felt somehow sheltered ¯ if not from the bombings from above, so at least from the dangers of our immediate surroundings ¯ life outside became more and more difficult. Since the autumn of 1943 the bombing attacks had grown more and more frequent…Often several times a day and during the night alarms would warn the population to go down to the shelters. One never became used to sleep through an uninterrupted night. We, the few "enemies from inside" found ourselves in a strange position of "theoretically" rejoicing over the ever increasing power and effect of the bombings, even if in reality we had to bear their dangers on top of our own special troubles. Nobody, leaving the house in the morning, knew whether he would still return by night or should he return, find the house. The war started to get worse and worse for the Germans ¯ of course the Volk (nation) was still fed the never ending victory stories ¯ with food beginning to get scarce. The rationing for the Germans, however, was still enough not to go hungry, but our ration cards (we used to say they had the measles: they were overprinted with red J's) provided only for a bare minimum, and as most were hard working, or like myself, in the growing years, hunger became a permanent bedfellow. Of course, mother did her best to hunt up eatables, but usually the turnips cooked in water and a few potatoes had to suffice for supper ¯ the daily bread ration never lasted that long. Thus, coming home at night ¯ I stayed as long as possible in Weissensee ¯ there was a little help with the housework ¯ the scrapping together of the meagre meal ¯ and then one started to wait for the alarm. Should one stay up because tonight they may not come, or was it better to wake up from the first sleep? ¯ Right up to sometime in 1944, we even kept some semblance of a "social life". There were a dozen or so teenagers scattered all over Berlin, and we used to meet at one or the other's. Later on my father forbade me these excursions which naturally meant danger if you were caught. Anyhow, towards the end of 1944, with the bombings and the Germans getting more and more apt to snatch any Jew and for no apparent reason whatsoever…there was never much time or thought for recreation. The Aryan Neighbours. Our flat ¯ we were living in an apartment house of about 16 flats ¯ had been marked with a yellow Star of David, same as we had to wear on our outer clothes. But we were extremely lucky with all the neighbours: there was only one sworn member of the NS party, an older woman, and even she had apparently decided just to ignore us. All the others, many of whom knew my parents for more than 15 years, varied from embarrassed, turning away of the head when meeting one of us on the stairs, to more or less outspoken sympathy. Even the family of the caretaker ¯ the official air raid warden and unofficially the spy of the party ¯ never harmed us. I even recall the children, girls - one was a year older, the other two years younger ¯ ringing our bell and then wordlessly holding out a piece of bread for us to take… And there was one woman who defied everything and everyone. Her husband was away in the army. He was of the many thousands who in the very beginning had become a member of the pas he was working at the Reichsbahn (national race). This woman, about the age of my mother, never wavered in her friendship to us, and many were the hours I spent together with mother at her flat, playing with little Marion, then perhaps three years old, listening to the radio, always getting something to eat and always getting something to take home for father (who never left our flat, mostly going straight to bed, when not reading). After the husband was wounded and consequently discharged and returned home, they both continued to befriend us openly. Here was the one place, where mother could let go a little, drink countless cups of real coffee, pour out a little of her sorrows and even forget them for a short time. One day this woman of sharp tongue but warm heart was invited to the party centre and accused of befriending unwanted elements. She was warned that should she not stop this "treacherous" conduct, she would have to bear the results of her behaviour. I believe there were few people in Germany at that time who would not have thought of their little daughter and given in to the threats, but not she. Not only did she not stop to befriend us as before, but she said so straight to their faces. Mr. and Mrs. Von der Heydt were under disgrace, thrown out of the party, but strangely, nothing followed. I wish to add that both of them still live in the same house, Alt Moabit 84a in Berlin, their daughter having grown up to be a beautiful girl. To my regret they did not receive any acknowledgement of their extraordinary deeds. On the contrary, both are ill and have a scarce existence, whilst the many others, having had their fill during the war, are back to "rehabilitation" and fat years of the German Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle after the war). An Attack on Rachel in the Street The heavier the German losses grew, the more damage the British and American bombers did, the greater became the lies and the horror stories fabricated in Minister Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda. That the Jews had brought the war upon peace loving Hitler ¯ was already a "historic" fact by that time. But every time the air attacks had laid to ashes another town or another quarter in Berlin, the 5 million city, had gone up in flames… it was the result of another Jewish-British sadistic attempt to win their lost war by killing innocent women and children'. So that whenever after a specially heavy attack the population could perhaps start to curse the never ending war…their thoughts were carefully guided to the eternal scapegoat ¯ the Jew. Once on my way home from Weissensee after a very hard attack during the day…I had to pick my way through burning streets and blown up houses…Naturally traffic was paralysed. (It was amazing that they always managed after only a few hours to organise the buses and even the tramways, underground and the S-Bahn - the electric railway system of Berlin - over detours and makeshift rails, so that the town never once was paralysed for more than a few hours at a time). So I hurried homewards through the devastated town. Suddenly, apparently from nowhere, a group of furious people had gathered: there's one! Look at her! It's all because of them!'. And before I could grasp the meaning of it, stones began falling all around me. Somehow, I started to run, and until this day I do not know how I managed to escape or why nobody followed me further. However, having brought only a reasonable distance between this scene of hatred and my own frightened self, I tore off the yellow star of David, deciding then and there, never again to put it on, even though this meant increased danger. This was because if during one of the frequent patrols, a Jew was found not wearing the star, this meant immediate deportation. Nevertheless, as I told my parents later under tears and still shaking, I would sooner risk deportation then being stoned right in the street. And this time even my father, who always had adhered to all and every law or restriction faithfully as if expecting to be rewarded for being "a good boy", did not oppose. And since that day we only put a star in our pockets in case of raids, but never again put it on our clothes. Well, we were lucky. No patrol ever stopped us, and no Schnapper (special raid patrols, looking for deserters, spies and "underground" Jews ¯ there were even two Jewish Schnappers , one man and a young woman, whose names I have forgotten, but I seem to remember that she was found after the capitulation and killed by the Russians) every recognised us. Rachel Goes to a Movie-Theatre But once this bravery brought me close to disaster. When you are living under danger of life day after day, you get careless you become to sure. I had already, on few occasions, been to the cinema after having discarded the Star. (This of course was strictly forbidden, as was any visit to any public place.) But when I dared to go, then never in surroundings where I was known. This time there was a special film running in a cinema not far from the cemetery, and I decided I must see Zarah Leander in her new role. The performance was nearly sold out, and I got a seat in one of the last rows. Sitting down I just heard a girl's voice: 'Look, there is the Jew-girl from the cemetery'. The answer I could not understand, but one thing was clear: two girls from the neighbourhood had recognised me. Well, thinking back now, I cannot but admire my own presence of mind ¯ I did not panic, and did not try to get up and out of the packed hall, rightly assuming, that this would surely incite the girls to hunt me down. I did not even move my head once, not letting on that I had heard or that they were meaning me. And it worked! I heard some more whispering, the quintessence of which was let's leave it until after the performance'. And if you think that I did not see anything of the film for fright and anxiety, I have to disappoint you: Right up to the word Ende (end) I enjoyed every minute of it. And only when the lights went on and behind me I heard the two girls, I suddenly was back in the not too comfortable present. But still, my only thought was not to draw general attention. Without any apparent hurry, I tried to edge myself forward through the crowd, but feeling the girls still behind me. Nevertheless, they apparently hadn't ever arrested a Jew before, and seemed to discuss how to do it. Anyhow, slowly having reached the entrance door, now shut as the crowd for the next performance was waiting there to get in, I suddenly dashed through this door, pushed my way through, plunged out into the street, jumped on a tram just leaving the stop, and was saved. The whole thing took probably no more than three minutes, but for me they were the longest I can remember. I did not see another film until after the war. The Liberation Well, the general facts about the last month of the war are known. The bombing attacks were ever increasing in number and power. When at the beginning there were 20 and 40 Kg. Bombs, in 1944 there were air mines whose air pressure alone pulled down houses in a radius of a few hundred meters. There were phosphor bombs setting fire to everything and spurting burning phosphor so that it was impossible to extinguish the fire. It is well known that the nearer their end came, the more fanatic and frantic the leaders of the German nation became. At the moment when the Russian army had already entered Berlin in several quarters, the SS started to go from house to house and drag the Jews they found to hang them right on the lamp posts in front of their houses. So a number of the few who had lived through everything found their end on the very eve of liberation. Luckily for us, the Russians came quicker to our quarter, and so our little family was able to remain alive and see the end of the Third Reich, which nobody of us had believed he would live to see. Letters of Hermann Samter from Berlin Source: Yad Vashem Archive 0.2/30 Reproduced by the kind permission of the Wiener Library. [Hermann Samter was born in 1909 in Berlin. He wrote the following letters to his relatives abroad.] 12 September 1940 …A lot has changed since we last saw each other. How long has it been? You must have heard from your parents that while they were preparing for emigration I tried very hard to get to South America. It seemed to be quite promising a year ago, but meanwhile everything has been shattered. I was at least lucky to have been employed for almost the entire time. In November 1938 the Berlin Community Bulletin, as well as all other Jewish papers, ceased to exist. But as early as January 1939 I got a position at the newly founded Juedisches Nachrichtenblatt (Jewish Information Bulletin). The work is much the same as before. We sit in the former offices of the Juedische Rundschau and the paper is being printed at the Aryanized printer of the Israelitisches Familienblatt …. There is little variety in our life. I go to the Kulturbund cinema once a week.… Every two months they produce a new play, everything of course with much more primitive means as even two years ago. Finally, I strangely still have a lot of friends. Strangely ¯ since the majority of the sensible people have emigrated…. 5 August 1941 …Last Thursday between 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. house searches were conducted at the homes of over 1,000 Jewish families in Berlin. They searched for gold, money, tomatoes, fruit, red wine and everything else a Jew is not allowed to have nowadays. Whoever was not home was registered. Whoever was found in someone else's apartment was taken away on the spot. This, because Jews have to be in their own homes after 9 p.m. (but no one was informed of this before). They also took those people who are able to work but are not yet employed by the labour service. On the whole there were 70 arrests that evening. Now the riddle remains: May we go to the forests or not? Etc. As we found out, this is not a ridiculous question. You can see, we have great worries. Maybe soon the British air pirates will prove to us that there are much bigger worries… 10 September 1941 …Unfortunately I had to postpone my vacation, and now travelling is out of the question. As of the 19 [of this month] we may not leave our residence without written authorisation of the police. That means that we will not be able to go even to Potsdam or Bernau. As of the same date Jews will have to wear a Star of David, the size of the palm of a hand, well sewn to the clothes with the inscription " Jude" (Jew). Now I will be able to buy a newspaper only within the [permitted] hours 4 ¯ 5 p.m.. I will not be able to eat in a restaurant or visit Aryan friends. And there are yet even more unpleasant results as you can well imagine…. 21 October 1941 …That evening…over 1,000 people were taken from their apartments. They had to quickly pack their suitcases and then they went to the assembly camp in the Levetzow street synagogue. Their apartments were sealed off ¯ everything was confiscated. At Levetzow street they first took all the money from the people, then all metal belongings (including razors if they were metal), all documents with the exception of the identity card which was stamped "evacuated from Litzmannstadt" [should be "evacuated to Litzmannstadt" ¯ Lodz in territory annexed to Germany from Poland]. No one had anticipated such swift action, and you can imagine the many tragedies: parents who could not say goodbye to their children, etc. No one except the community workers were permitted to enter the camp. Two days later, the train departed. All age groups, from 1 ¯ 90, were represented, but the large majority were elderly people. It also happened that people were taken directly from the factories to their homes to pack their suitcases. No one knows at what pace it will continue. If only one train leaves every week, it will take over a year. It has gone that far that people now say: I hope we will manage to get to Litzmannstadt and not to Russia.'. You can see, we are becoming modest… [The German Jews deported to Lodz (Litzmannstadt in German) between October 15-21, 1941 were brought into the existing ghetto, where they shared the fate of the Polish Jews there] 30 November 1941 Up till now seven transports of around one thousand people have left Berlin: to Litzmannstadt, Minsk, Kovno, Riga. People who are above their mid sixties or who have children under the age of 1 are now normally not taken. One can take along baggage of 50 Kilo, one mattress, work tools and in some cases a sewing machine. Usually one gets notification several days in advance, but sometimes only one day ahead. Friends of mine were notified on a Tuesday evening to prepare for Wednesday. They managed to postpone it a bit. On Friday evening they got the same notification for Saturday. They waited and were not picked up. They are still here today. Apparently they were claimed by the armaments factory in which they work… The first transport left five weeks ago, and there is still no news what kind of life the people have. Some postcards were smuggled from Litzmannstadt. They all have the same content: "utter destitution, send money!". No one received confirmation that the money that was sent in fact arrived at its destination. A number of single men volunteered to go from Litzmannstadt to labour camps in Posen and Lissa. It seems that there, contrary to Litzmannstadt they don't suffer from hunger. No one knows how they really are, as their letters too are completely uninformative and are probably under censorship of the camp commanders. A short time ago we all had to declare within 48 hours if and what kind of typewriters, bikes, cameras, binoculars we possess…. We may only sell books with permission of the Reich Culture Chamber. We are not allowed to use public telephones any longer… [Between 8-28 November 1941 around 7,000 German and Austrian Jews were deported to Minsk. They were put in a special ghetto created for them. In order to create the space for them, over 6,000 local Jews from the Minsk ghetto were shot between 7-11 November. The fate of the Jews deported to Kovno and Riga at the end of November was different. The late November 1941 transports to Kovno were led from the trains to the execution site and were shot. The Jews deported to Riga were shot there on November 30.] 28 December 1941 We are still in our apartment. Miss Tuerk will probable go with the next transport. Aunt Nelly will have to move to a new residence for the second time.… The protection [from deportation] for [workers'] family members has been annulled.… If now parents and children are [on the list] and the children for example work for Siemens, the parents will have to go and the children stay behind. And they may not volunteer [for the deportation]. The age limit that existed for some time has been discontinued. Now the decisive factor is the fitness for transport [people who were too frail or too sick were exempted from deportation]… No one really knows what the political and military situation really is. 26 January 1942 Three transports have again left since the beginning of January. (All of them to Riga). This means that by now 10,000 people have gone from Berlin. There will be quiet in February, but in return it will probably go on with more strength in March. But then at least it will not be as cold as it is now. Recently, the evacuees ¯ or as they are to be called from now on ¯ the emigrants, under the age of 60 have to walk from the Levetzow street [assembly camp] to the Grunewald railway station. Can you imagine what that means in this cold weather? The people who left yesterday went in cattle cars. There were many old people among them, some taken from the old age home (up to 75 years old!) How many of these old people will not even survive the trip! And what happens after that ¯ no one really knows. There has been no news from Litzmannstadt since the beginning of the new year. Mail sent there is rewith the notice that no mail is being delivered to that. The presumed reason is spotted typhus. So we don't know. Money sent is not being returned, but there is no confirmation that it reaches its destination. A transport left for Minsk on 12 November. They say that some people managed to smuggle letters home with the military mail. I have not seen such a letter. The same is being said about the people who left on 27 November and in January to Riga. I know a lady who actually read such a letter [from a person on these transports]. Not a single person of the 1,000 people who were on the transport that went on 17 November to Kovno has written anything. This is how the widely spread rumour originated that all the people were shot on the way or murdered in some other way. All this of course does not reinforce the courage of the people affected by the evacuation. Thus the suicides have increased incredibly. By the way, Miss Tuerk and the Deutsches were on the last transport. The Deutsch family had everything ready for emigration when the war with the US broke out. They were totally unprepared for the possibility of an evacuation. The surprise was even worse than for others. Mrs. Deutsch was aware that her 73 year old husband would not survive it. Miss Tuerk was more composed, but of course, for her too, it was hard to leave. The Gestapo officials who appeared in our apartment were quite pleasant. They sealed only one cabinet, into which we had put Miss Tuerk's belongings. I accompanied Miss Tuerk to the police and then to the assembly point at Lewetzow street… There were many sad scenes of goodbyes there. 14 Days ago we all received a letter ordering us to submit all fur and wool articles… [For the transports in November see footnote for letter of 30 November 1941. The three transports in January 1942 leaving for Riga were brought into the ghetto created for the German Jews in Riga. Miss Tuerk and Mrs. Deutsch apparently went to Riga.] 11 May 1942 …As you can see, we are still here, in spite of Lisa's morbid premonition. How long, is of course a different question. Two transports have left Berlin since January ¯ one in late March, another on Easter Friday. In total, 12,000 have left Berlin. Only 43,000 with a star and 13,000 without a star remain. About the same number are still living elsewhere in Germany. Apparently the fate of the people [deported] varies very much. There is no word from Kovno, Riga and Minsk. The general belief is that the treatment in Riga is decent. The only mail from Litzmannstadt are hand-signed, printed postcards confirming receipt of money that has been sent. Recently, a woman here learned of the death of her father only because her mother who is in Litzmannstadt added the sign "We" [short for widow] to her name on the signed receipt. There is no other mail from there… Berlin: The use of public transportation has been prohibited since 1 May…. The results are grave. Apart from the fact that now many have to walk for over an hour to work, most private circulation is prevented as well. Parents often cannot visit their children any longer. Trips are out of the question. Visits to the hospital are impossible for most people…. And who can walk to the cemetery at Weissensee? Entry to the Tiergarten [a large park in the centre of Berlin] and other parks is forbidden, and one is not allowed to walk along the following streets (one may cross them)…. The Tiergarten interdiction makes all the routes much longer. This, of course, causes people to go out without the star. The result is that they are put on the next transport if they are caught… 9 July 1942 …Words cannot express. Of course you know about our fate, or rather you believe that you know it. But the truth is that people living far away cannot feel it in the same way as the people here, who are living through the end of Jewry in Germany. I was happy to learn from your letter what a full life you have over there. It would be nice if you could tell me about your work. I am still with the paper ¯ "paper" is a somewhat exaggerated term to use for this bulletin…. It consists of two pages: 1&Mac197; pages of text and &Mac251; of a page for ads ¯ mostly death and rooms for rent. It is rather a miracle that I am still employed there, after all the cutbacks in recent years… Our circle of friends is constantly shrinking. People are parting all the time. Everyone says that they hope for a reunion, but at the same time they doubt it will occur. Sunday trips are long over. We visit each other and hold the same conversations we already had many times before. There is nothing to challenge the mind. It would be unjust to expect a person up to his neck in water to have spiritual interests. Of course, many books are still being read, but for many people this is a way to escape from reality. Work is a good diversion…. Aunt Nelly has also been working in a factory for the last months. She, who could not get out of bed in the mornings, now leaves home every morning at 6 a.m… [On 12 March 1943, Samter was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz. It was the 36th transport out of the 64 transports that left Berlin to the east and to the ghetto of Theresienstadt. A total of 50,535 Berlin Jews were deported with these transports between the fall of 1941 and the end of the war in 1945. There is no information about how or when Hermann Samter died in Auschwitz.] Back to the top