For some time now, since becoming a Senior Citizen, I’ve wanted to present to younger readers (=under 30, especially Germans) who have some interest in the Nazi era, in WWII, or in the mass murders committed, as do I. But even Seniors with an interest in this sad period of German and world history are welcome —- especially if they have any German background or identity. I make no accusations, nor am I looking for pity. Children (and grandchildren are not guilty of the sins of their fathers/grandfathers.

Born into the Germany of 1931 (two years before the Fuehrer came to power) I am much older than the typical Medium reader (perhaps the oldest?), so I may have some personal experiences from the late 1930s and early ‘40s to relate, that might interest them; Unterschied muss doch sein! (Differences have to exist!), as my father used to say. But, on the other hand, these incidents are ancient. They happened before you were born; perhaps before your parents were born. You may not be interested in such old historical garbage —- totally irrelevant (you may think) to your modern world and concerns. I can fully understand that position, though I disagree with it.

Sometimes I wish I could write these personal family anecdotes and travails in German, but the unfortunate events in German politics, from 1933 to 1945 made that impossible: my German language schooling was aborted! The limited vocabulary that remains in my memory is that of an 8-year old.

My parents, who had emigrated from Poland after WWI (to find more economic and cultural opportunity), married in Berlin in 1920, and they became proud German citizens in 1930.

They produced 3 buben (boys) named: Max, Fritz, and yours truly, Alfred. Max was the ‘scholar’; Fritz was ‘the wild one’, and I was supposedly ‘good with my hands’. Fritz died before I was born, of diphtheria.

Though just a kid, I remember that we lived a comfortable life on Uhlandstrasse, not far from the Ku-dam, at the Southern edge of Charlottenburg, where we had a nice ground-level apartment in the same building where my parents both worked (very hard and long hours) in their Pelzgeschaeft (fur store.) My father was a Kuerschner-Meister (a Master furrier) proudly displaying his German Diploma from years of apprentice work (both in Poland and Germany) on the wall. He designed and made ladies’ fur coats, jackets, muffs, and hats. Heated spaces outside the home were few and hard to find.

Max was 10 years my senior. His nickname was ‘Leko’, short for lexikon, because his head was always in a book. He was my dictionary to explain the world of adults to me.

In 1934 things started falling apart: our German citizenship was REVOKED; my parents’ crime? : though not religious, they were Jewish. When someone loses their citizenship (I learned later) , their passport is no longer valid; they cannot use it to get a visa to another country!! Catch 22.

Conditions got progressively worse from ‘34 on. Whatever was discussed in conversations, in the newspaper, on radio, if it was something bad or negative that happened, the cause given was always ——- die Juden! (the Jews!)

When I was old enough to understand, Leko told me these 2 jokes on the subject.

‘Two Berliners are having a beer and discussing the unemployment problem at an outdoor restaurant table; finally, to end the discussion which is going nowhere, one of them gives the universal explanation——-’die Juden!’ and the other one (who doesn’t especially agree with the Nazi interpretation of the world) answers, ‘Ja, die Juden und die Radfahrer!’ (‘Yes, the Jews and the bicyclists!’

The first one then answers puzzled ‘Warum die Radfahrer?’ ‘Why the bicyclists?’ and the other responds, ‘Warum die Juden?’ ‘Why the Jews?’, leaving his friend perplexed.

(Note: The unspoken answer to the last question, of course was that the Jews were Hitler’s favorite scapegoat group to blame for Germany’s ills, and most Christian Germans seemed to go along with it.)

The second joke is about a comic at a Berlin night-club who, in the early ‘30s was poking fun at Hitler’s Schnurrbart (mustache). A pro-Nazi in the audience yells out at him, ‘Verdammte Jude!’ (Damn Jew!) and the comic answers ‘Actually, I’m not Jewish, at all. I just look intelligent.’

In ‘36 or ‘37, I got thrown out of the public school I really liked——it was made ‘Juden-frei’: Leko could no longer attend university for the same reason. He was able (on a Student Visa) to move to USA to live with a cousin, and continue his studies. A Nazi Administrator was appointed over the store.

In 1938, the situation got even more humiliating. Marie (our Kindermaedchen) (Nanny) would often take me spazieren (walking) in my stroller to sit in the Tiergarten (Main park in Berlin). Starting about then, Jews were only allowed to sit on certain benches, which were painted a loud, ugly yellow color for easy recognition. Immediately, and to this day, 76 years later, it became my least favorite color.

On 9 November 1938 (the same date as the fall of the Berlin Wall half a century later), in the evening , the Nazis SA militia (and civilian assistants) produced Kristallnacht (The Night of broken glass Pogrom). Most Jewish shops and homes and synagogues in the country were smashed, looted and/or burned. The pretext for it was the murder of a German diplomat in Paris, a few days earlier, by a German-Jewish young guy.

That evening, my mother and I were having supper in the kitchen——tomato soup, that Marie had cooked, when we heard loud voices coming from a group of men outside in the courtyard of our building. What happened next was incredible and very frightening to this 7-year-old, I remember.

I heard the kitchen window breaking and suddenly many glass splinters came flying into my soup! I ran from the kitchen to my parents’ bedroom. My mother told me to hide; I dove under the bed. I could hear some men now inside our apartment. I could hear breaking of some furniture.

Then, it seemed they began looking for something or someone instead. They came to the bedroom, immediately looked under the bed, and pulled me out forcefully. When they saw I was just a kid, they released me. Seems they were looking for someone older! They left the apartment, and my mother, Marie, and I could breathe a sigh of relief!

Years later, I found out they were only arresting Jewish men that night; no women or children —— yet. Luckily, my father had been alerted by a Non-Jewish business acquaintance to be away from the house and store that night. He had heeded the warning and was in hiding with Christian friends for several days thereafter.

I also learned later that many people called the Police that night, to complain about a mob vandalizing their property; not all the mobsters were in uniform. The Police claimed that this was a matter outside of Police jurisdiction, and they could do nothing!! I understand that when it was over, the German Jewish Community was collectively fined many millions of DM for the public damage caused and the cost of clean-up!

The coup de grace for us, came in January of 1939, when a letter arrived from the ‘Polizeipraesident in Berlin, Abteilung II’ (Chief of Police, Dept. II,). It was signed by a person named (coincidentally) ‘Merkel’. It stated that because of ‘your personality and the purpose of your residence in Reich territory,……… you are not worthy of the hospitality given to you.’……

‘…….You and your family must leave Reich territory within 8 weeks after receipt of this order………… If you do not comply with this request, your deportation will be effected by application of direct force.’ There it was: For my parents, about 20 years of honest, lawful living, working hard, producing a family, paying taxes gone down the drain!