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My parents and my younger brother and I lived in Bolivia during the Holocaust. When we settled into life in America after World War II, most of my parents’ friends were European emigres. They were drawn to Jewish academics and physicians who always called each other ”Herr” or “Pan” or “Frau” or “Pani” in German or Polish, and never by first names.
I was particularly fond of the Jewish-German emigres. They had come from the belly of the Nazi beast. They became substitutes for the family I never met — grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all killed in Europe. They reciprocated my affection and always asked for me as soon as they entered: “Vo ist der tochter?”
While they hated Germany, they loved German poetry and composers and always listened to records and recited poems with translations for me. My favorite was Schiller’s “The Ring of Polycrates,” about a king who feared his good fortune and threw his beloved and very valuable ring into the seas, only to have it come back in a fish cooked for him. This was proof that he was doomed by fate. Decades later it became my daughter’s favorite poem.
I loved being with these people and often sat reverently next to them while they listened to an oratorio or piano concerto, followed by tea and pastries of chocolate mixed with jam. They brought me Snickers. I hungered for their stories about life in Germany before the war. They were all very voluble historians of their life and fate.
One of them was a professor in Hamburg until 1938. He was so assimilated that he sported a “Messerschmitt” — a dueling scar popular among upper class Germans on his cheek, and a handsome bald pate.
He and his Frau had two sons who also assimilated until the 1930s when the Nazi state abolished all youth groups in Germany except the Hitler Youth or its female equivalent, the League of German Girls — and all Jewish children were barred. In January 1933, there were approximately 50,000 members of the Hitler Youth. By 1939, the vast majority of German children were part of the Hitler Youth organization.
Nonetheless, as the professor detailed it, they were optimistic that sanity would prevail and that Nazi ideology would disappear. And in any event, where could they go? As the infamous Evian Conference (Jul 6, 1938 – July 15, 1938) disclosed, of all the delegates from 32 nations, who all expressed caterwauling sorrow and shock, only one country agreed to absorb additional refugees: the Dominican Republic. And who would go to the jungle — something my parents, and so many Jews, gladly did to flee Europe.
Herr Doktor and Frau Doktor Goldman went to India, and Pan and Pani Kleinfeld went to Argentina and others found succor in distant and exotic corners of the Diaspora.
But the professor from Hamburg remained in Germany.
I asked what was the one incident that propelled him to leave Germany. He did not hesitate to reply, “Kristallnacht” — November 9-10, 1938 when brick-throwing mobs torched synagogues and destroyed 7500 businesses, stores, and homes. Jews were rounded up and deported. The violence was instigated primarily by Nazi Party officials and members of the SA (commonly known as Storm Troopers) and Hitler Youth.
The next day, after reassuring his Frau that academics, both faculty and students, would rally against the Nazis, he returned to the University where he was formerly hailed by students and befriended and often entertained by faculty. He was jeered by students who cheered Hitler and threw his academic robe at him and by faculty who turned their back on him. That was the last straw. He and his family left Germany and found their way to America and Washington Heights in New York where many European Jews lived.
At first, the American media responded furiously, calling Kristallnacht a wild orgy and urging others to respond vigorously to the barbarity. The New York Times stated that the pogrom showed “scenes which no man can look upon without shame for the degradation of his species.”
It would not be long before the “root cause” groupies and anti-Semites began to rationalize the event. It was caused by economic insecurity and reparations Germany had to pay after World War I, and poorly nuanced columns and broadcasts appeared blaming the Jews themselves. That never takes long.
Those friends who made it to America lived in peace and safety. They are always in my memory of an unusual childhood. They were the lucky ones.
But this is a cautionary tale as we now watch Hamas Youth rallies and Jews threatened in the academies.
Ruth King publishes RuthfullyYours.com – a daily blog of conservative columns on national and international news.
Some of my ancestors settled in Virginia in before the Revolution*. I don’t want to live, in country that hates Jews, I’m not leaving, but the collective ‘we’ need to take out the trash. *I’m a descendant of the Scotts-Irish hillbilly clan, not the upper class Yankees who ruined this country.
Well,
Many Arabs fought within and alongside the German Luftwaffe. I’m sure Mein Kampf, is still a best-selling book.
Ruth,
In my opinion, this ancient hate comes from Satan’s jealousy of God’s love for mankind, manifested in the Rebellionin Heaven and on earth – coupled by the Fall of Man in the Garden.
Don’t forget Hitler’s buddy the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini.
Yes,
He escaped Nuremberg, and lived out his days. It would be interesting to know how many Arabs are responsible for various genocides, that went unpunished.
Yasser Arafat’s uncle.
More likely they “fought” — i.e., murdered helpless civilians — with the SS or other, similar units. Airplanes were far too high tech for the savages of that time to master; that took much longer, until 2001.
The Arab savages still cannot master technology. They rode their donkeys to the border on October 7 and used war paraphernalia supplied by Iran
Richard,
Lol. They don’t need technology or training; Biden, et al, gave them 20 years of training and tens of billions in technology, weapons, cash, etc. And, it continues to this day.
Ruth,
I read Ruthfully Yours almost daily. It is a truly excellent resource. Thank you for your generous work compiling and posting such interesting and informative articles.
I’m glad to finally have this opportunity to thank you!
Actually, “MEIN KAMP” is largely based on the Koran (Hitler, as it is well know, was a fervent admirer of Islam)
I spent my 2nd grade in Germany in 1951. My father was an Army counterintelligence officer based in Frankfurt-am-Main. We lived in Offenbach, across the river. I went to a GI school in Frankfurt. I recall what I saw in Germany: kids coming to our gate in the morning, begging for food: “Zu essen! Zu essen!!” The ride to school in a VW was interesting: bombed out buildings, shrapnel and bullet marks in the walls, soccer fields with bomb craters, folks searching the building rubble and piles of detritus moved off the road by road graders. We travelled the autobahns; there were no other cars. We would stop for troop movements crossing the highways. My father took us to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a holiday in the spring. We drove through the environs of Munich in the countryside. My dad stopped the car on a countryside road. We rolled down all the windows. I asked: “Dad, what is that smell?” He said: “Always remember that smell: we are surrounded by the smells of Dachau and its feeder camps.” ‘Nuff said.
I believe your story. About 1985 there was some new construction, the bulldozers turned the earth. There was a terrible smell. I asked about the smell, an older person told me there had been a pig farm, on that location, in the 1940’s
Islam is a religion, a false, heretical religion, which uses politics to achieve its ends. Muslims have brilliantly learned to use both to achieve their goals, and they will never stop until the whole world becomes Muslim. They are masters at innuendo and propaganda, and using our laws against us.