Welcome to my new readers, and hello to everyone,
I publish two series. This series, my family saga set in 1930’s Germany, comes to your email on Sunday mornings. The back episodes start with ‘Night of Broken Glass’, and are all on my substack: laurelevy.substack.com
The second series ‘Hallmarks of Tyranny’ is published mid week, and will in future come via email, at least once a month. The two parts of this series, so far, are on: laurelevy.substack.com
You’re welcome to follow, either, or both series.
Please feel free to comment on the posts,
Laure Levy 🌿
Episode 8
Lotte wrote about her first thirteen years of life:
The memories of these happy, fulfilling days, can never be taken from me, and I am grateful to have them.
She continued:
This happy life changed rapidly in 1933, when Hitler came to power. Gradually our school education changed, and academic teaching became secondary. The emphasis on the importance of the Aryan Race, became a daily subject. The Hitler youth became a compulsory movement. All the children wore uniforms and hands had to be raised in salute to Hitler. The clever strategy to give everyone authority over us Jews was abused by most, but some were passive and looked at us with compassion.
The change in political regime effected Henner’s life straight away, as well. His apprenticeship in Dresden ended abruptly, because the store was one of the first to be Aryanised.
Aryanisation was the Nazi policy from 1933, to transfer Jewish owned businesses to non-Jews. Jewish owners were ‘encouraged’ to sell their businesses for a token sum to ‘Germans’.
Henner had moved around the departments at the Dresden store, but had not been in the fashion department. When he had to leave, he asked his father if he could do an apprenticeship in fashion, to round off his experience. He moved to Leipzig where he boarded with a relative, and cycled to his new work experience in a Fashion House. It was a fortuitous choice, one that secured a direction for his future.
He went with the store’s buyer to fashion warehouses in Berlin, to choose the stock. He realised he had a gift. He could look at an item of clothing on the hanger, and know if it would look good on a person. He said he knew then, that he had discovered his future profession.
In order to follow his professional interests, Gerhard was also forced to be on the move. He had to leave university in Berlin, in 1933, on account of being Jewish. He went to Switzerland to finish his PhD in music.
The girls continued to have a hard time at school. Lotte writes:
My sister Ruth and we twins were often called Christ Murderers………When the children went on outings or to swim, we had to stay behind. I had been chosen to represent our school at an inter-school art exhibition. When the exhibition started my six paintings were torn up.
I was to play Little Red Riding Hood in the school play. When I arrived for the dress rehearsal wearing my costume, the children got up and said: ‘No Jewish Red Riding Hood.’
We were spat at and slapped and we couldn’t defend ourselves. A girl kicked me in the face and broke my nose.
The headmaster at the girls’ school was in turmoil. He was a friend of their mother Franze, and found carrying out the Nazi dictates against the Jewish children, proved more than he could bare. Lotte:
One day, a teacher told me to go to the office of the Principal. When I entered, I found him hanging from the ceiling. On the desk was a note saying that he was not prepared to treat Jewish children the way he had been instructed.
The teacher blamed the girls for what happened. Franze took the girls out of school, and took it upon herself to home school them.
Franze and the girls at home
The Nazis made their life in the town difficult too. Lotte, furthest right in the photo, writes:
The Nazi newspaper, ‘Der Sturmer’, was displayed everywhere, and living in such a provincial town, the antisemitic articles and pictures were aimed directly at us. Pictures of my family and the interior of the house, and derogatory articles about us were featured. Life became difficult to endure.
The family tried to continue as best they could. Henner asked his father if he could open a new department in M&S Cohn’s for young fashions. Albert concentrated on coats and dresses for older customers. He got his wish, and set up a new small department. He enjoyed making window displays based on two colours, as he had seen them doing in Leipzig, which despite the political situation, attracted a lot of interest from the young women of Altenburg.
M&S Cohn’s was situated in a road that ran directly off the Market Place. In April 1934, the National Socialists celebrated Hitler’s birthday in Altenburg’s Marketplace.
Altenburg’s Market Place, April 1934
It was too much for Henner. He went back to the family home, a couple of blocks away, and flew an opposition flag from the top of the house. Whilst in retrospect, I can take pride in my father’s defiance of the Nazis, I understand why Albert was furious. His son’s act brought danger to the whole family.
A Dutch relative had been telling Albert to send a member of the family away, to start a new home somewhere, in case it was needed. He foresaw the situation in Germany becoming more dangerous for its Jewish citizens.
Albert had resisted the idea, but now saw the merits in getting his son out of harms way. He decided to send him to London. My father said there was little planning for the trip. He had a reservation at a boarding house in Putney, and was to study at a London college, but he knew nobody.
He said it was difficult to get into the country at Harwich. His luggage was turned out, and he had to prove he had financial backing. He told them his family had a ‘Warenhaus’, the German word for department store. The custom officers thought his family owned a ware house, and let him enter.
When he arrived at the boarding house, the proprietors were serving tea in the lounge. He was invited to join them, and handed a cup of tea, and sandwiches on a plate. He stood gripping both awkwardly, trying to work out how he was meant to lift the cup off the saucer, without a free hand.
To be continued…..
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/laurelevy3O
In the next episode, the Nazis introduce the Race Laws