Episode 1
“Hitler will be gone by Christmas,”
was something often said by my grandfather Albert after the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933.
Albert had fought on the front line for Germany in WW1 and had been awarded the Iron Cross for his bravery.
Above, Albert meets his first child on leave from WW1. Below the birth announcement in the local paper referring to Albert being on the battlefield at the time: ‘zurzeit im Felde’.
Albert was the only religious Jew in his immediate family but first and foremost he considered himself a proud, patriotic German. After the war he continued to build the family business, M&S Cohn’s into the most popular department store in the small town of Altenburg, near Leipzig.
As it came to pass, Hitler was not finished by Christmas. Fast forward a few years and the situation of Germany’s Jews was perilous. A cousin, Jacob, in Holland warned Albert to leave Germany. This made him extremely irritable. When this subject arose at home in Bismarck Strasse 2, Albert left the room, returning with his Iron Cross which he hurled above his head, proclaiming :
“Look! Nobody will touch us because I have done this for Germany.”
Albert came from a family of cattle traders in Altenkirchen, being the first generation in his family permitted to fully participate in German life. Previously Jews in his area were barred from joining any profession or owning land. Trading was their only option. His mother had died when he was little and he spent his childhood in the local cattle markets with his father.
He gained an apprenticeship in the famous Tietz department store in Cologne, proving himself to be an astute merchant. He was head hunted by the owners of M&S Cohn’s when they needed a manager. In 1913 he took up the position and married their daughter in 1914.
By 1930, Albert had everything he had worked long hours, six days a week for. A popular store; respect from the town’s folk through his charitable works and patronage of the local theatre; and head of three generations of a close knit family. In fact, 1930 was a time of celebration for the family and their customers, who viewed M&S Cohn’s as their own store. It was the 40th anniversary since Albert’s mother in law started the business in 1890 as a small linen store.
On April 1st 1930, they celebrated the 40th anniversary with a concert and presented their loyal customers with gifts.
(The daughter of one of their customers passed on her mother’s plate to me when she heard of my visits to Altenburg in 2008).
The anniversary plate - front and back; Altenburg 2008
Albert had no intention of giving up the life in Altenburg he had everything he had ever dreamed of. Even when his wife had to escape Germany in 1937, because the Gestapo had charged her with alleged treason, he put this down to her misjudgement in associating with the banned author, Thomas Mann.
So it was in 1938 that Albert remained in Altenburg with his three daughters - 18 year old twins Lotte and Lore and 15 year old Renata. His cousin Jacob had in part got his way by sending Albert’s son and oldest daughter to South Africa to set up a new home. Albert’s son insisted on flouting Nazi dictates and Albert was glad to have him out of the way.
The Race Laws of 1935 had made life especially difficult for Germany’s Jews by excluding them from everyday life. There were few Jews in Altenburg. The family had been well integrated into the town’s life. Now it was forbidden for them to associate with the ‘Aryan’ Germans. There’s was now an isolated existence.
Albert’s daughter Lore, however, worked as a nurse. With the introduction of the Race Laws Jews could no longer use ‘Aryan’ doctors. There was such a shortage of people to treat Jews that Lore went age 16 to train as a nurse at the Jewish hospital in Leipzig where she remained on the staff
Lore, at home in the garden, Altenburg
Even under these strained times Albert liked his household to run like clockwork. So it was on the night of 9th November 1938, that his girls had the breakfast table neatly set before the family retired to bed.
At 5am the next morning their apartment door was kicked in. Hitler’s stormtroopers pulled each household member from their bed, tipping up the breakfast table, smashing crockery, mirrors and vases, and pushing the family to the ground.
Jewish men were being rounded up early in the morning in Altenburg following a national night of hate in which synagogues and Jews were attacked. This came to be called the Night of the Broken Glass or Kristallnacht. (description at the end)
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Along with a few others, Albert was dragged through the street to the police station in his night shirt. Lore took her father’s overcoat to the local jail where the men were held. After a couple of days, they were moved out of town.
According to the local history book (listed below), the arrests were made ‘for the safety of the other citizens’.
Lore heard the men were being moved and was determined to discover where they were taking her father. She ran to find Herr Ula. Ula had been her father’s driver. The two set off on the road to Weimar, hoping to find out the men’s destination. Ula was not Jewish, so this liaison put both their lives at risk,if they were to be seen together. Lore crouched out of sight as they set off in Albert’s old store van on the road to Weimar…
To be continued….
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Kristallnacht, (German: “Crystal Night”) , also called Night of Broken Glass or November Pogroms, the night of November 9–10, 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property. The name Kristallnacht refers ironically to the litter of broken glass left in the streets after these pogroms. The violence continued during the day of November 10, and in some places acts of violence continued for several more days.
From: britannica.com/event/Kristallnacht
Extracts translated from a local history book:
‘Die Jude in Altenburg’ Ingolf Strassman (2004)
November 9/10th 1938, Altenburg
These defenceless family men were taken from their beds… smeared with red lead dye… beaten with sticks and spat on…(a small Jewish prayer house) at Pauritzer Strasse had its door kicked down…the Torah scroll was rolled on the pavement and people encouraged to spit on it and ride over it with bicycles and cars. 50 to 60 local residents joined in with the storm troopers.
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