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July 27, 2006
My Great-Uncle Whispers To Us From Beyond The Grave He Never Got.
I am in College Park, Maryland, doing some last-minute research for my forthcoming book on the U.S. government's WWII loyalty bureaucracy. I had a couple of spare hours yesterday after reviewing the documents I'd come to examine, so I began poking around a little in NARA's enormous collection of microfilm. One series title intrigued me: "Documents Concerning Jews in the Berlin Document Center" (.pdf file), which, according to the finding aid, consists of "newspaper clippings, letters, manuscripts, pamphlets, reports and other documents originating with the SA, SS, Gestapo, Reich Ministry of Justice and Reichskulturkammer (RKK, Reich Chamber of Culture) from 1920-1945."
I grabbed Reel 5 of the fourteen-reel set and popped it onto a microfilm reader.
And, against all odds -- my great uncle was, after all, just one of six million Jewish victims, from a small and inconsequential German town -- I found information about him. All these years later.
Like this chilling police report from the Bad Kissingen Kriminalpolizei, dated February 4, 1935:
The complaining witnesses asserted that their customers -- some from here, but mostly from elsewhere -- have reported that on January 25 and 26, 1935, young people in civilian clothing posted outside their stores stopped them as they were leaving their stores in order to ask them their names and even threatened to place them under surveillance or bring them to the District Leader if they did not desist.The customers were pursued on bicycles, stopped, and asked their names. One woman from Albertshauren was advised to return her purchased goods to the store and demand a refund.
On Friday, January 25, 1935, Mrs. Gr$uuml;nebaum went to her store around (illegible) o'clock; she had to (word illegible, possibly "persuade") the young man posted at her door to let her through. The young man repeatedly peered through the store's door to take note of who was shopping in the store.
On Thursday, January 29, 1935, there was again a young man posted by Almstadt, taking down the names of the people who went into Grünebaum's store.
The shopowner Franz Ehrlich explained, that although there was no one posted directly in front of his store, they were instead stationed on the opposite corner, in order to be able to surveille the stores of Grünebaum, Müller, and Eisbaum. He was also able to observe that a number of Grünebaum's and Müller's customers were stopped by the people stationed there and had their names taken down.
Leo Müller explained that for most of the day on Friday and until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, he kept his store closed, because he didn't want his customers to be harrassed upon leaving his store.
Four other people corroborated the complaints as made to me by the businesspeople.
And this one:
Würzburg, 23 January 1935.I learned that on January 15, 1942, the Bad Kissingen Criminal Police performed an "operation for the acquisition of Jewish-owned woolen and fur goods as well as skis and ski boots as part of the collection drive for the Eastern Front" -- that is to say, a theft of warm clothing from Jews -- and took from my great-uncle 40 articles of clothing, which of course they carefully itemized.Würzburg Police Directorate
Re: Circumstances of the Jews in Bad Kissingen
The Jewish community organization in Bad Kissingen informs the Union of Bavarian Jewish Communities that the conditions in Bad Kissingen are getting worse and worse, and that acts of terror are occurring. The breaking of windows of Jewish houses is almost a weekly occurrence. On Thursday, January 15, 1935, at around 9:30 in the evening, two pistol shots came through the window of the illuminated living room of the merchant N. Bretzfelder and flew over the heads of the people sitting at the table. The display windows of Jewish stores and even the front doors of the Jewish hospice were smeared with tar during the night."
And I learned that in 1940, Leo owned a Philips D57 AU "Aachen" radio. It was in tip-top shape when they stole it from him. "Like new."
Leo's life was extinguished in 1942. We thought he disappeared without a trace. But traces remain, in unexpected places.
Posted by Eric at July 27, 2006 7:37 AM
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Comments
This chilling information should also serve as a reminder that youth and children are not always "innocent".
Posted by: paul yamada at July 28, 2006 9:47 AM
Chilling.
I found out on Yad Vashem that my father had a brother Lipa we never heard about. And so on.
Posted by: shmuel at July 28, 2006 10:40 AM
What an amazing discovery, Eric.
It makes me wonder who among us would sign up for harassment duty under alternative circumstances. Whose prejudices run so deep as to compel them to act just as obscenely now?
And how many countless others would say nothing, do nothing to protect their neighbors?
Obversely, I wonder how many of those harassers would have so willingly continued their activities had they truly understood the roles they were playing in advancing the "final solution"?
I can't get my head around it, this mystery of hate.
Posted by: David Marshall at July 29, 2006 12:40 AM
As you know I am an obsessive on the subject of digging into your past: this one takes the cake.
Extraordinary.
Posted by: john a at July 29, 2006 10:28 AM