The Jewish Experience

I can speak from my own memory as to what my mother knew or didn't know.
Some of you might know that I was born in Elbing, Westprussia. A few houses
down the street was a delicatessen and general grocery store. I used to
spend a few Pfennigs (I think it was 10) to buy a pickle out of the barrel.
I'd eat that sucker like an apple. I still love pickles. Anyway, one day
somebody else was running the store. Just like that the owners had
disappeared. I never thought anything of it until much later after the war
when my mom told me that those people were Jewish and that they may or may
not have escaped. She simply didn't know what happened to them and to this
day I don't know. It was fairly early in the anti-Jewish arrests and they
may have been able to emigrate. But that's how things happened. People
would simply not be there any more and no one knew anything about it.


I well remember the long columns of prisoners being marched down the street
in front of our house like real early (5 or so) in the morning. They wore
wooden sandals which made their own slurring sound. They were all men in
those striped prison suits. Guards with whips walked along side. From their
speech (hollering) you could tell that there were not speaking high German
but it was German. These people were always begging for water and my mother
tried to give them a ladle out of a bucket (she told me) but was shooed
away by the guards. No contact was allowed. We had no idea who these people
were, where they came from or where they went. The assumption was that they
were criminals of some kind.


When I asked my mom if she remembered if they had Jewish stars on their
clothes, she couldn't remember either but she didn't think so. When I went
to visit my home town in 1995 I drove all over the place and on our way to
Kalberg were we used to go to the beach, I suddenly passed a German road
sign. (this is Poland now) Since I had long been searching for some signal
that all this land just 50 years ago was part of Germany, this word caused
me to instantly turn off the road and follow the sign to Stutthof. I wound
up in a concentration camp and this was the first time I had ever heard of
the place. In Poland today the only German names remaining are those of the
concentration camps. Everything else in the former German territories has
been carved out of existence. No, there was one exception - the sewer lids
in my home town still had their German words and the name of my home town
in it. One can't carve cast iron.


I then found out about Stutthof and it's function as a prison camp for
Poles who were held there for various reasons. Many died there but it was
not an extermination camp such as Bergen-Belsen or Auschwitz. Here people
died from malnutrition and disease. I suspect that the columns we had seen
came from or went there but did anyone know? No one that we know ever even
knew of the existence of this place. Who would tell us? It was set deep in
the woods and anybody within the entire neighborhood had been removed so as
not to know anything. The government simply cleared the whole area and
provided it's own security to keep out any snoops. They certainly didn't
publish any police reports as to who had been arrested and where they were
held. People simply weren't there any more and no one knew where they went.

F. Rump

The book, Of Schlochau's Bygone Days, has this to say about the Jewish
Community (1912):

At the time of the Teutonic Knight's reign, the dwelling of Jews in
Prussia was prohibited. All the more densely, they lived in the neighboring
Poland. Here, they formed a state within a state as it were, in that,
besides religious freedom they also possessed their own jurisdiction in
civil cases.

As West Prussia fell in 1466 to Poland, many Jews streamed in. They
tolerated them however only in the countryside. The cities locked their
gates to them except a single city, and this was - Schlochau. So the local
Jewish community is the eldest in the former Teutonic Prussia. This proves
also the synagogue, which was built in the 16th century is the eldest
building in Schlochau.

In the year 1748, there were 6 Radziwiller houses where 17 Jewish Families
rented. The descendant list from the same year lists all tenants with names
as so: Jakob Salomon, Lewin Jacob, Arendt Judas, Joachim Isaak, Jakob
Moses, and others. Additionally, it gave in Schlochau 20.5 Jewish houses,
whose owners had to steer with double interest to the local-cash register.
As taxable property of the whole Jewish Community: A Jewish school, a
little kosher house, and a churchyard are presented. Also, a particular
Jewish butcher is mentioned.

Fredrick the Great ordered the expulsion on March 1, 1773, all the Jews who
could not prove a fortune of 1000 Thalers. On the 2nd of May, a Cabinet
Order decided that the Jews were not allowed to live in the countryside at
all but only in cities. In the same month, Jewish representatives went from
Schlochau, Hammerstein, and Landeck to Potsdam, in order to obtain a
mitigation of his commands through presentation of a Petition to the king.
It was useless. Friedrich admittedly extended the deportation, but did not
however, lift the decree. Many Jews preferred, to abandon the country
before being forced to do so. They wandered into the cities. Some Jewish
municipalities increased so, that they were superior to the Christians in
size. How much the Schlochauer Jews were involved in these revolutions is
unfortunately not known.

The law of the 11th of March 1812, lent the Jews the right of citizenship.
With that they had to ascribe civil surnames to themselves. For example
Jakob Salomon became Jakob Eriner, Lewin Jacon from Soldin became Lewin
Soldin etc. The supervision, particular of the peddling Jews, remains
however still long existing. In 1835, the Schlochauer magistrate had to
submit to the government, an exact table of all the local Jews together
with the proof of their citizenship. It was in total 364 persons. 15 had
lost their citizen-letters. A long written survey developed, in whose
course the involved were indebted, to have renewed their naturalization-
documents and had to pay 1 Thaler 15 Silvergroschen. Several among the
named, had trouble with the draft of the amount.

In 1827 the expenses for the construction of the Evangelical Church should
be raised, the Jews became also assessed. To hardship, they replied, "After
the Edict of the 30th of August 1816, the Jewish fellow-believers are
immediately bound as resident parishioners to contibute to the conservation
of the church-systems the Christian landowners. Since however Schlochau has
beside the Evangelical, another Catholic Church system, we want it so
approved that we have to give away only the half of the building
contribution. The other half, we shall commit to the Catholic Parish.

On the report that they would never have contributed to the Catholic
Church, the government answered, that the Jews must do that from now on.
Because if they wanted to exclude them, so the conservation of the
Christian churches would be endangered through their increased settlement.
As nevertheless many refused to pay the imposed contributions, they became
impounded.

The Schlochauer Jews remained in their old habits until into the modern
time. In a certain report of 1843 for the government, it is noted that: The
Jewish church service is not yet held in German language. Manners and
customs of, such as the costume of the cult official are still quite
Jewish. A change happened gradually after 1850. The authority lifted the
regulations constricting the Jews. The Jewish community is specifically so
independent presently as each Christian. They count 222 souls. It is their
steady decrease to attribute that they must manage without rabbi for years.
The last Rabbis were, Paradies, Lichtenstein, and Samter.

The settlement of Jewish inhabitants starting in 1466, made the
installation of a Jewish graveyard necessary. A lot became dressed on the
domain ground outside the city where they are still buried today.

The Berlin Synagogue burning on Kristallnacht November 9th, 1938

The Story of Henry Oertelt

Born in 1921 in Berlin, Henry could trace his family back 200 years
in Germany. His father died when he was two. He had a mother and
brother. The Versailles Treaty after the WWI defeat of Germany
specified that they could not make weapons anymore. All the weapons
factories were closed. This affected other areas of the economy.
There was 40% unemployment. When Hitler came to power he was looking
for a scapegoat for the misery. Many people did not know Jews
personally.

A ballot was projected showing 28 different political parties. There
were new elections every few months because the governments could
not improve the lot of the people. Hitler wrote, “Mein Kampf,” in
1923. At first he did not propose killing Jews, but rather, shipping
them off to the island of Madagascar. Early national socialism
members were called brownshirts. They drove or marched down the
streets singing a song, “When the blood of the Jews squirts from our
knives things will be twice as good.” Henry said to his
mother, “Aren’t we Jews? Aren’t they talking about us?” His mother
said not to pay attention to, “those hooligans.”

After many elections the National Socialist Party did receive the
most votes and Hindenburg died. Hitler said you will have work,
food, and will be happy. Germany started to build u-boats and and
planes immediately. Unemployment was gone in a month. People said
that Hitler was the first politician who kept his word. Jewish shop
owners were beaten in public. Some people shook their heads and
others egged them on. The police were there not doing anything.

The secret police was created and the first camp, Dachau was built
just two months into power. All other political parties were
prohibited. And Hilter named himself the Führer. Some political
parties were 300 years old. People learned quickly not to make any
noise when political party headquarters were robbed, burned, trashed
and party leaders imprisoned in camps. 35% had voted for the
national socialist party but this was not a majority of the German
people. Also people knew there was now a camp in Berlin
called, “Oranienburg.” Henry was 12 at this time.

Things started to change. Now his homework was not corrected or
graded in school. When he raised a hand to answer a question, he was
not called upon. Jewish students were ignored. They were not allowed
to participate in music anymore. Sometimes these conditions were
presented as or accepted as temporary. Henry had been captain of the
soccer team. His team was one of the top five in Berlin. He was now
sitting on the bench as his team was losing. When he complained he
was kicked off the team by the coach who called him a, “damn Jew.”
Henry said to our group, “Can you imagine talking that way to a 13
year old kid?”

At 14 ½ he was dismissed from school. The principal asked him to
collect his things from his desk and go home. He did not want to do
this while class was in session, but he had to. As he collected his
things and spun around to leave, his foot caught a desk leg, he
tripped and he, and all the books fell to the floor. The kids found
this immensely funny and all were laughing, but not him.

When he got home from school his mother was there. “Why aren’t you
at work?” he asked. She had been fired two days earlier. The Führer
said that any Christian could fire a Jew, no questions asked. A
friend of hers asked how things were going and she admitted she was
tired of having Henry at home all day. He offered Henry a position
at this furniture company designing and making fine furniture and he
accepted.

Restrictions made life tougher for the Jews in Germany. Jews could
only shop between 2-4 pm. They could not be on the streets after
8pm. They could not be away from home at night. They could not go to
public places like theaters, sports stadiums, libraries, beaches,
parks, and restaurants! Some Jews paid no attention to these
restrictions and the authorities realized there was no way to tell
that someone was a Jew or not. So they came up with the yellow
fabric, Star of David, that had to be sewn onto one’s clothing.
Henry said you could by the stars from your friendly neighborhood
Nazi store. Hitler Youth groups were created. One could be in the
Hitler Youth at 6 years old. Along with the uniform came a knife
that said, “Blood and Honor,” on it.

An incident happened that changed history. A Jewish man in Paris
learned that his parents had been beaten. He went to the German
Embassy and shot an official who died two days later. This caused
the German government to launch Kristallnacht on November 9th, 1938
as a revenge for the killing. The world did not complain about the
re-militarization or Kristallnacht. Austria and the Sudetenland were
claimed in 1938. Chamberlain of England said they had averted a
world war, a month later, Kristallnacht.
Henry was 17 now.

Germany invaded Poland Sept. 1, 1939, and war was declared by France
and England. Now there were extermination camps. Jewish families
disappeared one by one. In 1943 Henry was 22 years old. All of his
family and friends had disappeared. On June 16th, 1943, in the
middle of the night, we were taken away to Theresienstadt in
Czechoslovakia. This was actually considered a, “milder,” camp.

Of 15,000 children, 16 and under, 100 survived in three years. There
was a brown soup for morning coffee and soup and bread for lunch.
People died left and right, especially the elderly. Henry was there
13 or 14 months. Then 4000 assembled at the trainstation and got
onto trains, packed so tightly no one could sit. Two or three died
right in the middle of the train car. There was no food, water, or
toilets for two and a half days. The train went to Auschwitz, the
worst camp of all. By now 30-35 had died of the 80 in the car.
Children 13 and under were separated. Guards said they were going to
nurseries and school. Trucks picked up the kids and transported them
to the gas chambers where they were killed, then burned. At
Auschwitz alone 1.5 million people were exterminated. 87,000 were
Polish Christians, 30,000 gypsies, 10,000 homosexuals, and thousands
of Jehovah’s Witnesses who stood up to Hitler as a group. 1.25
million were Jews and 400-500 thousand of those were kids.

Henry said it was a crush of hatred over what you were born. No one
has control over who they are born to. Old folks were separated and
killed because they could not work. At the Birkenau camp they had to
shower and then walk out into the cold October night air to dry off,
get their hair shaved off and have numbers tattooed onto their
forearms. His was B-11291. One was not to refer to their name
anymore but to their number. This was the final de-humanization, no
clothes, no jewelry, no name. They owned nothing.

A soup bowl used upside down served as a pillow. One also used a
filthy blanket. Every night you slept in a different bunk. One had
to have the will to survive. “We knew the war was not going well for
Germany.” One building was a solid row of toilets with rats
underneath. He was in Auschwitz for 5 months. Then they were marched
for 4 days in January to trains that took them to Sachsenhausen for
two weeks, then to Flossenburg in the beginning of Feb. 1945. By
this point there were no supplies, not even for the Germans. One day
you might get soup, the next day not. Allied planes had bombed
around the camp so there was no work to do.

The noises of war got closer and closer. 17,000 men were ordered out
1,000 at a time. People were weak and sick. If you fell you were
shot to death. We were liberated on the march two and a half days
later. Henry weighed 82 lbs. They were liberated by General Patton’s Army.

There was a question and answer session after his talk:
After the war the American’s pumped food and aid into Germany, and
the Red Cross took over care of the camp victims. Local farmers had
to take in Jews and care for them too.

Today he has no hatred of Germans. Only he and his brother survived.
It was treason to associate with a Jew, so some of the people in the
camps were Germans who had helped Jews.

Learning the furniture trade saved his life. He was able to work in
the camp shop designing and making furniture. Pushing a pencil
around on a blueprint used up quite less calories than digging ditches.

He was 28 years old when he came to America and he could not speak a
word of English.

The Berlin Synagogue rebuilt

Henry has written a book about his ordeal called, “An Unbroken
Chain: My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust.” His book talks about
18 points of luck that allowed him to survive. If any of the
18, “links,” had not happened then the chain would be broken and he
would not have survived.