Trudy Gold
Nazis and Jews: 1933-1939
Trudy Gold - Nazis and Jews: 1933-1939
- Today I am tasked, with looking at a very dark period in Jewish history, the Jews and the Nazis, 1933 to 1941. Now, I had a long conversation with William this afternoon, because we try and teach in tandem, and he did mention to you that he wasn’t actually going to teach the Shoah itself. We have actually covered the Shoah, it’s available at my website. It will be available on our website, and you can actually write in if you want those particular lectures. But when we covered various countries like France, or Slovakia, or Hungary, we looked at them as part of the history of that country. So having decided with a group such as you who have so much knowledge, and access to so many books, we thought that we would not go over that terrible period between ‘41 and '45, what I’m more interested in, and I think you are too, is themes and trying to work out the whys and the hows of history. So when I lecture to you on the German Workers Party manifesto, and of course, they changed their name to the Nazi Party, that was the manifesto that they came to power with. And of course, what is so interesting, is how they took power. If you think about it, after the failed Putsch, Hitler comes out of prison where he had an incredibly lenient sentence, whilst he was in prison, Rosenberg became the head of the party, you know, the terrible Baltic ideologue who had written, he had written the myth, that terrible book on the 20th century and race theory.
When Hitler comes back, he has decided he’s not going to do it, again through Putsch, he’s going to do it through the ballot box. And what is fascinating is between '21 and 1929, between '24 and '29, he didn’t do very well at all. The Nazi Party was not gaining many seats, why? Because back in 1924, the Dawes Plan, the Americans stepped in and helped save the German economy. And basically after that terrible period of inflation, there was a certain amount of stability between '24 and '29. And then of course, Wall Street crashes. And the great quote, “It’s the economy, stupid.” When do people turn to extreme solutions? When do they stop caring that the person they are electing into power is actually a consummate racist, has absolutely no moral compass whatsoever, and not only that, in the case of Adolf Hitler, has made it quite clear, both in “Mein Kampf,” his struggle, in the Nazi newspapers, in the manifesto, that the Jews are not German and are not citizens, and really, he wants them out of Germany. So how was it that Germans in the end, are prepared to elect into power, a group that was so, not only so unbelievably racist, but if you examine the inner circle, some of the most appalling characters that you can possibly see. And what then happens is that, I believe that people swallow their natural sensibilities if they think strong government, he promises things to everyone. He promises the industrialists he’s going to control the workers, which he does. He promises the army that they will re-arm, which they do. He promises the lower middle classes that they will have a place in the sun. He promises the poor, the disaffected, all sorts of things.
He is going to create the pure society. And provided you are obedient to the Fuhrer, and I mentioned this in the last presentation, the point about Nazism, a belief in Adolf Hitler, it’s not voting for a political leader. It’s almost, if you like, Robert Wistrich went as far as to say, it’s the dark Messiah, it’s the upside-down Messiah, a Messiah with a Teutonic, Messiah with a sword in his hands. So these are the questions. And after 1929, big industrialists, the aristocrats, and quite a few members of the army, and the conservatives around Hindenburg, they, in the end decide, to let the Nazis into government. And that’s what happens. They’re at their peak in November 1932. Ironically, they come to power the last possible moment because the economic situation in Germany was alleviating. What then happens, is there is a coup around Hindenburg and Hitler is made chancellor on the 30th of January, 1933. By this time of course, he has his private army, the SA, and out of the SA, he has created the SS, ruled over by the extraordinarily evil and very sick Heinrich Himmler. And he then has the SA and the SS at the ballot box, but he also does it with seduction. Those of you who’ve looked at a lot of Nazi propaganda films, we’ll see the great rallies so beautifully orchestrated, 100,000 people screaming to the same tune is absolutely extraordinary. And I believe Professor Peimer showed extracts from “Cabaret” on Saturday. That clip in “Cabaret,” when the Young Nazi sings “Tomorrow Belongs To Me,” is so seductive. And that they did it not just on the bully boy, but they also did it on seduction, and promising people that they would look after them and make their lives better.
And that’s the curve, because in return for that, the question is how much were they prepared to swallow their sensibilities? And what about those who should have known better? Who does one expect to know better? The well-educated? Well, ironically, the highest membership of the Nazi Party, was in the medical, the teaching, and the legal profession. The church? There was a Nazi church, presided over by Reichsfuhrer Muller, who wore the swastika on his canonicals. Never forget that Tiso, who led the Slovakian government, who sold his Jews to the Nazis, was also in canonicals. In 1933, the Vatican made a deal with Hitler, the Papal Nuncio who had been Papal Nuncio in Bavaria, Roncalli, was now Papal Nuncio for foreign affairs. And in July 1933, he signed a deal with Hitler. “If you leave the church alone, then I will leave you alone.” And basically, that is the man who became pope in 1939, Pius XII. So the moral bastions, if you want to think about it, the clergy, the so-called elite professions, the professorships, well professors, Heidegger became, the great Heidegger, became the rector of Freiburg University, a member of the Nazi Party, and made many Nazi speeches. By 1935, to be a judge in Germany, you had to wear a swastika on your uniform. If you didn’t, if you’ve refused to do it and you kept quiet, ironically, nothing happened to you, but you lost your pension, and you lost your place in society, and your wife lost her place in society. So what I want to put in front of you, and I’m sure this is something that many of you have thought about, what I want to put in front of you are these various kind of dilemmas that people face. In the end, why do people vote into power, a man who is on every level, and if you’ve read “Mein Kampf,” and I don’t suggest you do, extracts are enough, who is psychologically so damaged that you elect into power and you give him the state. And in return, did your life improve? Well, ironically, for a while, it did.
Can we see the first slide? Thank you, Lauren. Now, the Nazi Nazis never wavered from their anti-Jewish policy. It’s fascinating because if you think about it, by 1927, 45% of Jews were intermarrying. And that also meant there was a liberal tradition in Germany as well. Never forget that Germany, to so many Jews, it’s a truism, but it is true. It’s the country of Goethe, and Schiller, and Bach, and Beethoven. And they were the most loyal citizens of Germany. Just look at their war effort. Look at what they’d given to Germany. The Zionist Party in Germany was very small. German Jews were loyal to Germany. They were in the professions in Berlin, 50% of the doctors, 50% of the lawyers were Jewish. If you think of the culture of Germany, the culture of Weimar, which the Nazis branded as decadent, so many people involved in that culture were people of Jewish birth. Now, there was also a tussle in the party between the conservative elements of Germany. People like Schahct who was head of the Reichsbank, who didn’t want to rock the boat, Hitler comes to power, Hitler’s come to power, what happens is he becomes chancellor on January the 30th, 1933, February the 27th, 1933, the Reichstag burns down. Now what would happen if the Houses of Parliament burnt down?
What would’ve happened if the White House burnt down? There would be a state of emergency, wouldn’t there? And that’s exactly what happened. A state of emergency was called for, and also an Enabling Act, which Hitler is now chancellor, the Enabling Act, he’s not president, that is Hindenburg. The Enabling Act meant that all constitutional liberties were immediately suspended. And then on the fresh elections, he pulled 44% of the vote. And then with another very right-wing party, he took over 50% in the vote, by November of that year, there are no other parties left to vote for. The party is the state and the Fuhrer’s decree is law. So that’s how he actually took power. But one of his first, one of the first issues is what are we going to do about the Jews? Never forget, and sometimes people misunderstand. Antisemitism was absolutely at the core of Nazi ideology. The Nazis really did believe the Jew was the evil force in the world. Even in the end when they were murdering them, men, women, and children, they still were looking for the headquarters of the protocols of the Elders of Zion. They still believed in world Jewish power. And what happens is, the radicals in the party, Goebbels, his minister of propaganda, his brilliant minister of propaganda, Goebbels was an evil genius. And Professor Peimer is going to be talking much more about him. He was a man who understood what people wanted. He actually said, “If you tell a big enough lie, people believe it.” And he, with Julius Streicher, the evil character, one of the most evil of the Nazi figures, a great bully of a man, a ghastly, ghastly creature, he was the editor of “Der Sturmer,” which was spewing out pornographic, antisemitic pictures, it was something absolutely appalling.
That wing of the party wanted a boycott, they wanted a boycott of all Jewish places of work and all Jewish shops. Now think about it, the Jews are under 1%, and actually it’s ½% of the population of Germany. They had a very high visibility profile as we’ve already discussed. But that is true of Jew, if you look at Jewish centres anywhere in the Western world, There is what I would call, the visible employment patterns. They were in department stores, they were in the press, they were in the arts, they were in the judiciary, they were in the legal profession, and they were in the teaching profession. Maybe that helps explain why so many Nazis, people joined. So many Germans joined the Nazi Party from those professions because when the Jews have finally expelled from those professions, it meant, “Wow, we can have that job we always wanted.” I mean, if you think of the Berlin Phil, if you think of some of the great, some of the great orchestras, some of the great opera houses of Germany, look, Germany was a fascinating country. Practically every little city had its own opera house. I can remember one of my very close friends who only passed away recently, Ralph Ehrmann. Ge came to England as a man at 1932. So he had a very good memory of it all. And he actually said, I remember him saying to me, “You don’t understand, it was the land of culture, even Claus Moser, He said, "I came from the land of culture to the land of the Philistines.”
And so if you think how many Jews had thrown themselves into German music, into German literature, it was their world. And there was never a greater contribution, if we can call it contributionalism, they didn’t see it that way. They saw themselves as German. And now the party of the state has decided what they’re going to do about the Jews. The policy is this. It is a social, legal, and political exclusion for them to emigrate. Look, there’s a lot of debate on that terrible issue. Did Hitler always intend to murder the Jews? I tend to be far more pragmatic in my approach. I would turn to historians like the great Yehuda Bauer. I think these decisions were made as a result of events. Certainly Germany, Jews could leave Germany, Jews could leave Austria. Jews could actually leave Germany and Austria right up until the autumn of 1941, after the so-called “Final Solution” had begun. The actual decision to kill, to commit genocide against the Jewish people is implemented with the invasion of Russia. So the way I read it, having studied so many different historians that the decision happens because when Hitler goes for, basically for total war, in Germany, 2/3 of them are managed, are going to manage to get out. So remember at this stage, we’re going to make life as uncomfortable as possible. We’re going to legally, socially, and politically exclude them. They have no right to be here. And the aim is emigration. And at the same time, we’re going to rob them blind.
You know, they set up under Adolf Eichmann, an immigration bureau in Vienna in December 1938, and in Berlin in January 1939 to facilitate Jewish Emigration Act. Now the boycott was announced, and it was to continue indefinitely. But what happens is that in America, Rabbi Stephen Wise, he leads a boycott, he leads a mass meeting of 50,000 Jews in Madison Square Garden to actually protest against the boycott. So the boycott is proclaimed, it’s announced on the 27th of March, 1933, it’s going to happen on the 1st of April. Now, how did Jews deal with it? The major Jewish organisations didn’t want a fuss made. They still believed that Hitler, once he’s in power, he will moderate. But Stephen Wise in America, he is a fascinating man. He’d actually came from a tradition of rabbis, he was the son of a rabbi, the grandson of a rabbi, born in Budapest, but came to America as an infant. He was quite atypical of non-Orthodox Judaism at that time because he was a Zionist. And in 1897, he was, as a young man, he was the one of the founders of New York Zionist Society. He attended the second Zionist Congress in 1898. He was a man who was, he had many pulpits, he becomes gradually the leader or he’s very much seen as the leader of American Jewry. He joined Brandeis and Frankfurter to create a democratically-elected Zionist Society. He was part of the effort to convince Woodrow Wilson to back the Balfour Declaration, and out of this society, by the way, originally, eventually came the American Jewish Congress, of which he was the honorary president, which later became the World Jewish Congress and Conference.
He was quite close to Albert Einstein, he was involved in the fight for justice for all sorts of people. He was one of those who spoke out against the Armenian Genocide against the Turks. And in 1933, as a response to what happened in Germany, the announcement of the boycott, he said this. “The time for prudence and caution is passed. We must speak up like men. How can we ask our Christian friends to list their voices in protests against the wrongs suffered by Jews if we keep silent? What is happening in Germany today may happen tomorrow in any land on Earth, unless it’s in challenged and rebuked. It is not the German Jews who are being attacked. It is the Jews.” He and people like Brandeis, put pressure on Cordell Hull, who was the American Secretary of State to protest to the Germans. But what happened was a mild rebuke was delivered by the American ambassador in Berlin. I’m quoting, “Unfortunate incidents have indeed occurred, and the whole world joins in regretting them.” So Stephen Wise in America, you have 50,000 people in Madison Square Garden, protesting. The Board of Deputies of British Jews decided that it was wrong to protest in the East End of London, the more radical Jews asked for a boycott of all German goods. But the board of deputies was against that. They said it would only make matters worse for the Jews of Germany. So people don’t know how to respond. And can we go on with the next slide, please?
Yes, now this is, this is from the Reich, one of the German newspapers actually talking about the boycott. Now the boycott was horrible. You had the SA at the doors trying to stop Gentiles going into Jewish stores, but it only lasted a day. And Hitler, and Goebbels actually writes in his diary, “We are not yet ready to go against world Jewry, but the time will come.” Meanwhile, the Zionist leader, Robert Weltsch, published an article in his paper, “The Jewish Observer,” and I’m going to just read it to you, “The 1st of April, 1933 will remain an important date in the history of German Jewry, indeed in the history of the entire Jewish people. The events of that day have aspects that are not only political and economic, but moral and spiritual as well. To speak of the moral aspect, that is our task. However much the Jewish question is now debated, nobody except ourselves can express it. What is to be said at these events from the Jewish point of view, what is happening to the soul of the German Jew? Today, the Jew cannot speak except as a Jew. Everything else is utterly senseless. Gone is the fatal misapprehension of many Jews that Jewish interests can be pressed under some cover. On April the 1st, the day of the anti-Jewish boycott, the German Jews learned a lesson which penetrates far more deeply than even their embittered, now-triumphant opponents can absume. April the 1st. April the 1st, 1933 can become the day of Jewish awakening and Jewish rebirth, if the Jews will it. If the Jews are mature and have greatness in them, they accuse us of treason against the German people. The nationalist socialist press calls us 'Enemy of the nation’ and leads us defenceless.
It is not true that the Jews betrayed Germany. If they betrayed anyone, it was themself the Jews, because the Jews did not display his Judaism with pride, because he tried to avoid the Jewish issue. He must be a part of the blame for the degradation.” It’s a very, very strong article, and in it he says, “Wear the yellow badge with pride.” In fact, the Nazis did not implement the wearing of the yellow badge until much later on. What he’s saying is, “It’s been a myth, a miasma. You’ve never really been German, not according to these people. So now be Jews.” But the Zionist party in Germany was actually very, very small and under 10%. And he is very much speaking from a Zionist point of view. Robert Weltsch himself, he’d come from the Habsburg Empire, but he’d fought in the German army in the first World War. But he became a Zionist as a young man, and he was quite close to both Buber and to Einstein. And he was in favour of a binational solution in Palestine. He finally made it to Palestine in 1938, he became quite close to Chaim Weizmann, and he was, he became, after the war, he became the London correspondent for “Haaretz.” He also covered the Nuremberg Laws. He was a major force in the creation of the Leo Baeck Institutes. He edited its yearbook, and he was laid to rest in Jerusalem. But that was his response to it, very much so.
Now, because this is important that you understand the extent of the publicity, I’m going to read a couple of press articles. This is from “The Daily Herald.” This is for Friday, March the 10th, 1933. This is before the boycott, “And revelations have been made to ‘The Daily Herald’ of a revolting system of torture and brutal ill treatment that’s being practised on arrested Jews and communists in Berlin by gangs.” One of the first acts of the Nazi regime was to establish Dachau, a concentration camp, which is 12 K’s from from Munich, it’s a beautiful leafy suburb. Who went there? Protestors, communists, Jews went there if they were protestors, if they were members of the Communist Party, it was not specifically for Jews, it was for priests who spoke up. It was for liberal members of the Reichstag. So basically, and it was an instrument of terrible torture. “Since the general election in Germany, and the victory of Hitler, great numbers of these men have gone completely out of hand, inflamed and encouraged by the violent speeches of their leaders, they’ve indulged an orgy of licence in cruelty as no real effort is made to check them, the outrages are growing. Groups of Nazis are allowed to do practically what they like, are having roundups organised by themselves without official orders.” This was mainly the SA. And later on the SS is going to get very, very angry. Now, there was a conference in London for the relief of German Jews, but basically what is happening, and you can find this in all the press, when I was preparing resources for university students, I sent PhD students down to the archives to look at so many different newspapers.
Because what is absolutely clear is there was so much evidence of what was going on was reported. And please don’t forget that up until 1939, the British had correspondence in Germany, and up until ‘41, the Americans had correspondence in Germany. Now, one of the first acts of the German government was the passing of the Career Civil Service Act. Now that was the act which at a felt swoop, throws the Jews out of the teaching profession. So whether you are a primary school teacher, or whether you are a professor, you have now lost your means of livelihood. Interestingly, there were a couple of British academics in Vienna at the time when Hitler came to power, and they actually set up an organisation to facilitate Jewish scientists coming over in particular, Jewish academics coming over to Britain. I’ll deal with this when I deal with refugees next week. But it’s very important to know that there were people speaking up both in Germany and out of Germany. And I know that William talked to you about Adam von Trott. So basically, what happens in the Career Civil Service Act, all the physicists are thrown out of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, those of Jewish birth. All of a sudden, those people who didn’t know or really consider their Jewish background, and as far as the Nazis are concerned, it’s very muddled at this stage. It’s if you are of Jewish descent, ironically, if you had fought in the first World War because Hindenburg was still president until he died in '34, Jews who had fought in the first World War were not dismissed.
May the 10th, 1933, the burning of the books. Now this is terrifying for anybody who loves freedom. I often quote Heine because he was the man. He is the man. “Any society that burns books will one day burn people.” That is why, at every level, I am opposed to censorship. Unless it’s incitement to treason, race hatred, or murder. I am so against censorship. That great quote, “I don’t believe in what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 18,000 books were burnt that first night by university students. And of course you have that extraordinary memorial. Now outside the Humboldt Brothers University in Berlin, you look down and you see empty bookshelves. Freud was the first to be thrown into the flames. You know what he said? “We’re getting better, in mediaeval times they would’ve burnt me.” And it’s interesting. If you want to think about totalitarianism, have a look in your libraries, work out which books you think would have been burnt. H.G. Wells, “All Quiet On The Western Front,” Remarque, of course was burnt. Anything that had any ideology that was contrary to Nazis. The next stage of course, is the no Jews allowed now into the legal or medical profession. They’re not thrown out, there can be no new ones, because it took the Germans five years to rear up their own enough to be able to fill the vacancies. So these people aren’t just losing their jobs, they’re losing their means of livelihood. And then of course, the Reich’s Chamber of Culture is established under Joseph Goebbels. And at one fell swoop, Jews are thrown out of the arts.
Just think of, I mean my passion is cinema. Think of UFA, in many ways, Weimar Cinema, if you believe in freedom of expression, was one of the most extraordinary in the world. So many of the great directors later on enriched Hollywood. Some of them were already over there. People like Fritz Lang, and sometimes, you should watch his “Metropolis,” because when I’m in Westminster Underground Station, I think I’m in a Fritz Lang movie. Some of the great stars of Hollywood, of course, earned their bones in UFA. Anyone of Jewish birth is thrown out. Think music, that is one of the reasons I think you know, this is what placed people’s vanities, which plays to their self-interest. You know, that job I always wanted, but I wasn’t quite good enough for? Well, if they’re kicking the Jews out of music, if they’re kicking the Jews out of cabaret, jazz is banned, kicking the Jews out of theatre, also communists, communists. And people like Brecht, he had to flee. It’s not just Jews, liberals got out, the Mann brothers got out, later on, Thomas Mann said, “I should have had the courage to stay.” If he had, he probably would’ve been murdered, though. So you de-Judaize the arts, what happens to people like Otto Dix? Great artist. Have a look at what he painted in the war years. Patrick’s dealt a lot with this. Those who went and those who stayed, it’s such a complicated issue, and I really think you, it’s very difficult to pass judgement . I passed judgement on collaborators, but wise people stayed there for all sorts of family reasons. It’s a complicated story.
This is what happens when you have totalitarianism. Meanwhile, Hitler has to clean up the SA because of the army. Hitler has to appear now to be the great statesman. He has to appear to the army that he’s the great leader. He throws the Treaty at Versailles back in the face of the Allies, he begins to re-arm. But in June 1934, the SA, their rally, the Night of the Long Knives, It’s the summer solstice. Never forget how pagan the SA and the SS were. And Rohm, his great comrade from the early days is killed, well, he actually commits suicide with a gun at his head. And many of the enemies of the Nazi Party, of the SS within the Nazi Party are taken out. So he’s cleaning up his act on one level, in '33, the Career Civil Service Act, no Jews, just to reiterate, no more Jewish lawyers, no more Jewish doctors. The arts are now denuded. And you have this extraordinary speech by Goebbels. I’m sure many of you have heard it, where he says, “Now we have proved that we have glorious German theatre, glorious German cinema.” And Goebbels was extraordinary. He actually watched every film that went out in Germany. They made a lot of historic epics. They allowed Hollywood films provided they were musicals. And of course Wagner, as far as music was concerned, the Germans were not short on great musicians. Mendelssohn of course was banned, Mendelssohn who had rediscovered Bach’s “St. Matthew’s Passion,” who had married the daughter of a Swiss pastor, he was banned.
They couldn’t ban all of Heine because if you think, and I know Patrick covered this with you, because if you think how many of Heine’s songs were made into German “lieder”. so what they did in some of them, they wrote “Anonymous,” but basically any work by a Jew, and it caused all sorts of problems. I mean, in the world of operetta, in the world of opera, later on, it completely enriched the lives of British and American concertgoers. If you think about what happened when that incredible talent, the Jews, the communists, the lefties, the liberals, they had to get out of Germany if they wanted to survive. And they enriched beyond measure, the cultural life of both Britain, and of America, and Israel. I’ll talk about Palestine when I talk about Haim Arlozorov, because remember at this stage, it is to force the Jews out. The next stage, can we see the next slide please? If you don’t mind, Lauren. Yes, this is in an American newspaper of September the 16th, 1935. And this is of course, the infamous Nuremberg Laws. because what has happened so far, is that what the Germans have done, they are pushing the Jews out of the professions. They are pushing the Jews further and further into destitution, and the aim is to get them out. Then we come in 1935, in September 1935 to the infamous Nuremberg Laws. And what the Nuremberg laws do, there are two parts. They deprive the Jews of citizenship. A Jew can no longer have any of the rights of citizenship and they also made, they banned intermarriage. And this is heartbreaking, because what about those couples who were already married? And there’s a lot of pressure now on the non-Jewish partner in love marriages by Jewish partners to divorce for the sake of the children. So there’s a lot of great personal agony.
And also if you read some of the letters, I read a heartbreaking letter from a couple who’d been married for 40 years and their great passion was to go to concerts together. Jews are not allowed to go to concerts. Jews aren’t allowed to go to the theatre. And this, but so what happens, ironically, you have a renaissance of Jewish culture in Germany, and you have this letter from this couple where the non-Jewish partner asks if she can go with her Jewish partner to hear Jewish musicians who haven’t yet managed to get out of Germany, because one of the problems, there were, of course, by 1935, thousands of Jews have gone out, got out, and I’m going to talk about that. But it was becoming more and more difficult to get out of Germany. I can show you innumerable press articles, which bears witness to the fact that the situation in Germany was widely reported. But the Wall Street crash, and I don’t have to tell an audience such as you that when a country is in economic, political, or social discontent and unrest, the last thing any government will do is to open the gates to citizens, to open the gates to new potential citizens. We are facing it at the moment. And I’m not making parallels, I don’t do that. But what I am saying is, and this is quite a statement, German and Austrian Jewry could have been saved in their entirety if other countries had allowed them in. That’s quite a statement I’ve just made.
But this stage, there were many Jews in Germany who believed “Well, Hitler’s done his worst now, we’re deprived of citizenship, it’s kind of going to even up, isn’t it?” And besides, we know that some Jews who’d made it to Paris, for example, they went back, they didn’t have the language, they were destitutes, they didn’t have the money. There were Jewish relief organisations. The Joint was sending as much money through as they could. But there was a problem sending money to Germany. But nevertheless, it was becoming harder and harder for people to make a living of any kind. Wilfrid Israel, who was one of the great department store owners, he was an Anglo-German, he was a man of huge wealth, he was also a man of huge courage. And those of you who heard me lecture on Leslie Howard last night will know that he went down in the same plane as Leslie Howard. But Israel Department Stores, he actually, about a third of his employees were Jewish. And he actually gave them the money, 2/3 of two years’ salary to enable them out because you could get out if you had money, it was much easier to get out if you had money or if you were wanted. I mean, Einstein didn’t have trouble getting a job. Many of the great scientists who came to America or Britain, they didn’t have trouble getting employment. But what about the ordinary folk? What about, maybe you were the manager of a small shop and you didn’t have languages, and maybe you had a sick mother. How on earth could you leave? So all the moral dilemmas that we think about were there in German Jewry, and you can see it in some of the letters.
So by 1935, how far along the road will he go? And then there’s a kind of cleanup. Can we see the next slide please? If you don’t mind, Lauren. The great sport debate. Do we allow countries, whose regime is considered to be unconscionable by the majority of people who have any kind of moral compass, do we allow them to host to the Olympics? Here you see a wonderful scene where the extraordinary black athletes, Jesse Owens wins one of his four gold medals. Hitler was furious because he considered what he called, “the Negro population.” Sometimes you have to use what we consider inappropriate language to describe what is used in race language. Hitler referred to the blacks as Negroes, he regarded them as a downgraded group. So and the black athletes, particularly the Americans, they storm the medals. It’s not just Jesse Owens, it’s an extraordinary story. But think about it, the Berlin Olympics, Germany was on show. So consequently, a lot of the kind of, niggly, ghastly victimisation, park benches, Jews not allowed to sit here. Cinemas, Jews not allowed in, trams, trains, they are removed. So there’s a kind of cleaning up for the Olympics. And of course the Olympics, well-represented. And in fact, in America, there were 122 athletes, and a poll was taken as to whether they would go, there was only one who voted against it. And that was Johnny Noiglas. Another important debate, you see, one of the reasons it’s so important to study this period, is every human dilemma that you could ever think about is in this kind of study. And that’s one of the tragedies because we, look, it happened to the Jews. And I want to say quite seriously, that I personally think that the Holocaust is unique, and shouldn’t be lumped together with other horrific tragedies.
I also believe, by the way, that the slave trade is unique. I think we do not gain anything by lumping all the catastrophes together. And anyway, the word “holocaust” that we all use is the wrong word. So I want to say that from the beginning. But nevertheless, there is a common denominator in all of it. And it’s human behaviour. It’s how we behave when we are under stress. So you have the lessening and almost a kind of sigh of relief, and also the other point, it was becoming more and more difficult to find a place of refuge. Palestine should have been the obvious place for Jews in trouble. And it’s interesting because that was one of the main pillars of Zionism. And it’s interesting, the majority of German Jews who went to Palestine were not Zionists. They were people who were escaping for their lives, and they changed forever the Mandate. Tel Aviv becomes a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated city with coffee houses. The Habima Theatre Company benefited, think of the Palestine Orchestra, think about Bauhaus, think about Art Nouveau, think about so many of the trends of German and later Austrian Jews that are developed in Palestine. However, by 1936, as a response to the amount of Jewish emigration into Germany, the Arabs under their infamous leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who I’m going to do a whole session on, he began a strike, and not only a strike, but a revolt against British rule. And it led to the British rethinking the policy on Palestine.
And one of the great tragedies was, that by 1939, by May 1939, the quote is this. “The Jews will have no course but to side with us, so it’s in our interest to back the Arabs.” And you can work out who said that. What happens is the British then more or less shut the doors to Palestine in 1939. Now I want to be very careful. I am not giving the British or the Americans, or any of the other countries the same culpability as I’m giving the Germans, the Nazis. And when I say Germans, don’t forget, there were wonderful Germans who tried to beat it as well. But what I am saying, is that the question you have to ask yourself is to what extent did the Allied policy of appeasement, and also of not protesting, allow Hitler to ratchet it up a lot? Because the next great step of horror was the Aryanization of businesses. Can we see the next slide please? Yeah, the Aryanization of business. Look, 80% of department stores were controlled by Jews, Jewish families. How Jewish were they? The press had already been de-Judaized back in ‘33. Do you know 40% of the journalists and the major papers were Jewish? Now we come to business, Aryan partners or Aryans could buy Jewish businesses at completely knocked down prices. I was with a girlfriend yesterday whose family were in Vienna, were in the men’s wear business. We were talking about her family’s stores. Just imagine how many people, look, because it was in the clothing business, it was in the food business, it was in the furniture business. And of course it now includes Vienna because on March the 15th, 1938, Hitler went home, Anchluss, and that meant the 200,000 Jews of Vienna are also under attack. What is fascinating about Vienna, it took the Nazis five years to Nazify Germany.
It took them five months to Nazify Austria. And so the Aryanization of business, all these businesses are sold for nothing, for knocked down prices. And you know, this whole issue of compensation, there’s a sale of beautiful jewellery at, I think it’s Christie’s, I might be wrong, it’s certainly in Switzerland. And the fortune, I’m not mentioning any names, but the fortune was based on the Aryanization of businesses. I remember having a conversation with a great colleague of mine, Wolfgang Kaiser, he’s retired now, but he ran the Wannsee House, which is today, you know, where they wrote the Final Solution is now one of the greatest educational centres in the world. And he said that, if Germany had fully paid reparations, Germany would’ve been bankrupt. Today in Wannsee, they take the police in to show them what happens to their profession under Nazism, they take in every profession, the teaching profession, a few words about education under the Reich’s Ministry of Culture, libraries were weeded out, books were burnt, films were censored, music was censored, and there was a core curriculum. Can you imagine what Nazification did to the study of history, of geography, of practically every subject? And the Jew is the enemy, and children are taught to hate. The Nazis did give sops to the population. Yes, Hitler did dissolve the trade unions, but workers threw joy.
If your trade union, if your production line did well, you got a holiday on the state. It was very paternalistic. You had opportunities, you had the Volkswagen, there was the road building process. And against the backdrop of creating the clean, pure Germany, you have this horror story. No longer think for yourselves, be physically fit, they had huge emphasis on physical fitness. That’s why Hitler was so horrified by the performance of Jesse Owens and his colleagues. So basically '37, the Aryanization of businesses. 1938, of course, the Anchluss, and that is when the, it is all ratcheted up. I’m going to stop there because when I talk about refugees next week, the next important stage is the Evian Conference of 1938. When the Allies were under James P. McDonald, who was the commission for refugees at the League of Nations. They had a conference to talk about the plight of German Jews. And basically, they decided to do very little. And the Dominican Republic offered, The Dutch took in a few, you know, the British representative, Lord Winterton, they called him “Wellies Winterton,” because he was too wet for jackboots. He actually apologised to the German ambassador in London for unwarranted interference in the affairs of the state. At Evian, Goebbels wrote in his diary, “We are better than the so-called civilised world because we do what we say what we are going to do.” And after Evian, the floodgates of horror really open. But I will talk about that when I talk about refugees because there were some extraordinary individuals who did help. I’ve mentioned Wilfrid Israel, but I want to talk about some incredible non-Jews who helped, people like, like Josiah Wedgwood in the British Parliament, people in America, people in France, so please don’t go away thinking it’s completely black. But what I think the most important issue to talk about after this presentation is how ordinary folk went along with it. And in the end, of course, Hitler created Gotterdammerung in Germany. He wanted a scorched-earth policy. He pulled it all down around them. So I’ll stop there, and let’s have a look to see if we have any questions.
Q&A and Comments:
Q: This is from Margaret. “So the Nazi Party manifesto was full of promises, which seduced the majority vote. Did they advertise too that they were going to eliminate all impurities amongst the population?
A: I’m persuaded to compare the promises made to the British public prior to Brexit, which seduced a majority vote, though promises were never able to be fulfilled. The fact is just, we can understand how the German population voted for the Nazi Party.” Now one thing that was interesting, Margaret, when you went to the cinema, and cinema was very popular in the thirties, remember. it was the big picture, and then, and the little picture, and the newsreels. I have a friend who did his doctorate on Nazi newsreels. They spent a lot of time talking about, particularly, the mentally and physically handicapped as they called them, that they were breeders, that they were taking up too much living space and that they should not be allowed, so they were preparing the German population, which in the end, to what became the euthanasia programme, lots of antisemitism, preparing the German population. So you would go to the cinema to look at a happy musical perhaps, and then you would see a propaganda film, and then you would see the big picture, which might be about a great German hero. So there was a lot of propaganda. Goebbels was a genius, remember? So were they seduced? Was it self-interest? Take a character like Heidegger. He always fascinates me because he was a genius. So many of the great, as I’ve said to you many times, position in society, intellectual ability, economic ability, and wealth, does not improve you as a human being. That’s, if there’s any message out of all of this, it’s got nothing to do with your level of education, it’s got to do with something else. It’s got to do with empathy. It’s got a lot to do with I think, a maverick personality. I’ve spent a lot of time studying rescuers. There were quite a few German aristocrats who rescued by the way. But they tended to be the kind of people who couldn’t bear to obey orders. And there were clergy who saved. Never forget that. There was the confessing church, and of course, Niemoller. But Niemoller in his early days, was a Nazi. He then later changed his mind.
Q: This is Shelly. “Don’t you think the non-Jews in medicine, law, were able to get rid of the Jews because they benefited?”
A: Yes, you see, that’s greed as well. Look, you’ve always wanted that big job and now you’ve got a better chance of getting it.
Stuart, “You briefly mentioned the song in 'Cabaret’, ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me.’ It’s ironic that many neo-Nazis and white supremacists consider it a Nazi anthem and sing it in meetings, not realising it was written by two Jews.” Stuart, don’t you sometimes think we should shut up?
This is from Anne. “If you keep repeating a lie, people will believe it. So many illuminating, horrendous details.” Thank you. Unfortunately, Anne, Yes.
This is from Marilyn. “The Wiener Holocaust Library in London has an excellent exhibition on the radicalization of the Austrian Jews. This becomes the blueprint, how the Nazis treated the Jews when they occupied other countries in Europe.” Thank you for that, Marilyn. Those of you who are in London, take advantage. The Wiener Library is an extraordinary organisation. Thank you.
This is Ettie. “Anne Frank’s book was removed from schools and libraries in Florida.” I haven’t read enough about that, Ettie. Perhaps someone could inform me why.
“And in some states, you cannot teach ‘To kill a Mockingbird.’”
Q: “What exactly is Jewish birth? How far back does it go? Were Mendelssohn’s descendants Jewish?”
A: That is a very good question, Shelly. I’m talking about how the Nazis regarded it. In the end, to become a member of the Nazi Party, you had to prove you were pure Aryan blood back to the year 1800. And if you married, your wife had to have pure Aryan blood. There’s a lot of talk about it at the Wanssee House. At the Wanssee House Conference of 1942. The “Mischlinge” status, what are we going to do with half-Jews? Never forget, what the Nazis did was legal in Germany. The Nuremberg laws were written by lawyers, okay? The Nuremberg laws were enacted by judges. What do you do when there is no equation between law and morality? And Germany was not the only country. If you have a look at what’s happening in Stalin’s Russia at the same time, “What happened to the SA after the Night of the Long Knives?” They were called into line, and many of them joined the SS. It was the leadership they needed to get rid of, and they were pulled into line, and this was to keep the army suite.
And this is from Monty. Oh, he’s being very complementary about, “Reminds me of the words of Vytautas the Great, who granted Jews the right of refuge in Lithuania because they would not transgress the obligations of being polite guests. As the South African-born son of Lithuanian Jews living in London, I keep thinking of his words. Are we really safe in the diaspora now? to you.” Monty, it’s Pesach, and I know it’s a time of reflection, but unfortunately, my view of the situation, we’re going, it’s not just what’s happening to the Jews. I think we’re going through a very, very troubling period. Historically, I think if you look at the world around us, it’s not a very good place at the moment, and all we can hope for, and I really do believe that if we can get a bit more economic stability, look, just look at what happened in Germany. This is where you can learn lessons. 1924, What if Wall Street hadn’t crashed? Hitler would not have come to power. I really believe that. It’s a confluence of events. And you know, history has, Do I worry about the future of the Jewish people? Look, as a grandmother, of course I do. But what I also know is that we are an eternal people. And whatever history’s thrown to us, we have somehow overcome it. Of course at a most terrible, terrible loss. And look, I’m talking to an audience where I know many of you have been affected by the Shoah, but we do go on somehow.
Q: Marilyn Oswald, “Jews being pushed out of civil service, was this only Jews by birth?”
A: Yes, religion’s got nothing to do with it. You see, that’s the problem, Marilyn. It’s not a Jewish definition of what is a Jew. It’s a Nazi definition. You see, it’s a complicated one, what is a Jew? Who’s asking? And I think also, I was having a discussion with friends about this. What does the word “Jew” mean? If you asked me to define Christian, I think it would be much easier. I think we would say it was someone who believed in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. But if you ask Jew, it’s much more than, to some people it’s religion, to others its national, Zionism, national. To others, it’s cultural. David Baddiel had an interesting article in “The Times.” He is a cultural Jew. A lot of my friends consider themselves to be cultural Jews. Hitler said the Jews are a race. No we’re not, we know that. There is no such thing as a pure race, but the Nazis believed it was about Jewish blood. You’ve got to stop using your rational faculties when you deal with Nazism, ‘cause you won’t get it. If you are being bright and a creature of the Enlightenment, you won’t get Nazism. You have to go into quote-unquote, “The dark night of the soul.”
This is from Monica. “My mother-in-law lost her job as a lab technician in a Frankfurt hospital in '33. Her parents sent her to her sister in Budapest, believing she’d be safe there. She looked like an Aryan, and spoke German with a strong Frankfurt accent. She walked the streets of Budapest with a six year old son in '44, and told the Iron Cross when stopped on the street, 'Go to hell.’ And how do they dare stop her in German? They always let her go.” Wow, brave woman, Monica. A brave, brave woman.
Myrna’s saying, Myrna’s projecting, obviously the answer to any unsavoury regime to host Olympics is yes, Russia and China. I remember Robert Wistrich, to amuse himself once, he’d looked at all the countries of the UN, and he decides how many of them he believed were democratic. It was very few.
This is from Shelly. “Some American Jewish athletes who qualified were not allowed by the US American Committee because they were Jewish.” Yeah, didn’t want to offend the Germans. You know, the Swiss are even more interesting. The Swiss were doing a lot of business with Germany in the thirties. They implemented the laws for their employees, even before the Germans.
And Marilyn’s saying that sports boycott against South Africa and apartheid was effective.
Q: “Did Hitler allow Jews from other countries to join the Olympics?”
A: You know, Howard, you’ve stumped me. I’m going to have to, using a cricket term, I’m going to have to find an answer for you.
And from Monica. Thank you.
This is from Cheryl, “1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens would’ve only won three medals, except Avery Brundage, head of the US Olympic Committee, agreed to the German remand to remove the two Jewish athletes who’ve been selected for the 4 x 100 relay team. Owens was then inserted in the team as one of the replacements. To his credit, Owens objected to the removal of the two Jewish athletes.” I think maybe you could answer one of the question for me, Cheryl, you seem to have a lot of knowledge on that. And of course, Howard’s saying, “Jesse Owens in suffered racial discrimination in the USA.” Yes. When you think about it, isn’t it ludicrous to discriminate against people because of their religious beliefs, the colour of their skin, or in fact, any form of difference? You know, I really, if people dislike me, Trudy Gold, I might not like it, but I haven’t got a problem with it. If you dislike it, if you dislike me because I’m a Jewish grandmother, then I have got a problem. And I, and logically, again, I’m breaking my own rule, I’m trying to apply logic.
Gloria, “In Canada, there was an extremely large department store that would not employ Jews in their stores, but in their factories. I’m Jewish and was employed at the head office of that department store in an executive position, presumably the Canadian store. The owners knew I was Jewish and we discussed many Jews.” That’s interesting. Was it Eaton’s? I think that’s something that the three of you better discuss.
“I saw that in the upcoming auction,” I love it, Joan, you always keep your eye on the ball. “I saw that in the upcoming auction. Didn’t take much research to find the source of that fortune.”
Monty is reminding us, “The Shoah is now commemorated in Israel and America by a summary of remembrance called, ‘Hitkansut.’” Thank you, Google for more. Thank you Monty, thank you.
“Hitler might have been dismayed, but how was Jesse Owens treated back in the USA? After all he was,” yeah, Joan is reiterating that point.
Yes, Edmund Burke, “For evil to triumph, It’s enough that good men do nothing.” Yes, yes.
And Rose, thank you very much. It is difficult, and I hope you understand why I’m not talking about ‘41 to '45 in this particular series, because we have covered it. And I really think with an audience such as you, we don’t have to. It’s more interesting, I think, for us. We will honour our dead in the way we do. And you don’t need the facts and the figures, you know them.
Judith, “Look at several states in the US, books pulled out of schools. Teachers can’t teach certain topics. Medical people can’t treat women in maternal crisis. Lies are thrown around by Fox, and Mr. Trump copies Nazi programmes with fake news. 'Maus’ was also banned in some states.” Oh, I didn’t know that. “Maus” is such an interesting book. We are going through dark times, not just in America.
Oh, this is from Karen. “Listen to a documentary with Benjamin Ferencz who had just died at 103. He formulated reparations for survivors. He’s such an amazing man who was the last surviving prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials.” Yes, he is an absolutely extraordinary individual. A wonderful, wonderful man.
“You may want to mention black US colleges who recruited German professors and save them and their families.” Yes, that’s a very, very interesting story, and I know Einstein was involved in that. Yes, there are good people everywhere. The trouble is that, good people tend not to be extremists. Good people tend to be liberal and not extremist. I remember Wistrich once screaming at me, “The only answer is for liberalism to become militant.” I think it was a bit self-defeating.
Shelly says, “I’ve heard stories of Jewish kids in America who were called ‘Dirty Jews’ and ‘Christ-killers’ by teachers in public schools in the thirties.” Yes, yes, of course. Shelly. I’ll tell you a funny story. When I went to university, I met a girl who really did believe and all we had bouffant hairdos in those days, who really did believe Jews had horns. Aye-yay-yay. But nevermind, we got over it.
This is from Evie. “Because of technical issues, I missed much of this class. My dad was in Dachau and I so wanted to listen. I hope it would available.” More than that, Evie, you send a note to Lauren and it will be sent to you.
Q: And Margaret’s telling you that. “How did they find every Jew in Germany? Many didn’t think themselves Jewish, who made the search?”
A: There was a department the dealt completely with that. It was under the auspices, in the end, of Adolf Eichmann. They kept lists. They set up a central organisation to deal with Jews. The Jews were very, as you know, the Jews were very disparate in Germany. But what they did was they needed an organisation to deal with.
Mitzi says that she suggests that grievance and resentment play a large part in acquiescence to those policies, yes.
Q: “In the time of internet, will people be better informed regarding what was going on? Will antisemitic or hate propaganda just spread faster around the world?”
A: Yes, the Net is, it’s the “Janus face of modernity,” quote-unquote, isn’t it? We wouldn’t have Lockdown without the Net. Look, you know I’m Luddite, but I do love Lockdown, so I have a problem. Yes, of course, it’s made it worse. But on the other hand, it could make it better too.
Q: “Why did Jews stay when it was still possible to emigrate if they learned earning a living had been removed from them?”
A: You see, that’s such a complicated question, Nikki. Why did, it was difficult to emigrate. It was very difficult, and as time went on, it got harder. What if you have a sick mother? What if you have a vulnerable child? What if you believe, you don’t have languages and it’s scary? And you have no money anyway? You know, there are so many reasons people didn’t leave, and when in the end they wanted to, and I would say after Kristallnacht, I’ve discussed this with Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, just to remind you, on Saturday, she will be speaking briefly because it’s the liberation, it’s to commemorate liberation of Belsen, she said, because her parents were such loyal Germans, they were so cultured. They, after Kristallnacht, she said, “We all wanted to get out. But by then, there were very few places left to go.” I will give you that next week.
Rita, Schutzstaffel. And Alison’s saying, “My father was prevented from going to university.”
Myrna, “Re-running books in Florida. Many books teach uncomfortable subjects are banned in Florida by governor, who is hoping to be an authoritarian president.”
Ah, this is Ettie. “My German grandparents sent my mother from Germany to Palestine in 1935 with a youth group led by Henrietta Szold.” She was a remarkable woman. Yes, there were one, they were incredible people. James Patterson, “It was a graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary that was pulled from shelves in one school for being sexually too graphic. The original non-graphic version of this book are not being pulled from school libraries in Florida.”
Thank you for that, James. You see, it’s very important to have the facts. Because you know, if, I personally would not object to that. Thank you, James.
“There’s a wonderful movie, but painful to watch that covered only the Wannsee conference, titled ‘The Conspiracy.’” Yes, it’s brilliant. And because I need to lighten it because I’m Jewish and I do, as I’ve already mentioned Wolfgang Kaiser to you, who was head of the Wannsee House. Now they filmed “Conspiracy” at Wannsee, and he’d come back after the Christmas break, and to find the site with Nazi cars, swastikas, and people in uniforms. And he did a total double take because he forgot that they come in to make the film. So the irony of, yes, it’s a brilliant film. There’s two versions. There’s a German version, and there’s also the version which has, it was made by the British. Colin Firth is in it. He plays one of the lawyers, you know, 2/3 of the people who sat around the table at Wannsee to write down the Final Solution were lawyers, and Heydrich is played by Kenneth Branagh.
Carly, “My late husband used to describe himself as gastronomically Jewish.” I like that.
And James said, “One reason the graphic version was objected to, was it belittled the Holocaust.” So that’s interesting. You see, we’re getting more information. One should never make pronouncements without information.
Leanna wishes us , “The Spinoza Problem” from Peter Bris, a novel based on Alfred Rosenberg who admired Spinoza. That was his problem, a great read.“ Thank you.
Jane Prower. "An example of bravery of a non-Jewish English woman, a friend of my Jewish refugee cousin smuggled about 2000 pounds inside a child’s doll, and took it by train from Berlin to London, bribed the Nazi soldiers with chocolates and flirtations to distract them from the doll.” Yes, there were some incredible people. You know, if only we could bottle bravery, if only we could bottle that kind of defiance. The German people acquiesced, neither they did not like what was done to Jews, it was not them and they accepted, but when you think that even in, Jews stayed in Germany until ‘39, even though they were mistreated.“ Remember how much the Jews were in love with Germany? Remember what Erich Maria Remarque was asked, "Do you miss Germany? I Answered, I don’t miss Germany, I’m not Jewish.” “I don’t miss Germany, I’m not Jewish.” It’s so complex, isn’t it?
Look, they didn’t stay until '39. You got to remember, after Kristallnacht, there were less and less places for them to go. I’ve heard of people queuing for visas, for visas, for visas. You know, it’s not just in the books, it’s what people tell you. Yes, some people got out in '39, Some weren’t lucky enough to get out. After, look, once the war, you could still get, look, there was an incredible, I mean Helen Fry’s been lecturing on this. There were some incredible characters. British characters, Frank Foley and Kendrick, they were giving out visas. Visas were being issued to Jews in concentration camps. You could leave concentration camps to get out of Germany, but you needed an entry visa, and you also needed a passing-through visa.
Margaret says she had, and yes, and somebody else commenting on Benjamin Ferencz. Sandy, “Two Austrian Jewish sisters qualified to swim at the Olympics. One refused to go and the other swam in Germany in '36.” “2,532 books banned in the USA and 566 books are banned in Florida.” The burning of the books, hm. Be careful, Jews had “Herems” too. It’s an interesting debate. There’s the Papal Index. Maybe I must talk to Wendy. We really should stage more debates on where we draw the line on censorship. Refugee professors were placed in colleges all around the USA. Yes, yes.
Oh, Susan’s telling us there’s a Netflix series Varian Fry, “Transatlantic,” very close to the facts. You see Varian Fry, another incredible character.
Q: Can we have a serious critical discussion as to how the British government dealt with destruction of Jews in Europe?
A: Oh I can do better than that. Rex Bloomstein made a brilliant film called “Auschwitz and the Allies,” and we are going to show it in two parts, and I will be dealing with it, I’m going to look at Britain and Palestine, '45 to '46, and then we will have a serious discussion.
Joan’s telling us, “You paid a religion tax which was then distributed to the various synagogues and churches, you had to specifically opt out to become without religion. The rich and the poor left first. Many in the middle were still with occupations, didn’t want to give up their lives.” Yeah, and it’s difficult to give up your life, isn’t it, Joan? I mean if you think of all our family situations, et cetera. And how bad is it going to get? Look, there was a lull in '36.
This is from Philip. “Searching and finding Jews were simplified by IBM company, which had an established technical structure using IBM card files.”
This is from Susan. “My grandparents couldn’t get out of Germany 'cause they had no money. They dearly wanted to get out. They died in Minsk.” I’m so sorry Susan, we all wish you a long life.
Q: Thank you Jennifer. “Considering the rise of antisemitism, what should we learn from the past?”
A: Can you save that question? There’s a lovely quote. “Those of us who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” And a professor friend of mine sent me a note, “And those of us who know the lessons of history are doomed to watch while other people repeat them.”
Gloria, “In 1958, I was in Koblenz in a beer garden. I was asked to dance with a German in uniform. He spoke low German, so I spoke Yiddish. What an unusual situation.” Yeah, that’s worthy of Mel Brooks.
Sandy, “The movie or documentary 'Watermarks’ tells about the sports clubs like YMHA got Jews out under the pretext of competing in sporting events.” Yes, yes. Multiple passports, solutions, Look, there are so many questions, and can I thank you all, and I think we better hold it there, Lauren. And so I will see you all next week, and I wish you well the last days of Pesach, and come on, we keep going.
God bless, everyone.