Dr. Elkan describes the friendliness of some rather prominent German. “Aryans” towards their Jewish fellow-citizens between 1933 - 1937. Among them Mr Funk (Funk A.G.); Mrs Heinzmann, former headmistress of a public school for girls (Duesseldorf); Dr. Lehr, Lord Mayor of Duesseldorf; Prof. Loos, director of the Dental Institute Carolinum, Frankfurt am Main, Generaldirektor Poensgen of the “Vereinigte Stahlwerke”. Interesting Photocopy of a letter (10 May 1935) from “Freiherr von Fritsch” (later “Chef der Heeresleitung”) to Dr. Elkan is added, whom Dr. Elkan got to know during the First World War with the 47 Reserved Division when he was head of the Dental Department. Also a photocopy of a letter from Count Helldorf, father of the notorious “Graf Helldorf”, former Polizeipraesident of Berlin (who was later hanged by the Nazis).

Only with the help of “Wirtschaftsberater” Dr. Schneider, Dr. Elkan was able to escape the chicanes of the Duesseldorfer Finanzamt and perform his emigration in 1937 sucessfully. Because of his helpful attitude to Jews Dr. Schneider later was put in a concentration camp.

Mrs Kahle, an 'Aryan' German, wife of Prof. Kahle, formerly orientalist at Bonn University (see P.III.f. No. 703) describes briefly her and her family’s life up to 1933. She and her husband were from the very beginning decidedly against the Nazi regime. The boycott (1 April 1933) she calls the “Schand-tag des Deutschen Volkes”. They never allowed her sons to enter the Hitler Youth and when her youngest boy, who was then 10 years old, at Easter 1937, was compelled by law to join, she succeeded in getting him out of it with a doctor‘s certificate. In 1938 both her other sons had to do “Arbeitsdienst”. She felt it her duty to visit them every Sunday and in this way to counter-act the effect of the Nazi ideology on young people. She tells of the impossible timetable in the camp and the insufficient hygienic conditions. Many of the youths became severely ill.

On 10 November 1938 one of her sons went to a few Jewish shops in order to help the owners to save valuables which he took home; Mrs Kahle and her husband gave hospitality to a Jewish colleague of his and his wife. On 11 November all the Kahle sons were eagerly engaged in helping Jews to get their shops in order. Mrs Kahle could not expose herself in the same way, because of her husband’s position, but she visited Jewish people. This became known & an article was published in the Westdeutscher Beobachter (17 November 1938 edition) under the heading: 'Dies ist Verrat am Volke Mrs Kahle & her sons are helping the Jewess Goldstein with the “Aufraeumungsarbeiten”'. It was the preliminary to Prof. Kahle’s dismissal, Her eldest son was sentenced by a disciplinary court (copy of the sentence is added to this report); Prof. Kahle was forbidden by the Gestapo to speak to his colleagues any more. The attitude of the family caused a kind of tumult among the inhabitants of Bonn and their position became threatening. Finally, they succeeded, under almost insurmountable difficulties, to emigrate to England in April 1939.

Mrs Wijsmuller, a Dutch Christian woman, took a prominent part in organising the emigration of Jewish children from Germany. In December 1938 she even went to see Eichmann in Vienna and got his permission for the emigration of 10,000 Jewish children to England. As a first instalment he ordered a transport of 600 children to be sent across the Dutch frontier within a few days to see if Mrs Wijsmuller would really get them into England. After Mrs Wijsmuller had succeeded - 100 children were accepted by Holland - she organised transports of 150 children twice a week from various parts of Germany to Britain as well as the emigration of Youth Aliyah and other groups from Germany, Holland, Denmark and Riga. She accompanied the children up to Marseille on their way to Palestine.

Mrs Wijsmuller also tried to find asylum for grown-up Jewish refugees. In 1939 she arranged for the acceptance by Holland of 200 refugees from the 1200 passengers of the ship St. Louis, who had not been allowed to land in Cuba because their visas had been forged. Also in 1939 she helped with the departure of the Greek ship Dora, which sailed from Holland with illegal immigrants for Palestine. As late as 15 May 1940 Mrs Wijsmuller tried to get 80 refugees released who were kept in bad conditions in a disused market hall in Gravenzond. But the Dutch Aliens' Police refused her request and send the refugees back to Germany. Only one survived.

During her journeys Mrs Wijsmuller was repeatedly taken as a spy and arrested. She was asked by the Germans to work as their agent and refused. She had her passport stolen (which was later found on a German spy in a French camp). She was told by German frontier police about the impending invasion of Holland, but neither she, nor the Dutch Foreign Ministry believed it.

F. was only a schoolgirl when her family made an unsuccessful attempt at emigrating from Frankfurt to France and at settling in Paris. They returned to Berlin in 1935, whereupon the father was taken to Dachau and the mother to Moringen-Soling camp. The girl found a home with an aunt in Mecklenburg, and after 9 months she met her parents at the Czechoslovak frontier, sadly changed by the suffering in the camps. They reached Prague, and the Refugee Committee helped them until the father found employment in his profession as a chemist. N. became a pupil at the Rotter School, and after 2 years’ training obtained well-paid work as a commercial artist.

With the invasion of Czechoslovakia their life was shattered once again. While the synagogues in Prague were burning, the girl married Peter Lewin, a German lawyer. He had a brother in England, and they planned to go there via Poland and to cross the frontier illegally at Maehrisch Ostrau. Their parents preceded them and contacted a man who promised to take them across the frontier, but he turned out to be a Gestapo agent and delivered them into the hands of the Gestapo. The father was beaten until he revealed the whereabouts of the young couple, who were arrested at their hotel. N. spent 8 days in a tiny prison cell together with 27 other women under dreadful conditions. She was then taken to the state prison and reunited with her mother. Every day they were taken in a police van to a villa at the out-skirts of the town and interrogated. Unusually, a middle-aged SS-man, by the name of Schneider, fetched N., and this man was to become her saviour. One day he offered to walk with her to the villa and took her to a friend, where a good meal was waiting. He then told her to watch him in the mirror behind the typewriter in the office, and he would indicate by signs which questions to answer.

In the meantime, the women had discovered that their husbands were at the same prison and even managed to get in touch with them. When Schneider continued his clandestine friendliness, N. implored him to help them escape, but he would only promise to shift their index cards, so that they might be overlooked. However, one night he came to their cell and took them to a lorry, together with two other women, and N.’s father and the husbands of the women joined them. N.’s own husband was missing, something had gone wrong with his index card. Schneider took them to a cemetery outside the town which adjoined the frontier with Poland. He told them to walk straight ahead; on their left were swamps, on their right the Polish police and behind them, the Gestapo who would shoot them on sight. Later, N. heard that Schneider, having helped many more Jews, was shot.

N. and her parents reached Kattowitz and were sheltered by Polish Jews. The town was swarming with Gestapo spies, and there were raids every day. Meanwhile, N.’s husband had been tried at Troppau, discharged and joined his wife in K. On receipt of their English visas, the young couple went to England, via Danzig and Sweden. Their parents were supposed to follow, but they were caught. There was one last message from them from a camp in Kielce/Poland. After a difficult start in England, N.’s husband was interned on the Isle of Man. Later, he joined the Intelligence Service and perished in Luxembourg.

During World War II the author was a member of the military government in Zloczoe/Poland. He lived with his family in a small flat, and when his rejection of the Nazi doctrine was soon found out, Poles and Jews came to him for help. Among his protégés was a Jewish lawyer, Dr. Altmann, and they frequently exchanged views and information.

In May 1943, when the situation for Jews became critical, they worked out a plan how to save Mrs Altmann. As she did not look Jewish, she was supplied with forged papers and sent, with another Jewess, in the author's official car to Lemberg. Under the guise of an “Aryan” she could buy a railway ticket there and proceed to Warsaw, where she took a domestic job. In careful and lengthy negotiations a hiding place was then arranged for Dr. Altmann, his son and his father. A small farmer nearby agreed to give them shelter, and in return the author, as a member of the Food Department of the Government, obtained the permit for him to run a snack bar. He could thus allocate extra rations for him with which to feed Dr. Altmann and his family.

On 14 July 1943 the author took leave of Dr. Altmann. A few days later a particularly brutal “aktion” took place, in the course of which fighting broke out and a few Germans were shot. Upon repeated requests of Dr. Altmann, the author went to see him one Sunday morning in August 1943. He pretended that his car had broken down and called for help at the snack bar. The farmer asked him into his own room, where he met the sadly changed Dr. Altmann. Together they went down into the stable which housed 3 cows. Under the trough was a small hole through which the men had to crawl into a tiny, windowless space. (A small drawing attached to the document explains the lay-out.)

The news that Dr. Altmann survived was given to the author by another Jew, Joseph Batisgh, whom author had taken into his house as a servant, on the recommendation of Dr. Altmann. Mr Batisgh was an accountant by profession, and friendly relations between him and the author's family were soon established. Whenever danger threatened, Mr Batisgh and other Jews spent the nights in the author's kitchen, but when Zloczow was declared “Judenfrei” in July 1943, it was decided that Mr Batisgh and his wife had to go underground

They found foster parents for their small child who, however, died 6 months later. The young couple went to stay with a Polish farmer in a village nearby. For more than a year they lived in a camouflaged potato camp, until the Russians arrived. In 1946 the author heard from Mr Batisch that they had survived. In his concluding remarks the author explains that his Catholic faith and abhorrence of the Nazi crimes made him act as he did.

In the winter of 1940 the author - a Polish Christian - fled with her husband from the Russians to Wilno. Mr Zadarnowska who had been a forester on an estate near Lida (East Poland) became a labourer, while the author worked as stage designer at a theatre. Here she met a Jewish prompter, Masza Perewoska. After the German occupation of Wilno the Zadarnowska’s decided to return to their home, and Mrs Zadarnowska went to say farewell to the Perewoskas. She found the whole family in a state of upheaval, as the Germans had ordered all Jews to move into the ghetto. Nobody at the time knew of the subsequent mass murders in Ponary forest, but on her return home, the author felt compelled to save Masza and her daughter Lilka.

In November 1941 she returned to Wilno. Ill though she was, she faced the inclement weather and considerable danger to establish contact with Masza. Finally, she found a workman willing to take a message into the Ghetto, and the women met at the house of a mutual friend. Meanwhile the author sold Masza’s valuables in order to finance the purchase of forged papers, a certificate of baptism and travel permits. At one of the “selections” Masza and her family had been included for the transport to Ponary, and in a desperate effort to save her friend, the author prevailed upon Professor Kola Taranowski to give her shelter, so that she and her child did not have to return to the Ghetto. The next day Masza escaped to Lida.

Encouraged by this success, the author applied for her own travel paper, and at the psychological moment asked for the inclusion of “a child” and followed Masza to Lida. After days of frantic search and with the help of a parson, she located Masza and, in spite of the great dangers involved, travelled with her and the child to her home. Her husband soon agreed to keep mother and child. Dangerous, nerve-racking months followed during which the author tried to ward off the constant danger of detection by making Masza look more “Aryan”, and by teaching the child the Polish language and Christian prayers. In the following summer, frequent Russian partisans ambushes added to their anguish and finally forced the Zadarnowska’s to move to Lida.

They took Masza and Lilka with them, but a few weeks later somebody asked for Masza on the telephone by her proper name. Undeterred by the danger and the proximity of Gestapo headquarters, the author helped Masza and the child to flee to a farm, the commandant of the Polish Resistance having provided forged papers. A period of constant moves followed, and in the end, the author had to take them back, as nobody else was brave enough to shelter them. Later, Masza decided to volunteer for work in Germany (Konstanz). The Zadarnowska’s were forced by the constant Russian air attacks to move to Warsaw, where the couple got separated during the insurrection. Mrs Zadarnowska was taken to Breslau as a slave labourer; Mr Zadarnowska was sent to Dachau where he perished. Mrs Zadarnowska managed to flee to Konstanz and join Masza. Both had to work hard, and when, at the end of the war, Switzerland opened her frontiers, they went there.

Mrs Zadarnowska now works as a designer at the Polish museum in Rapperswi, - the Jewish family she saved live in Israel.

Mrs Pirani, née Doubleday was a musical prodigy, who as a small child gave concerts in her native Australia. At the age of 12 she went to Vienna, where she studied under Prof. Arnold Rosé. Later, she married the Jewish music teacher Max Pirani and settled with him in London.

When the Nazi occupied Vienna, Mrs Pirani made strenuous efforts to help her Jewish friends and to make their emigration possible; amongst them were Prof. Rosé and his family, the radio specialist Prof. Gottwald Schwarz, and the architect Fritz Rosenbaum. Prof. Rosé’s daughter, also a musician, went to Holland. When the Nazis invaded the country, she escaped to France and was for a time sheltered by the French Resistance. Later, she was caught by the Nazis and deported to Auschwitz, where she died.

A personal report from Armin Alfermann, who was an anti-Nazi from early youth, belonging to groups of youngsters, Catholic as well as Communist who did every kind of mischief but also real harm to the Nazis, from distributing forbidden newspapers (p.8) to severe acts of violence by night (p.11-12). First acquaintance with Gestapo (p.10-11).

When joining the army occasional assistance to members of the resistance movement. Several times under military arrest and in prison. Finally desertion (p.30-32). From April to June 1945 in American camps, badly treated (Remagen, etc.)

Authors family: Catholic, connected with Trade Union and Zentrumspartei. The author was excluded from “Volksgemeinschaft”; father becomes active Nazi, denounces own son; divorce.

In Holland (1944) Alfermann hears for the first time about, Concentration Camps, though not much, through a member of the Resistance Movement (p.19).

In Düsseldorf air raid shelters were not allowed to be used by Prisoners of War, therefore many casualties among them. (p. 20-21).

Mala Zimetbaum came to Belgium from Poland, when she was a very young child. In April 1942, she was arrested, taken to Malines and deported to Auschwitz. There she worked as an interpreter, but also at the selections. She was very popular because of her invincible courage and her readiness to help. She fled from the camp dressed in a German uniform, was caught, tortured and hanged.

The outstanding impression of the account, written in the first person, is the deep religious faith of the writer. Rather than a record of facts, it is a praise of the Lord for her salvation, both physical and spiritual, and an explanation of her eventual conversion to the Christian Faith.

The author was born in Berlin, the daughter of Orthodox Dutch Jews. When the Nazi regime started, the family moved to Amsterdam, but the happy atmosphere of their home was never recaptured there. After the German invasion and with the gradual elimination of the Jews from the economic and cultural life, the Dobschiner's moved to the Jewish part of Amsterdam, and an uncle and two cousins lived with them.

In February 1941 German armed soldiers raided the town, demanding 4,000 Jews, and author's two brothers were taken away and murdered. Her parents, already weighed down by fear and expropriation of their property, broke down completely. The author's relation to them became strained, particularly as her father insisted on her training as a tailoress, whereas she longed to become a nurse. She finally yielded to this urge and looked after the many Jewish orphaned children. In December 1942 author contracted scarlet fever and during her illness felt that life held a message from God. The raids had already taken her uncle and the cousins, when in April 1943 her parents were arrested. The author was allowed to see them twice at the collecting centre and later she witnessed their deportation from the Children's Home, where she then worked.

Some time later the Children's Home was raided, the 150 children and staff deported. Shortly before, the author had been placed with a Jewish family, but they, too, were arrested and taken to the Amstelstation. The author, quite apathetic to her own fate, offered to take charge of the children, and later, when they were herded into a goods train, she discovered spots on a child and diagnosed a contagious disease. The Gestapo let her take the child to Dr. van Emden-Boas who, impressed by her courage, made her his nurse. She worked at the station and at a hospital until July 1943, when patients and nurses were deported. The author was already on the train, guarded by armed soldiers, but the same night she was back at the hospital “God delivered me!”.

When the hospital was raided again in August 1943, the author happened to nurse at a private house. For some time she then worked at the Joodse Invalide, the Jewish home for the aged. In the end, underground life was the only escape from deportation. With the help of the porter at the Home, the author contacted an unknown lady in whose flat she met Uncle Bas. On 3 September 1943, he took her on a hazardous journey to his home in Nieuw Beerta. With five other young people in hiding, the author lived with the Rev. Ader and his wife for 13 months. Several books have been written about this heroic man and the life in his manse. When danger approached, he found new underground places for his protegees.

The author lived in more than 27 different houses during the last span of this period. While in Uncle Bas' house, she came across the Children's New Testament and sometimes listened, hidden behind a door, to his services. He never tried to convert her, but she became more and more impressed with the teachings of Christ. South Holland was liberated by the Americans in September 1944, and in November she was baptized. She had never been able to discuss her intention with Uncle Bas. He and his wife were finally tracked down by the Gestapo. He was offered their freedom at the price of the name of ten of his protegees. As he would not speak, he was shot on 20 November 1944.

The author worked at the Belgian Ministry of Labour as a welfare officer. At the beginning of the year 1943, she joined theC.D.J. (Comité de défense des Juifs), in order to hide and help Jewish children. She describes the various departments and tasks of this organization (p.1) and how the work was done in the children’s group, to which she belonged; some examples of the complicated rescue work (p.2, 5-7). Reports on the extreme difficulties which had to be overcome, in order to return a small child to his mother, after the baby’s name had to be changed twice, his mother had been known to be dead for years and the foster parents wanted to keep the child (p.3-5).

Some people at Brussels were still afraid of the “Fünfte Kolonne“ when the occupation was over (p.4). Help from Catholic nuns, Avenue Clémenceau; deportation and imprisonment for other non-Jews helping Jews; Mr and Mrs Ovart, and their daughter who had hidden Jewish children and adults, pensionnat Gaty de Gamont (p.6). The author arrested twice could get away (p.6). Help from a police-officer; the Chief of the food office at Brussels generously helped out with ration cards (p.6-7).

Repeatedly they succeeded to rescue the children under the nose of the Gestapo during the raids, whilst the parents were arrested (p.7).

Original title: Those Twelve Years Of The Third Reich In Retrospect.

Recorded by: author

Original form and contents: Report of an Anti-Nazi university teacher on personal experiences and relations under the Nazi-régime and afterwards. The author’s opinions on political events, personalities and developments. The attitude of the UNDERGRADUATES at the various universities. Details on some items already mentioned in No.1092/I. Trouble prepared for the author’s seminary, in June 1940 (English History), prevented obviously by the NS Rektor SCHMITTHENNER (p.6,7,10-12). In 1940, the author passed his exam as military interpreter for English; in the Spring 1942, the Rektor declared, that he was no longer indispensable; with the help of his collegue PARET (p.9,11) he managed to get to the AFRICA-CORPS. At the staff of his -15th Tank- division were no SS, no Nazis, but many active officers who would freely utter their ANTI-NAZI convictions, though doggedly doing their duty. The reasons of ROMMEL’s success (p.ll). - Not fit for service in a tropical climate, the author was released, in Dec.1942. From 1943, the universities enjoyed a certain protection (p.7,8). The GIRL-UNDERGRADUATES, at KIEL fanatic adherents of LUDENDORFF, MATHILDE ( p.9), at HEIDELBERG, though most of them NS, very well- behaved. Fräulein Cornely, a MISCHLING I, could study and take her degree with the help of everybody concerned (professors, students etc in Summer 1944 (p.12). American troups embittered after a visit to BBRGEN-BELSEN (p.13). ROSENBERG, considered by a RUSSIAN as liberator (p.l4). Fraternization prohibited (p.14,15). - PENHAM, CIC-Agent, Heidelberg; mental. ANTISEMITISM of American officers. - INFORMERS (p.l6) ANTISEMITIG article in the author’s magazine “Die Welt als Geschichtë by KITTEL (P.17). - The idea of a “KOLLEKTIVSGHULD“ incomprehensible to the youth as well as to the many Germans who had been ANTI-NAZIS (p.15-17).