German Refugees
German Jews, seeking to emigrate, wait in the office of the Hlfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Relief Organization of German Jews). On the wall is a map of South America and a sign about emigration to Palestine. Berlin, Germany, 1935.
- YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York
Below are stories and images of German refugees. Your task is to read each story and view the images. When you have completed your analysis of their hardships, make connections with your group members using the attached form. When you have completed your comparison to Ha and her family's hardships submit your paper to me, via the Common Share Folder. When I receive your submission it will be displayed on the SmartBoard and used for class discussion and synthesis at the end of the lesson.
German Refugees
In January 1933 there were some 523,000 Jews in Germany, representing less than 1 percent of the country's total population. The Jewish population was predominantly urban and approximately one-third of German Jews lived in Berlin. The initial response to the Nazi takeover was a substantial wave of emigration (37,000–38,000), much of it to neighboring European countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland). Most of these refugees were later caught by the Nazis after their conquest of western Europe in May 1940. Jews who were politically active were especially likely to emigrate. Other measures that spurred decisions to emigrate in the early years of Nazi rule were the dismissal of Jews from the civil service and the Nazi-sponsored boycott of Jewish-owned stores.
Vocabulary: Emigration
The Story of a German Refugee
My name at birth was Klaus Gräupner; I was born on Christmas Day 1927 in Breslau, to an educated German middle-class family. My mother’s father was head of mathematics at a grammar school; my father was an electrical engineering graduate of Breslau University. This young family did very well, my father, a German Jew, had jobs in Berlin, Frankfurt and again in Breslau where we had a house for one family in the country, when most people live in apartments in town. We had a tabby cat and called S A Mann or storm trooper.
Then this family’s world collapsed as the Nuremberg laws came into force which forbade graduate work for my father. So we had to move back to Breslau. My father found what work he could, and I remember him going off to mend shop-keepers’ electric signs on a bicycle balancing a ladder.. Not long after he left his wife and children, to protect them, as his wife was not Jewish. The last that I know of him was that he died in a concentration camp in 1940.
My mother tried to get me away from Breslau whenever Hitler visited the town. Once I went to a small village on the banks of the River Oder which was in flood, but the waters covering the meadows through which the village children and I waded were quite warm. The village families baked their bread communally, a fortnight’s supply at a time. It was the best bread that I’ve ever tasted! The bread would be wrapped up in blankets and used as required, just cutting off the mouldy bits. It tasted as good when 14 days old as when fresh.
Works Cited: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005468
Works Cited: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/96/a4910096
German Jews, seeking to emigrate, wait in the office of the Hlfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Relief Organization of German Jews). On the wall is a map of South America and a sign about emigration to Palestine. Berlin, Germany, 1935.
- YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York
Below are stories and images of German refugees. Your task is to read each story and view the images. When you have completed your analysis of their hardships, make connections with your group members using the attached form. When you have completed your comparison to Ha and her family's hardships submit your paper to me, via the Common Share Folder. When I receive your submission it will be displayed on the SmartBoard and used for class discussion and synthesis at the end of the lesson.
German Refugees
In January 1933 there were some 523,000 Jews in Germany, representing less than 1 percent of the country's total population. The Jewish population was predominantly urban and approximately one-third of German Jews lived in Berlin. The initial response to the Nazi takeover was a substantial wave of emigration (37,000–38,000), much of it to neighboring European countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland). Most of these refugees were later caught by the Nazis after their conquest of western Europe in May 1940. Jews who were politically active were especially likely to emigrate. Other measures that spurred decisions to emigrate in the early years of Nazi rule were the dismissal of Jews from the civil service and the Nazi-sponsored boycott of Jewish-owned stores.
Vocabulary: Emigration
- Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region with the intent to settle permanently in another. It is the same as immigration but describes an action effecting the country of origin and not the country of destination.
The Story of a German Refugee
My name at birth was Klaus Gräupner; I was born on Christmas Day 1927 in Breslau, to an educated German middle-class family. My mother’s father was head of mathematics at a grammar school; my father was an electrical engineering graduate of Breslau University. This young family did very well, my father, a German Jew, had jobs in Berlin, Frankfurt and again in Breslau where we had a house for one family in the country, when most people live in apartments in town. We had a tabby cat and called S A Mann or storm trooper.
Then this family’s world collapsed as the Nuremberg laws came into force which forbade graduate work for my father. So we had to move back to Breslau. My father found what work he could, and I remember him going off to mend shop-keepers’ electric signs on a bicycle balancing a ladder.. Not long after he left his wife and children, to protect them, as his wife was not Jewish. The last that I know of him was that he died in a concentration camp in 1940.
My mother tried to get me away from Breslau whenever Hitler visited the town. Once I went to a small village on the banks of the River Oder which was in flood, but the waters covering the meadows through which the village children and I waded were quite warm. The village families baked their bread communally, a fortnight’s supply at a time. It was the best bread that I’ve ever tasted! The bread would be wrapped up in blankets and used as required, just cutting off the mouldy bits. It tasted as good when 14 days old as when fresh.
Works Cited: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005468
Works Cited: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/96/a4910096