When the war began, Germany introduced rationing of food and other items. The Jews faced discrimination on this account and were gradually denied meat, eggs, butter, fruit, chocolate, coffee, and other staples. They were restricted to special stores, where they were allowed to shop only during certain hours of the day. In 1940, Jews' rations for clothing and footwear were terminated. As time passed, their clothing became increasingly ragged, and they were not even provided with allotments of leather to replace worn shoe soles.
More Forced Labour
The recruitment of Jews for forced labour began in December 1938 and gathered momentum with the outbreak of war. Jews were employed from morning until night at difficult and denigrating jobs such as construction, snow removal, cleaning of latrines, agriculture, and industry, including the arms industry. Throughout, they were employed under discriminatory conditions and segregated from ΓÇ£AryanΓÇ¥ workers.
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Segregation
On 1 September 1939, as Germany invaded Poland, the Jews in Germany were placed under curfew from 8:00 p.m. until morning. This curfew, which among its other effects, prevented Jews from visiting one another, exacerbated their isolation even within Jewish society. The Jews' interaction with their surroundings was cut off in additional ways as well – radio sets were confiscated and later on Jews were forbidden to possess telephones, use public telephones, or to use public transport. The graveyards…are...the only place where Jewish children can play. …Many Jewish children have no yard.… The Jewish community finally found a solution: every empty space in the cemeteries was used to erect playgrounds and sandboxes for the smaller children. And the older children were charged with cleaning the graves and paths from weeds.... Thus they are kept busy and enjoy the fresh air.… The graveyards in Germany are not only the last resting-place for the old people, but the only place where Jewish children can play…'
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Concentration and Marking
As the Jews of Germany became increasingly impoverished, many Jews were pushed to move to smaller quarters. They usually rented rooms in other Jews' homes, which later became Judenhaeuser - ΓÇ£Jewish housesΓÇ¥. They lived in crowded conditions, isolation, constant fear, under close police surveillance, suffering from police raids in search of forbidden food or curfew violators. The Nazis made the Jews' isolation visible to all by introducing the yellow star on 19 September 1941. In March 1942, Jews' homes were similarly marked.
Now I will not be able to buy a newspaper
As of the 19 [of this month] we may not leave our residence without written authorisation from the police. This means that we will not be able even to go to Potsdam or Bernau. As of the same date Jews will have to wear a Star of David, the size of the palm of a hand, sewn firmly onto their clothing, with the inscription Jude' (Jew). Now I will not be able to buy a newspaper outside the [permitted] hours 4 – 5 p.m., eat in a restaurant or visit Aryan friends. And there are yet even more unpleasant results, as you can well imagine…'.
The old lady in the tram
From the Diary of a German Woman in Stuttgart 5 October 1942 I took the tram. It was over-crowded. An old lady got in. Her legs were so swollen that her feet gushed out of her shoes. She wore the Star of David on her dress. I got up so that the old lady could sit down. This led to an eruption of popular wrath'.… Get out', someone screamed. Soon a whole choir was yelling Get out'. In this medley of voices I could hear the outraged words: slave of the Jews, dishonourable person'. The tram stopped in the middle of the way. The driver ordered: get out of here, the two of you, on the double.'
More The First Expulsions
Initial attempts to deport Jews from Germany and Austria to the East began shortly after the war broke out. In October 1939, Jews were sent from Vienna to Nisko as part of a plan to establish a general Jewish reservation there. In February 1940, Jews were deported from Stettin and Vienna to occupied Poland. In October of that year, after the surrender of France, Jews from the areas of Baden, Saar, and Pfalz (the Palatinate) were banished to France.
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Deportation of the Jews of Germany
In October 1941, Jewish emigration was prohibited and systematic transports to the East began. The deportees were notified of their coming deportation. From the collection points, they were taken to the trains. The last Jews of Berlin were deported in June 1943. Jewish institutions that remained active during those last few years were shut down, with the exception of the Berlin Jewish Hospital.
More 1 Exemption From Deportations
The authorities decided not to deport some spouses in mixed marriages and several thousand Mischlinge (persons of mixed race) - about 15,000 people. A few thousand additional Jews lived under forged papers and false identity, with Germans who concealed them and shared their food rations with them. They lived in constant fear of denunciation or of a sudden police raid. Those who were caught were placed aboard the next transport to the extermination camps.
More 2 After the Deportation
After the transports departed, various offices carried out the bureaucratic extermination of the Jews. The employment bureau nullified their labour permits. The deportees' property was confiscated under Regulation 11 of the Nuremberg Laws, which stipulated that the property of any person leaving the Reich be confiscated. The municipal supply department revoked the Jews' ration cards. The population registry recorded the remark moved to unknown address' or resettled in the east' under the person's name. In cases in which the deportees had outstanding debts collection was taken care of by police authorities.
From the File of Leo Weiss
Leo Weiss of Kitzingen was deported to Lublin on 25 April 1942. He was 66 years old. On 9 June 1942, seven weeks after his deportation, the Munich Municipality wrote to the Gestapo: The Jew Leo Israel Weiss is registered here as the owner of a plot of land.... We wish to know what we should do regarding a debt of 18.70 Marks for the month of April 1942 and 18.55 RM for May and the following months. Should we act on the 11th Regulation? I request to be informed whether Weiss left Germany and if his property was transferred to the state...'
More 3 Suicide
When the transports began, the number of Jewish suicides increased sharply. I am ending my life…of my own free will. It is too much to bear for an eighty-year-old person … I have had the tablets for many years. I had them already when my daughter took her own life, and I should have gone with her…. I wish to thank the house where I was looked after…. They were caring and kind to me, but they were powerless against the incitement campaign. That I cannot see my children again makes this step harder for me, but they will understand…'.
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Deportation of The Jews from Germany
The first transports were sent to the ghettos of Eastern Europe. Some of the deportees were shot immediately upon arrival as part of the genocide of Jews in the Soviet Union, which had begun in the summer of 1941. Others were taken to the ghettos of Riga, Minsk, Lublin, Warsaw, Lodz and (from May 1942) Theresienstadt. Most of them died in the ghettos or were sent from there to extermination camps. Others were dispatched directly from Germany to the extermination camps. Screen with a black background with no navigation options and no More! Background: list of deportations from Berlin. Approximately 200,000 German Jews and 50,000 Austrian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
