The Daily Life of the Village and Country Jews in Hessen (Part C)
The Daily Life of the Village and Country Jews in Hessen from Hitler's Ascent to Power to November 1938
Source: M. Kaufman, Yad Vashem Studies XXII, (Jerusalem 1992), pp.147-198.
The Buergermeister's superiors counterattacked by arguing that although the Jewish merchant offered higher prices than his competitors, this resulted in higher meat prices for the population as a whole, and, the argument went on, it was possible that the Jews sought to stir up dissatisfaction among the residents. This argument was used by the authorities to take measures against Jewish cattle dealers 64 . However, despite the harassment and threats, in many places the Jews continued to deal in cattle up to 1936. Some transactions were conducted at night, in the woods, fields and roads, until the Gestapo intervened on the grounds that such practices endangered state security, and recorded the names of all those involved, both Jews and Aryans 65 . In their efforts to stamp out the Jewish presence in cattle dealing, the Nazi authorities tried to establish co-operative associations, the so-called Viehverwertungsgenossenschaften , to take over the cattle trade. They tried to persuade the peasants to trade with these co-operatives, even organised 'Jew-free' markets, but until 1937 these initiatives brought no significant results 66 . Despite all the dangers involved, the peasants preferred Jewish dealers, even after they signed pledges to desist from commercial contacts with them 67 .
When the Nazis realised they had been unsuccessful, in early 1937 they enacted a law whereby the renewal of a cattle-dealing license was made conditional on 'personal and substantive characteristics.' In the autumn of 1937, the law was implemented in Hessen-Nassau, and the licenses of Jewish cattle-dealers were revoked 68 . The authorities also made efforts to curtail trade with the Jews through non-Jewish intermediaries 69 . In the years 1933-1934 some Jewish merchants received an income from leasing their business to Aryans, but in 1937-1938 they were forced to sell to the leases for practically nothing 70 .
Until 1937 the Jews some how managed to eke out a living, but the possibilities kept shrinking from month to month. As we have mentioned above, in November 1934, the Reich Ministry of Economy instructed its Hessen branch to allow the Jews to trade in the markets 71 , but three years later, all Jewish businesses were liquidated in line with explicit guidelines from the central government 72 . In 1938 all the Jews were also forced to sell their houses. On more than one occasion, after the buyer and the seller had agreed on a price, the authorities intervened, forcing the Jew to sell at a lower price than agreed upon by both parties 73 .
The Nazis employed various means to dispossess the Jews of their businesses and property. Owners of butcher shops were accused of selling spoiled meat 74 ; Jews were beaten while attending to their businesses; and death threats were issued to others. In 1935, a number of village councils promulgated regulations banning Jews from almost all forms of economic activity 75 . In 1934, thugs seized a shipment of cattle bound for the market in Rhoen Mountains and released all the animals.
By 1936 commercial activities were almost totally out of bounds for the Jews 76 . In the spring of 1938, the district administration ordered the villages within its jurisdiction to liquidate completely all Jewish businesses in the district 77 . This step put an end to the activities of Jewish itinerant traders who had been dispossessed in the first years of Nazi rule. Peddling had been permitted by the directive of the Ministry of Economy from December 1935, in an effort to prevent the possible emergence of an 'impoverished Jewish proletariat endangering security of the state.' However, in a directive dated July 6, 1938, Jewish peddling licenses were revoked as of September 30, 1938. In a number of places this step had been taken earlier; for example, the heads of the district administration in Wiesbaden had ordered that peddling licenses for Jews not be renewed as early as May 1938 78 .
The ouster of Jews from the economic life of the countryside and the towns of Hessen was completed after the riots of November 1938 79 . After that date almost all those who had not emigrated fled to the large cities in the hope of finding either sources of livelihood or some kind of assistance that would allow them to survive.
Acts of Terror and Humiliation Against the Jews in Villages and Small Towns
Curses, beatings, and destruction of Jewish property were fairly ubiquitous in the villages and small towns of Hessen in the years 1933-1938 80 , and many Jewish residents were targeted for attack and abuse. Nazi propaganda depicted these acts as an example of 'the rage of the people against the Jewish oppressor.' As we have already mentioned, there was no need for the yellow patch in the countryside, and everyone could threaten the Jews and attack them with little or no fear of punishment from the legal authorities 81 . In early March 1935, a village Buergermeister asked the head of the Nazi party branch to spare the homes of Israelites in the village and to refrain from shouting anti-Semitic slogans in front of their houses,' but, of course, such a request was not enough to change anything 82 .
In an effort to stir up the hatred even more, the Nazis would deliberately place the publicity boards of Der Stuermer in the main squares or close to places with a high concentration of Jews 83 . Attacks against property were equally widespread; the windows in Jewish shops and homes were often smashed, and in a number of cases the SA men looted the property inside 84 . Some Jews attempted to receive compensation for damages in accordance with the 'law of damages caused by disturbances' enacted in 1920. Such claims, however, were delayed in the courts for an entire year only to be dismissed on the grounds that the attack had taken place during a legal demonstration by the NSDAP and not during disturbances and that the plaintiff had not sustained damages which jeopardised his economic position 85 . Some of the Nazis' methods employed to humiliate the Jews in the aftermath of the Anschluss in Vienna had been practised in a number of Hessen villages as early as the spring of 1933; thus, in one village the Jews were forced to erase or remove election posters of non-Nazi political parties prior to the March 1933 elections 86 .
In many towns and villages the local tavern became the base of operations for the SA thugs who would penetrate acts of violence against the Jews 87 . In a number of villages Jews and political opponents of the Nazis, such as Communists, were dragged into the local tavern and forced to run between two rows of thugs who beat them with iron rods and rubber truncheons ( Gummiknueppel ). The police did not intervene to stop the justified rage of the people.' 88 Most Jews refrained from filing any charges, fearing that it would provoke acts of revenge by the attackers 89 . In fact, reprisals of this kind often took place following political events that had nothing to do with the Jews, such as the elimination of the SA leader Roehm by Hitler. In one place an atrocious pogrom of Jews took place on that same day 90 .
Some acts of violence were unleashed as a way of settling economic accounts with the Jews. In one case a Buergermeister invited a Jew to his office and then left the premises, allowing one of the Nazis to beat the Jew in order to coerce him into cancelling this Nazi's debt to the victim 91 . In the years 1933-1934 there were cases in which the courts refused to cancel debts following acts of violence 92 , due to the fact that the legal system had not yet been taken over completely by the Nazis.
Not everywhere did the Jews take violence against them with heads bowed. In the village of Hungen, a Jew by the name of Ernst Katz was attacked by a SA man, resident of the village, while returning home from the neighbouring village. He defended himself and beat up his attacker. The latter filed a complaint, and as a result Katz was sent to the Osthofen concentration camp near Worms. Later Katz was put on trial, but the judge, who was not a Nazi but a member of the traditional right-wing organisation 'Stahlhelm,' acquitted him. Katz was released and left Germany forthwith. In 1935, a brave Jew dared make a public mockery of his attackers after they smashed the windows in his shop. He put up a large sign saying: This property has been insured by a German insurance company and the damage is to the property of the German people.' 93
In early 1936, several months before the Olympic Games in Berlin, the authorities ordered a halt to 'initiated' violence against Jews, even threatening the violators with punishment 94 . The wave of attacks against the Jews subsided, but in late 1936 they resumed with renewed fury. The Nazis did not confine themselves to attacks against the living: in November 1936, the Jews were told to evacuate the old Jewish cemetery in Gross-Gerau and transfer the bones of their dead to the new graveyard. As the Jews transported the exhumed bodies in wheelbarrows through the streets of the town, the Nazis snatched skulls from the wheelbarrows and threw them back in again, to the amusement of the spectators 95 .
The violence against the Jews in the small towns and villages of Hessen amounted to a dress rehearsal for the same methods that would be used against all German Jews after 1938. Records of post-war trials indicate that there were some villages in which no violence against the Jews occurred before 1938 96 , but these were the exception.
Behaviour of the Authorities in Small Towns and Villages
In the first years of Nazi rule some sympathisers of the traditional right-wing parties continued in their posts. A number of office-holders in the towns and villages did accede to the brutish Nazi anti-Semitism. Although most of them could hardly be described as philo-Semites, nonetheless they found the Nazi violence, violation of the law and crude Der Stuermer -style propaganda repulsive. Some of Hitler's supporters even believed that the anti-Jewish violence went against the Fuehrer's wishes; but before 1938 the Buergermeisters who held such views were dismissed from their jobs. It should be borne in mind that as long as they did hold their positions, opposition to the SA and the local Nazis called for considerable civic courage 97 . When confronted by the Nazis, these village leaders did not contradict the arguments against Jews in general, but maintained that the Jews in their particular locality were decent and honest people 98 .
In every village that came under the control of extreme anti-Semites, the situation of the Jews worsened overnight. They could expect to be removed from the village at any moment 99 . Some village leaders even hinted to their Jewish residents that they would be better off if they left since the authorities were powerless to protect them or their property 100 . Some Jews sought police protection 101 , but in many cases their efforts to enlist such help, even when they were personally acquainted, led to embarrassing situations. Even those officials who were willing to accord the Jews lenient treatment turned hostile and tough in the presence of witnesses 102 ; while some of them became embarrassed at the prospect of extending official services to a Jew 103 .
In the years 1936-1937 the Jews could expect fewer and fewer services from the local officials. By that time all officials affiliated with the old regime had either been replaced or had become Nazi followers; only on rare occasions did a public office-holder dare act according to his conscience and against the party guidelines.
References:
64.Camberg documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 53, and Kefenrod documents, ibid. , 072/55. On October 23 the Gestapo instructed all village leaders to send detailed reports on this subject, since, according to the Gestapo the Jews aimed at agitating the population by overpricing the cattle sold to the peasants, thereby causing meat prices to rise. See Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, p. 756.
65.Gestapo letter of April 22, 1936. On the whole affair, including the letter, see Metzendorf/Heppenheim, p. 187ff, Kaufman Collection 072/ 68; see also the Frankfurt Gestapo Report, January 1933, Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, p. 265.
66.On August 5, 1933, the district commission (Kreisausschuss) informed village leaders in the Schluechtern districts that selling cattle to the Jews was contemptible and that it was their duty to the Fatherland to sell cattle to the co-operative associations; see Kropat, p. 420. On August 21, 1935, head of the Lower Taunus district (Untertaunuskreis) announced that he had established a cattle market 'free of Jews' in his district; his announcement made a great impression, ibid. On August 11, 1935, Nazi leaders in the town of Fulda organised a violent attack on the cattle market in town, where Jewish dealers marketed the cattle bought in the district villages. The rioters released the beasts, and the police closed down the market, ibid. , p. 421. On disturbance in the Fulda cattle market, see also Klein/Fulda, Kaufman Collection 072/ 68; on the opening of markets free of Jews in the towns of Arolsen and Waechtersbach, shortly before the party congress in Nuremberg in 1935, ibid. ; on this subject and on the failure of the co-operative associations in the region, see also Kassel report, August 1935, Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, pp. 310, 360. On April 22, 1937, the co-operative for cattle trade in the town of Butzbach sent a letter of complaint about the fact that in the town of Giessen Jews still operated in the cattle market; see Klein/Fulda, Kaufman Collection 072/ 68.
67.On April 15, 1935, three peasants ΓÇô Hugo Reuter, Otto Mueller, and Otto Sargh ΓÇô were forced to sign such a letter; see correspondence with the Buergermeister of Echzell, Echzell Archives, Kaufman Collection 072/ 46.
68. Reichsgesetzblatt , I, p. 28f (quoted in Kropat, p. 241), and Hessisches Staatsarchiv Wiesbaden, 474/3, nos. 774, 1391, 1592, 1608, 1630, 1817, 2152, quoted in Kropat, note 55, p. 443; on the sustained effort to revoke the license of Isidor Koenigstein of Carlshafen on the grounds of 'protection of animals' and improbity, see Carlshafen documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 46.
69.On the legal battles of the Nazi authorities to revoke the cattle-trading license of an Aryan German Georg Ackermann and his wife, who were accused of serving as intermediaries between the peasants and Jewish cattle dealers in the years 1936-1939, see Gross-Rohrheim documents, ibid. , 072/44.
70.In the town of Gross-Gerau, the butcher shop owner, Salli Rosenthal, leased his store to one of his workers in 1934. In 1937 he was forced to sell it to him for a few pennies; testimony of the daughter, Renate Rosenthal, Schleindl, p. 156. On October 25, 1937, the Buergermeister of the village of Carlshafen reported to his superiors that certain Jews earned their living by leasing their businesses to non-Jews, Kaufman Collection 072/ 46.
71.See letter of November 1, 1934, in the archives of the town of Erbach (henceforth: Erbach Archives), Kaufman Collection072/ 46.
72.In 1937, the district authorities asked the Erbach Buergermeister how it was possible that Jews continued to deal in cattle and timber in his town, and why a Jewish peddler continued to sell arts and crafts made in Odenwald, and instructed him to put a stop to this activity, Erbach Archives. On June 26, 1938, the Frankfurt Gestapo instructed the village leaders through the district heads to put an immediate stop to Jewish presence in the cattle markets on the grounds that it caused disturbances. On August 1, the Buergermeister of Camberg replied that Jews were not allowed to deal in cattle in his town; Camberg documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 35.
73.Report on the sale under duress ( Zwangsverkauf ) of a house in Moerfelden, on February 27, 1938. The agreed price was 22,000 marks but the Jewish owner was forced to sell for 14,000 marks; Ruehlig-Auer, p. 168. In 1936, the Jews of Homburg were forced to sell their property at prices fixed by the district administrative office of the Nazi party (testimony of Stube Wieland, who worked there as a clerk); Stube Wieland, Kaufman Collection 072/ 58.
74.In Seligenstadt Selma Bachrach was led through the streets of the village while carrying a sign: 'I have sold bad meat' ('Ich habe schlechtes Fleisch verkauft'), Span, p. 138. The Gestapo reported that in Borken, in the Fritzlar district, a Jewish cattle dealer was arrested on January 8, 1935, on the charges of selling a sick cow, whose meat was consequently consumed by fifty people; Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, p. 807. A similar report on the village of Borken in the Melsungen district, April 1935, deals with the case of contaminated meat that caused stomach poisoning. The same report also detailed the story of a Jewish merchant beaten to a pulp by SA and SS men, against whom charges were filed by the police, ibid. , p. 257.
75.On August 27, 1935, the Goddlau village council adopted a decision, which in effect banned the Jews from all forms of economic activity. The text of the resolution ended thus: 'Everyone who does business with the Jews will be destroyed together with them.' Schleindl, pp. 44, 244.
76.On a Nazi attack on a convoy of cattle being led to market, see Gersfeld documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 58; on the possibilities of trading with the Jews in Rhoen; see testimony of a peasant by the name of Richard Spiegel from the village of Hilders, ibid. , 072/88.
77.A directive, which applied to the entire district of Odenwald, issued on May 15, 1938, by Erbach, the head of the district ( Kreisdirektor ), banned all Jewish dealers from trading in cattle. Village leaders were instructed to ensure the implementation of the directive; see Erbach Archives. In the village of Hadamar, trading with one Jewish cattle dealer continued nonetheless, and on November 24, 1938 (in the aftermath of the November riots), the district inspector in charge of the peasant population ordered that the license of the Jewish cattle dealer, Heyman Liebman, be revoked; see Hadamarer Juden.
78.Kropat, pp. 421-422.
79.Avraham Barkai, 'Der wirtschaftliche Existenzkampf im Dritten Reich,' in: Die Juden im Nationalsozialistischen Deutschland 1933-1945 , Tuebingen, 1986, p. 165.
80.On August 30, 1935, the president of the government ( Reichsregierungspraesident ) in Wiesbaden reported on a series of attacks against Jews and their property, indicating that in most cases the perpetrators had not been apprehended, although it was known that they were members of the Nazi party; Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, p. 901. The Kassel Gestapo Report for February-April 1934 mentions in its conclusions numerous attacks against the Jews and their property. Among other things, it reported heavy damage to three synagogues in the government district ( Regierungsbezirk ) of Kassel, ibid. , pp. 80, 88. In January 1935, reports came from Kassel on numerous acts of violence in the countryside, such as beating of Jews and attacks against Jewish property, mainly smashing windows in businesses and apartments; ibid. , p. 225. In his survey of attacks against Jews, based on official reports in the Fulda region in the years 1933-1936, Thomas Klein lists a large number of physical attacks and property damage in many villages in the area. The district party chief lied when on August 2, 1934, he told the Regierungspraesident that no such acts had taken place. He maintained that the perpetrators had been 'immature' youths and that one SA man had been put on trial and acquitted, Klein/Fulda, Kaufman Collection 072/ 68.
81.The murder was reported by Hans Oppenheimer, now of Nahariya, Israel. There were also several wounded in the attack, one of them with knife wounds; Langsdorf documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 75. In 1935, a Jew and the judge who ruled in his favour in a suit concerning evacuation of a rented apartment were threatened; Klein/Fulda, ibid ., 072/68. On the murder of Moritz Moses in Ziegenhain on June 26, 1935, see Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, p. 819.
83.The Stuermer bulletin board was placed in front of the synagogue in the town of Gross-Gerau; see Kaufmann, Gross-Gerau, p. 10. In Moerfelden, by no means a Nazi stronghold, walls were covered with anti-Semitic slogans in 1936, Ruehlig-Auer, p. 111.
84.As early as March 31, 1933, the Nazis smashed shop windows in the trading houses belonging to Kahn and Gutman, as well as the windows in the house of Simon Gutman in Gross-Gerau; Ziegler, p. 31. In early 1934, one night Nazi thugs appeared at the house of the author, smashed all the windows and threw stones into the bedrooms. The attackers threatened to force their way inside and massacre the residents. At the last moment their leaders reined them in and sent them back home. After all the Jews had fled from the village of Geinsheim, the Nazis broke into their homes, which had been closed shut, broke everything in sight, and looted the property and merchandise from the stores. The police filed a report but no investigation followed; Kaufmann-Jugend, p. 46. On March 26, 1933, the house of Aharon Josef Halberstadt in the village of Florstadt was broken into, and the property was looted; Kaufman Collection 072/ 87. On the night of March 12, 1933, a pogrom was perpetrated against the Jews of Lich. The Nazi chief issued an order to cut off the Jews' beards and hair. The ChambrÉ family home was looted; the head of the family was seriously beaten and remained a cripple for the rest of his life. The family accounts were also stolen in order to forestall the collection of outstanding debts, ibid. , 072/80.
85.On January 31, 1933, attackers smashed most Jewish windows in the town of Alsfeld; Kaufman Collection 072/ 42. On January 20, attacks began on Jews in the towns of Gersfeld, Fulda District; ibid. , 072/42. On March 13, and September 26, 1933, Gedern Jews were attacked by SA men, local thugs from neighbouring villages, and members of the labour battalion ( Arbeitsdienst ) stationed in the area; Diel/Gedern, ibid. , 072/75. In Griesheim, Gustav Herz Leib was seriously beaten following the March 1933 elections; ibid. , 072/71. On the violence against the Jews of Fulda in January and February 1933, see also Sonn-Berger, Fulda, p. 160, ibid. , 072/68. In the second week of March 1933, Nazi thugs broke into Jewish apartments in Gross-Gerau, destroying everything they could lay their hands on; Ziegler, p. 26. On March 24, 1933, Nazis gathered in front of the house of a Jewish doctor, Gruenbaum, in Bad-Nauheim, intending to lynch him for his alleged smuggling of anti-German reports abroad. The police arrested Gruenbaum 'in order to protect him'; Kolb, p. 134. In the village of Gladenbach, Jews were severely attacked. In the village of Rhina, anti-Jewish violence proved too much even for the Kassel police chief. On March 22, 1935, Nazis broke into the synagogue, and all the worshippers were savagely beaten. Eleven were injured, some of them seriously. Three days later many Jews were attacked at night in their homes, and after incessant rioting three of the rioters were taken into 'protective custody,' on the grounds that their incitement 'dealt a serious bto discipline and endangered public order.' As in many other cases, no one was brought to trial; Kropat, pp. 4360437. In late March 1933, several Jews were arrested in Heppenheim; among them was Martin Buber; see Metzendorf/Heppenheim, Kaufman Collection 072/ 681. On legal claims filed by Jews in accordance with the law on damages resulting from disturbances, see Alsfeld documents, ibid ., 072/42.
86.On Jews being forced to erase slogans before and after the March 1933 elections, see Ortenburg documents, ibid. , 072/71; Metzendorf/Heppenheim, ibid. , 072/68, Reinheim; pp. 88-89.
87.The tavern belonging to Dieter served as such a center in the village of Geinsheim; Ella, the young daughter of the owner, played the gracious hostess to the SA thugs; Kaufmann-Jugend, p. 46. On the night of September 15, 1935, a group of Nazis left 'Die Traube' tavern in order to force the Jewish residents to dismiss their Aryan maids immediately; Kaufman Collection 072/20.
88.For description of such an event, see Hungen A, p. 13ff, and Katz Report, Hungen documents, Kaufman Collection 072/20.
89.Kaufmann-Jugend, p. 46; Schleindl, pp. 43, 283; Reinheim, p. 89; Ziegler, p. 26; Kropat, p. 435; Klein/Fulda, Kaufman Collection 072/ 78; Metzendorf/Heppenheim, p. 187, ibid.
90.Der Judenpogrom in Hungen , eingeleitet von Buergermeister Schmied , Hungen, 1988 (henceforth: Hungen B), pp. 33-34.
91.Incidents of this kind were reported by Lisa Kahn from the village of Stockstadt; Schleindl, p. 284. In one case a district peasant leader ( Kreisbauernfuehrer ) was questioned on his involvement in an attempt to extort money from a Jew; report from Huenfeld, December 8, 1934, Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, p. 803.
92.Hungen B, p. 32.
93.Hungen A, p. 13ff.
94.In the directive against actions by individual initiative ( Einzelaktionen ) violators were described as rebels and enemies of the state; Gross-Ruhrheim documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 44. On sharply worded directives against such actions, see also Metzendorf/Heppenheim, p. 187; ibid. , 072/68. Gestapo situation reports contain abundant evidence on the attempts by the authorities to curtail attacks against Jews; Gestapo Reports for Hessen-Nassau, pp. 601, 739, 752, 768. The authorities also issued instructions to refrain from posting anti-Semitic signs and graffiti to prevent them from being photographed by foreign tourists.
95.Ziegler, p. 29.
96.According to a ruling by the court in Darmstadt concerning the village of Koenig in Odenwald Moritz/Noam, documents no. 20.
97.On the village of Laubach, see Hungen A, p. 13ff. As described earlier, the Nazi Buergermeister of the village of Oberbrechen, Hugo Trost, prevented attacks against the Jews; Kaufman Collection 072/ 63.
98.Evidence of the attitude of the Buergermeister of the village of Echzell toward the Jewish residents is to be found in a directive sent to him from the district office on August 27, 1935, instructing him to refrain from seeking information about the economic situation of non-Jewish Germans from the Jews of the village. In his reply of August 28, the Buergermeister claimed that nothing of the sort had taken place; see Judenverfolgung 1934-1938, Echzell Archives, Kaufman Collection 072/ 1. In 1934, a Jewish woman was employed as clerk in the office of Dr. Brecher, the Buergermeister of the village of Hadamer. He had been a former member of the Catholic Zentrum party. In response to a query put to him by the SA, he replied that she was a daughter of a man who had been killed at the front during World War I. An SA man by the name of Schul addressed Goering directly on this matter; see Hadamarer Juden, p. 25.
99.In the village of Reinheim, a Jewish resident asked the Nazi Buergermeister for social assistance for which he was eligible by law. The request was turned down outright with an annotation: 'Turned down, Jewish swindler'; Reinheim, p. 92. On the events in the village of Geinsheim, see note 43. In the village of Gersfeld, the Jews' situation took a sharp turn for the worse with the dismissal on January 5, 1934, of Buergermeister Seifert and his replacement by a Nazi named Adam. The new village head 'turned hatred of the Jews into the village watchword'; see notes of the priest Langheinrich, 1938, Gersfeld documents, Kaufman Collection 072/ 58.
100. Buergermeister Wilhelm warned the Jewish residents of the village that he could no longer protect them; see 'Die Juedische Kultusgemeinde in Wehrheim,' Wehrheimer Geschichte , Heft 9, 1988, Kaufman Collection 072/ 80.
101.A Jew from the village of Walldorf was persecuted by Nazis who suspected him of arranging trysts with an Aryan girl. He found shelter in the police station; Ruehlig-Auer, pp. 97, 236.
102.In the mid-1930s the father of Josef Stern found himself in such an embarrassing situation when he encountered a policeman in the Giessen passport office; the policeman had served with him in the same unit in World War I; see Josef Stern, Stark wie ein Spiegel , Giessen, 1988 (henceforth: Stern), pp. 80-81.
103.Trude Weisshaupt testified as follows: When I came to apply for a passport in 1937, in a nearby town where people didn't know me, they didn't believe I was Jewish, because I didn't stink.' Ruehlig-Auer, p. 238.
