The November day of our escape seemed endless. A heavy fog rose from the valley and intercepted the pale autumn sun. About seven or eight years old, Doris was too young to know that we had fled for our lives, but she sensed our anxiety and was restless and cranky. The dampness, the drafty cars, and the tension chilled us to the bone. I didn’t know why—perhaps it was a combination of anxiety and cold—but Julius and Hugo took turns getting out of the cars, stamping their feet in the cold like nervous horses. By nightfall we had another decision to make. It was impossible to stay overnight in the woods where we had parked—hunters might come around early in the morning. Besides, the cars wouldn’t protect us from the cold. This place in the forest had proved to be a good hiding place during daylight hours, but what now?
We decided to drive to an isolated inn situated in the remotest part of the Odenwald Mountains, a place where no one would know us. The fog dampened our headlights and the sound of the motors, making our trip through the mountains less conspicuous. The anxiety we felt in the forest intensified as we neared the place we hoped to stay overnight: Would this decision prove to be our undoing? We viewed ourselves as German. The Oppenheimers were wholly assimilated; only their surname identified them as being Jewish. My surname, Liebster, is German and means “most beloved.” Even in Viernheim the Oppenheimers had been discreet—not even a menorah in their apartment window to give them away. But now we felt in danger of betrayal. Our papers branded us “Israel” or “Sarah,” names forced upon us, and all Jews, by the Nazi officials.
That night at the inn, I was haunted by visions of the fearsome plague of Nazism spreading across the country. People had changed so suddenly. The lines between friend and enemy had blurred. I felt like the solitary prey stalked by a beast I neither knew nor understood.
❖❖❖
It was in January 1933 that President von Hindenburg had unexpectedly appointed a reichschancellor named Adolf Hitler. I was just 18 years old at the time, and I heard some of our customers denounce this event as a dangerous move. Soon, however, their voices fell silent. Nazi Brownshirts* rounded up political opponents, confiscating their papers and books and breaking up their meetings. Suddenly, there were no more rowdy marches and clashes in the streets. Public places were once again safe; children could return to playing outside. Now one party, the Nazi Party (the NSDAP),** controlled the country. Germany had become a police state, but the populace welcomed the new calm, which in the minds of many made up for the fact that some experienced a loss of liberty. In any case, people dared not express their innermost feelings. The threat of being hauled away as a dissident left most citizens numb with fear, ready to conform to the growing pressure.
* The Sturmabteilung (SA), also known as Brownshirts, were used by Hitler to gain political power through the use of street violence and the intimidation of political opponents.
** Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitspartei, or National Socialist German Workers Party.
JUDA VERRECKE!
(Death to Judaism!)
—Nazi slogan painted on walls and windows
From the beginning of his political career, Hitler furiously denounced the “worst” enemies of the State—the Communists and the Jews. Hitler’s message was intensified by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In his hysterical talks, Hitler promised employment, a Volkswagen, and better housing for the common people, the Volk. Factories had to come to a standstill while the workers listened to Hitler’s ranting lectures. Indeed, the Führer did provide jobs. Every morning all sorts of men cycled past our store with shovels tied to their bikes. Instead of standing in soup lines, they had work—maybe not the type they would have chosen, but at least they earned their bread. Hot or cold, fog or rain, they labored to level the ground along the Rhine River for the future autobahn, Germany’s first highway.
The Jew greedily stretched out his claw in order to pull the
German farmer into the abyss; that is when Adolf Hitler came
and stopped them—and Germany was released!
—German Farmers’ Special Day
The farmers fell in step with the new regime, and this helped the economy. The government moved to protect farmers’ property from lenders—if the farmers could prove that they were of pure “Aryan” stock. The masses hailed the quick economic recovery and seemed blind to the gradual strangulation of freedom. They hailed Hitler as their savior.
Adolf Hitler, you are our great Führer.
Thy name makes the enemy tremble.
Thy Third Reich comes,
Thy will alone is law upon the earth.
Let us hear daily thy voice
and order us by thy leadership,
for we will obey to the end and even with our lives.
We praise thee! Heil Hitler!
—School Prayer
We began to hear people make statements like, “Hitler wants order and decency. Germany should rally around its leader.” The Heil Hitler salute replaced the common greeting. It served as a constant reminder that Heil—salvation—comes through the Führer. It seemed that everyone went along, whether they wanted to or not. Who would dare refuse in public? Any possible voice of dissent had been terrorized into silence by the threat of “protective custody” in a concentration camp. I could see that our own customers voluntarily shut their ears to grim rumors of atrocities that were now beginning to circulate.
Viernheim stands loyally by Adolf Hitler and the Fatherland!
...Viernheim is Germany—and we are a great people—
in one beautiful national community!
Germany above us—and our Führer Adolf Hitler above all!
Hail Germany—Hail the Führer!
—“Viernheim People’s Daily,” March 30, 1936
The combination of guaranteed work, a low crime rate, and plenty of food acted like a sedative. Few raised a word of complaint against the degrading posters that depicted the Jews as an evil presence. Law after law hemmed in our freedom. The government organized boycotts against Jewish businesses. Julius and Hugo’s brother, Leo, had been forced to sell his candy distributorship for almost nothing to an “Aryan.” He then had to go to work in a factory. But because of their good relationship with their customers, Julius and Hugo felt safe, despite the fate of their brother, Leo.
It is an outright contradictory statement to say: “A decent
Jew,” since the expressions “decency” and “Jews” are
contrary terms, excluding one another.
—“Viernheim People’s Daily,” 1938
Newspaper articles told ugly tales about Jews. Signs appeared forbidding Jews to go to public places such as theaters or parks. Because of their inferior “blood,” Jews could not be civil servants
