figures, fully-furnished dolls houses, miniature shops, tin soldiers, musical instruments, parlour games, magnetic and optical toys such as kaleidoscopes and mechanical marvels. Nuremberg also had a solid tradition as a centre for printing books and a wealth of products emerged for children and young people from the publishing houses.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, numerous smaller companies, the so-called Kleinmeister (small masters) took over production from the self-employed master craftsmen in the production of cheap metal toys, e.g. rattles, spinning tops, bells etc. Further growth in the German toy industry required more labour, and by 1889 a large component of toy manufacture relied exclusively on cheap labour of female and child workers, many of them as ‘out-workers’.
During World War I, Nuremberg’s toy industry was temporarily disrupted as the priority switched to arms production. The first Toy Fair in Nuremberg was held in 1950 when the original location, Leipzig, was cut off from western markets by the division of East and West Germany directly after World War II.
More recently, globalisation has seen a decline in the German toy trade with the production of plastic toys and the extraordinary growth of US and Asian toy industries. Only the most specialised manufacturers were able to survive, e.g. model railways and other innovations such as ‘Playmobil’. In spite of this competition, in 1995 there were still 25 toy-producing companies in the region and, due to the great importance of this annual trade fair almost all associations for Germany’s toy industry and trade have their headquarters in Nuremberg.
Lutz’ father also had a sister, Adele, who lived nearby with her husband Theodore Lebrecht and her brother Zion in their home at Further Strasse 4, which had a terraced balcony overlooking the long and steep back garden, leading down to a stream or canal; Lutz was forbidden to go near the water in his early years. Uncle Theo was a big, jolly, very likeable man with a florid complexion, and he loved to make up humorous poems for Lutz’s benefit. Aunt Adele was short and dark-haired with strong features and a personality to match. They never had children of their own, so doted on Lutz as if he were their own son. Lutz remembers that Uncle Theodore managed his own business and Aunt Adele was employed as a qualified baby’s nurse; she loved her work and always wore her uniform proudly.
When he was old enough, Lutz often cycled to their home after school and sometimes at weekends; he always looked forward to the tea and cakes his aunt had prepared for him. Lutz had no siblings or cousins but, although small, they were a happy family; both of his parents were warm and outgoing people. He had often hoped for a younger brother or sister but never asked his mother about it. Lutz was therefore the centre of attention, being the only child of his generation. This may have resulted in him becoming a gregarious and sociable child and he was successful in seeking companionship from other children in his neighbourhood and at school. This friendly, open nature was to stand him in good stead for the rest of his life.
From about the age of six years, Lutz had two special friends who lived directly opposite in a house across the street. You could say that they took on the role of surrogate brother and sister, Heinz being the same age as Lutz and Rosa a few years older. The Appel siblings were not Jewish, but religion seemed irrelevant to their close bond. Most days they played on the Appels’ roof garden, and these episodes were some of Lutz’s happiest childhood moments. Their father was a building supplier and their premises included a huge yard stocked with a variety of building materials, a source of inspiration for imaginative play. There were steps up from the yard to the one-storey-high roof garden, and the three of them would sit on the wall surrounding the vegetable beds and chatter. Heinz and Rosa’s dog, an average-sized mongrel, not dissimilar in appearance to a black and white bull terrier, was often the focus of their play. Lutz’s mother would often complain that he spent more time at his friends’ home than at his own although really she was very happy for him. When Lutz met up with Rosa many years later she told him that he had been a cheeky boy, particularly towards his grandmother whom he would tease relentlessly. From these accounts it would seem that Lutz was a child secure in the knowledge that he was well loved.
Lutz’s mother had many friends and would spend several afternoons each week holding or attending coffee parties and playing cards with other Jewish matrons. When he was younger, Lutz sometimes accompanied her but at other times he was happy to stay at home with his grandmother, who would indulge him and buy him sweets. When his mother was due home at about four o’clock he would kneel up on the arm of the sofa to look out the window, watching for her to appear walking up the street. He pressed his face searchingly up against the glass, his nose squashed flat causing a cloudy mist to form, which he would repeatedly rub clear with his fingers.
The Eichbaum family was not overtly religious, particularly on his mother’s side, but his father was more serious about religion and attended the synagogue regularly. Lutz and his mother only attended on high holydays, two or three times each year on the Day of Atonement, New Year etc. and did not observe the rituals at home except for the Day of Atonement when they were supposed to fast for 24 hours; Lutz found abstaining from food for more than a short period very difficult to comply with and on more than one occasion broke the fast early.
Lutz started school at age six, attending the Nuremberg Hauptschule (a mixed-gender and religious establishment). He wore a school uniform but preferred to wear lederhosen at weekends and holidays; these traditional leather shorts and braces he enjoyed wearing until his early teens. He remembers that once the leather was worn in it was a very comfortable and practical garment to wear.
After the Nazi regime or National Socialist German Workers party came into power in March 1933, his parents were ‘persuaded’ to move Lutz to a Jewish school in order to avoid discrimination and educational disadvantage.
The onset of racial alienation and oppression of Jewish society was in part legitimised by government propaganda which scape-goated Jews for all the social and economic ills since Germany’s defeat in World War I. Over the next few years they would be increasingly segregated from commercial, economic, social and cultural life by means of a campaign which fostered animosity and intolerance from the non-Jewish community. This ruthless discrimination began with Nazis marching in the streets with plac-ards reading: ‘Germans, Don’t Buy From Jews’ and ‘ Jews Want To Destroy Germany’. They also encouraged the display of ‘Jews Unwelcome’ signs in shop windows, and anti-Semitic graffiti began to appear on walls and sides of buildings. Just before Lutz’s tenth birthday, on the Saturday before Easter, there was the first national boycott of Jewish businesses. It had mixed success from a Nazi perspective but it did its job in promoting fear and intimidation, at least temporarily, as intermittent lulls in persecution gave a false sense of security for those trying to adjust to this abnormal normality.
Lutz’s Jewish secondary school was about a half-hour tram ride from Nuremberg, situated in a small town called Fuerth. Lutz was very happy there and at first hardly noticed the change in the political environment. He never heard his parents discuss political issues at home; besides, they may have thought that this hatred unfairly targeted at Jews couldn’t last. The Nazi regime declared its single-minded offensive against the Jews in September 1935 when Hitler announced at the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg that all Jews would be stripped of their rights and be reduced to the status of second-class citizens with no entitlement to vote. Hitler had promised the German people glory and a great future for their nation but first the country had to ‘purify itself ’ by segregation of all the Jews (as well as other undesirables).
The subsequent introduction of the Nuremberg laws formalised the Jews’ diminished status and the persecution was stepped up. ‘Jews Undesired’ or ‘Juden Verboten’ signs started to appear everywhere – at swimming pools, playgrounds, tennis courts, res-taurants, theatres and konditorei – the cafes which were highly patronised by the Jewish community. However, Lutz and his friends were undeterred, continuing to meet at each other’s homes or at Jew-friendly establishments. Lutz had some non-Jewish friends who were discouraged to mix with their Jewish counterparts and encouraged to join the Hitler Youth but Lutz doesn’t recall any particular victimisation
