the Plague, fled to Eastern Europe. There they settled in Poland in an area which the Russian Government would later designate the “Pale of Settlement,” a large geographic area consisting of western Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Belorussia, and Ukraine. Jews were allowed nowhere else unless they became Christians.
While living in the Pale of Settlement, the ancestors of Albert and Sam were known as Tepperovitch and Rosenovitch. If there was a different name before that, it was lost to antiquity…
The increase in the Jewish population of “The Pale” eventually resulted in anti-Jewish pogroms (riots or killings), which started in the nineteenth century. Theories as to the causes of the pogroms ranged from blaming “Jews” for assassinating the Czar to the fact that some Jews, because they were forbidden many occupations, were forced to become “moneylenders,” incurring the ire of their debtors and business competitors.
The new Czar, Alexander III, established the May Laws in 1882, which restricted Jews in many aspects of life: Jews could only live in small towns (shtetles) and not large cities. They could not carry out any business on Sundays or Christian holidays. They were restricted to ten percent of college enrollment.
The Czar’s overseer of the Russian Orthodox Church, Konstantin Petrovich Pobyedonostsyev hoped that “One third of the Jews would die, one third would convert and one third would leave the country.” So with the Pobyedonostsyev threat looming in Jew’s minds...
One third did leave and amongst them were the future parents of Albert Tepper and Sam Rosen who moved to Germany to escape the anti-Jewish sentiment of Eastern Europe…
CHAPTER 4
Adolph Hitler’s Birth
FUR FRIEDEN, FRIEHEIT
UND DEMOKRATIE
NIE WIEDER FASCHISMUS
MILLIONEN TOTE MAHNEN
“For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Remind Us.”
Just before the one hundredth anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s birth in 1889, a memorial stone with the above inscription was laid on the site of Hitler’s birth in Braunau Am Inn, a small town in Austria near Bavaria on the south German border.
Adolph Hitler’s paternity is uncertain. His father, Alois, born in 1837, was the son of Marie Ann Schickelgruber and either an unknown person, or else Johann George Heidler, or the son of a wealthy Jewish man, Frankenberger for whom she worked. Thus Adolph Hitler, steeped as he was in anti-Semitism, was struck numb by the thought that his grandfather may have been a Jew. But since science had not advanced to the point of establishing paternity, the notion was ignored. Johann George Heidler eventually did marry Marie Ann Schicklegruber, becoming Adolph’s stepfather. Because of this, Hitler did change his name, and the Heidler became Adolph Hitler, a name that would go down in infamy.
CHAPTER 5
Albert, Sam, and Adolph as youngsters…Berlin 1909
The early part of the twentieth century was considered a “Golden Age” for Germany’s Jews, and the Tepper and Rosen family prospered in a peaceful environment. The friendship of Albert and Samuel grew and strengthened over time. They were inseparable and the pride of their respective families. They attended the same nearby grade school as well as the synagogue sponsored school. Both good students, they learned early in life the importance of education. They studied together often, set academic standards, and were at the top of their classes and the pride of their parents who encouraged scholarship at every turn. They had their own competition for grades, but were rarely separated by more than a few points.
Albert’s father was a former competitive swimmer, so he was anxious to instill in his son the same enthusiasm, and enrolled him as soon as he turned three years of age. Naturally, Samuel was not to be left out, and in time the two boys both became credible swimmers enhancing the appearance of their growing and lean muscular bodies.
The boys continued to prosper, and at grade school graduation they also were preparing for their Bar Mitzvahs, which would be held in the Neue Synagogue on the same day since they both shared the April twentieth birth date...
The word Bar means “son” and Mitzvah means “law or “commandment,” which literally translates to “son of the commandment.” Jewish law mandates that age thirteen is a transition point when a boy becomes a man. This is considered an important milestone, and the celebration is attended by family and friends in the synagogue and/or other special venue where prayers are said and all the youngsters and guests have a joint celebration.
In Orthodox Judaism when a boy becomes a man at age thirteen he learns about Tefillin. These are black leather boxes which contain biblical passages and leather straps attached for the purpose of binding around the upper arm and forehead in accord with the biblical passage: “You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and they should be for a reminder between your eyes.” This ritual occurs every morning during prayers for the last three thousand years and is a reminder to keep the faith, still performed by orthodox Jews to this day.
A Bar Mitzvah boy is “called up to the Torah,” stands on the “Bimah” and reads a “portion” of the Torah, which varies depending upon the date of the Bar Mitzvah. This is followed by a party usually after the ceremony where the Bar Mitzvah boy presents a prepared speech followed by a festive meal and dancing.
There are 613 Mitzvahs (commands or good deeds) in the Torah, and in more recent times a Bar Mitzvah boy is assigned one Mitzvah to carry out. This could be any one of the Mitzvahs that would impact others in a positive way.
More recently, thirteen year old girls have been included in this Bar Mitzvah ritual under the name of Bat Mitzvah (Bat meaning daughter).
In 1910, the boys headed for high school. Already instilled in their minds were future professions…
Now we will turn our attention to the childhood of Adolph Hitler. We have to do this from the perspective of knowing what a monster he evolved into as an adult, which in the opinion of many boils down to the greatest mass murderer in all of human history. Would there be any clues to such a transformation from an innocent child? I doubt there would be, but I believe it would be an interesting read and thought process if we keep this evolution in mind as we study Hitler’s childhood.
We have learned about his “Illegitimate birth,” which I believe would have nothing to do with his adult life. He was beaten by his father as a youngster on numerous occasions, or at least until he learned about the stoicism of the American Indian and decided that the next time he was beaten, he would not cry out. Apparently he was successful with this. “He never hit me again.” But do all those persecuted become persecutors? Well, Hitler did, but we cannot make generalizations.
Would the hatred he apparently felt for his father in his youth somehow promote the hatred that he transferred to Jews as a young man resulting in one of the worst genocides in human history? Such questions could never be answered with certainty, and would remain an impossible to prove conjecture. We do know that his father ruled the home with an iron fist. Could this role model have influenced Hitler’s treatments of his own subordinates in adult years?
When Hitler started grade school he was an excellent student, but he became indifferent in the upper grades. Did he lose interest? He completed schooling and then dropped out at age sixteen having met only the minimum requirements. He moved to Vienna with the idea that he would see if his artistic talents could
