Max Liebster - Crucible of Terror

Work hours never seemed to end; by evening I was worn out. I rarely had time for myself. I seldom managed to attend balls held by the Jewish community in Mannheim—not to mention the occasional ones in Viernheim, where more than 100 Jews lived. The non-Jewish dances on Saturday evenings were more convenient. They were my sole entertainment. Music inspired me, vibrating the fibers of my being, especially when I held in my arms a girl who knew how to waltz. I attended a few dances, even though most of the girls wouldn’t dance with me. I managed to find an exceptionally tolerant Christian girl, and she was a good dancer too. Ruth, a vivacious young lady, wasn’t ashamed to dance with a Jewish boy. I felt as if I were in heaven when we waltzed. But the music also made me melancholy. It brought back my dream of becoming a cantor like Grandpa Oppenheimer.

Julius and Hugo had no time for music, and I too had become completely absorbed in the business. The time came when the two bachelors would make a choice among potential brides. According to their criteria, the girls had to be Jewish and had to come with a solid dowry, which they thought necessary for a prosperous life. To me, the whole affair seemed more like negotiations over the purchase of a set of furniture than the choice of a companion for life. Hugo and Julius discussed the terms of the marriage agreement with their mother, who rendered her opinion. She lived just long enough to see her sons married—Julius to Frieda, and Hugo to Irma. Julius and Frieda’s firstborn, Doris, came along as a true consolation after the death of her grandmother. I became Doris’s favorite uncle.

2

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.