one went up outside with his wife to visit his son. tragically, despite being in transport for what he saw, and despite his openness to jews of different backgrounds, he saw no professional opportunities for himself there and returned to germany. this extract from his diary and is read by susan. >> march 31, 1937. the most beautiful year. the young people who have everything. we slept very well this night in a tent that he was even a little bit romantic. i have not slept that way since the war. april 14, 1937. the holy city, would will you be emerge in your old glory? willie others stay on the roof of the synagogue?

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>> very dignified. had the impression that people are really brave. hardly any connections could be established between eastern and western jews. they live completely separate cycles. one can only hope that the next generation will find their way to one another. it is the only way we can become a unified people. the german jews are fast losing the layer of the old piece. without taking any jewish values. their mutual social support is also disappointing. they have not learned anything, but have gotten a lot. they are sticking together and are extraordinarily modest. almost without any means. i feel a certain love for eastern jews because they are

closer than we are. if they position themselves against german jews, this is because they have never felt much compassion. april 20th, 1937. if nothing can be done about it. the last days of among the most in my life this by enormous difficulties that i had to overcome. able to participate. >> because our dark hints are written with hindsight hindsighn see that even in 1937. you were writing with a presentiment of murder. though he returned to germany in 1937 with a heavy heart the decorative d world war i veteran

would have found the idea unimaginable that just four years later german policeman with murder him, his wife, and young daughter at the end of a brutal train journey. but it was clear in the 1930's nonetheless that possibilities for ordinary life for shrinking. a contraction of any captured by the poet jacob picard whose poem is read here by jill pauly. >> "and each morning" by jacob picard. so you buy your book and quietly go about your day the task. you are not joyous, and you know nothing will be left of yesterday. nothing of tomorrow now approaching. hour by hour departments on. the men's change silent in god's name. perhaps none of your steps will the the trace. a small when already makes you shiver.

of the little rain. you're only companions are the mobs. before you know it all this is gone like a song sung somewhere. oh, stay calm in the clouds and be patient. feel your grace. everyone who is called upon like you to listen to the gray wind of fate to wake up a numb sleep the others moun struck by a dream. >> public spaces felt increasingly hostile. many jews were conscious of having to behave with great care and inspection. this is what tony specter wrote after her immigration to the

u.s. in late 1938. >> i am very proud that i did nothing to draw attention to myself and behaved calmly and modestly, especially in the tram cars. the traffic association provided until the end. a 10-year-old boy, a blond, nice little fellow came up to me one day and said today and made a state for an elderly woman. she was patting me benevolently on the shoulder and said, that's right my dear boy. that is how a real hitler is supposed to behave. i am a jewish boy. and i got off the train.

>> germany can involved in a unified fight with bolshevism, but it at that year now rally hitler revived an intensified and older refrain about today a bolshevism. with increasing intensity regime leaders said that if germany were embroiled in a major war jews would feel the consequences. captured the atmosphere of those days and this extract from her diary. >> yesterday he read as if i had never heard them before. it devastated me. it was calamity and misery surrounding us all in which we listened to the pleading and

lamenting together. a bond of moaning, but nevertheless elevated to the commonality of feeling. all of a sudden the 70 swelled up lled up so it seemed to me. it was certainly diminished again by the day. it was so absolute that i am writing it down in order not to forget if. this week was that not the party convention which gave us something omething to read. why actually this identification of bolshevism and jewry. it seems to me if we really made the effort to fight against all these errors it would be like trying to clear away mont blanc with a toy shovel.

today during the speech of eight, hitler, i saw that if there is a war it will start with the extinction of the jews. one never knows. the well grounded observations. no matter what happened we are tied, and we have to stay. >> that was in september of '36. a year later she confided that she was no longer was sure that she could or should remain in germany. reflecting about his grandchildren in palestine. german jews were increasingly unsure what they remembered of their once vibrant and now a dwindling community. the question presents itself in a particularly poignant and personal form for those jews in mixed marriage ran non-jewish relatives and part jewish descendants were doing all they could to distance themselves

from the members of the family. the following and sent a letter presents a jewish grandfather's attempt to sensitize the and regeneration to the virtuous ancestry. this letter is read by kurt pauly. >> my dear grandson, peter. yesterday 8th may 1938 you were baptized in the chapel of the lutheran church. your parents had informed us of their intention in advance. it came as a shock to me and my jewishness because the latter previously no more than an accident of birth which i never denied that made light of has become a stronghold during these last few years of persecution.

i saw you going off to be chris and from from their balconies. a problem can to the conclusion that your father's motives were apt, not to say compelling. at present in this is german era of the masked man a standard is demanded of every german. he requires a number, a pigeon hole, a category, and identifying mark. he must have some subcommunity into which he can fit. i have no desire to analyze the type of person woods in this modern standardized german becomes. i shall also refrain from putting out the route opened up for you by baptism and there for inclusion. in any case a young person cannot be guided by his grandfather and questions to be posed and answered by a new generation.

there is one matter on which you must listen to my voice and on which i desire to be heard. listen to me, my grandson, pager. for five years not jews in germany have been subjected to relentless process of expulsion from the body politics. after years of preparatory agitation by the party that sustains it the government of the third reich has postulated and invested in that postulate with the force of law that the jews constitute a foreign body within the nation, and one that is inhibiting that german nation from legitimately affirming its status as the chosen people. these people need to be cleansed and liberated from jewish members and the elements. in fulfillment of this theory which is dressed up as an

ideologies an orgy of racial hatred has been instituted. together with a process whereby jewish persons are subjected to a total and systematic disqualification. the entire party machine, the press, vocational training, broadcasting, official propaganda, the political education of the young, the whole of national life all have been harvested to the task of stripping jews of their good name and social acceptability regardless of personal standing. they are being ousted from their homes and livelihoods and compelled to emigrate this the jeep of means. belief in their human inferiority is being duly incorporated in the area in a world of ideas. as things stand now you are unavoidably subject to the new german legislation that brands

you. this puts you have a run of your brother. your mother is classified as inferior to you in terms of human merit. you are in the early subject to use regulations. it is up to you whether you acknowledge this classification in order of precedence. i venture to assume that you will stand by your mother from a sense of helio duty. should you not base your attitude on the law of nature alone where does your arian fellow germans with their family trees infer the merits of their parents from the number of marriages and names of their arian forebears. jewish grandmother is a catch phrase, both humorous and serious at the present time. that is why i consider it important to introduce your jewish grandmother to you. you can be proud of your jewish

grandmother and have no need to feel that she is the weak spot of your certificate of descent. regard her inclusion with total confidence. no-no noble blood grandmother is inscribed in any arian certificate. she herself would reject this description in a resolute use of critical matter or accepted only with the resolution that there are millions like her in every class of society. true enough. this equivalents is precisely what i wish to affirm. greetings, my grandson, peter. your grandfather, max meyer. >> max meyer and his wife were able to escape to switzerland. the grandson's about the war and later became a lawyer in germany. whatever permissions they have had few were prepared for the

origins of violence that descended on germany and austrian jews in 1938 in our last two documents stem from this. in march 1938 there was the assault on austrian jews in vienna and other towns following the incorporation of austria. in october there was the brutal expulsion of polish jews. in november there was the nationwide program often referred to as chris. across the links and brats of bridget germany synagogues were burned, jews shops looted by jewish homes invaded and despoiled, jewish men, women, and children brutalized, molested, and in some cases murdered. in the aftermath tens of thousands of jewish men were carted off to concentration camps. here is the rabbi to is subject

to burgle mob violence, but here describing his experience thereafter and prison in the following days. his account is read by it susan talbot. >> only one experience. out of his pocket and handed it to me. sending you this greeting, sending you this together with the greetings. at least 52 of us are being held in one large room in the basement. sent me a huge meat sausage as a greeting. i told him i could not eat it and asked him to return it to. he thought that the others might also want to eat whereupon i told him we had our dietary laws

and each of us would have it on his own punishment. apparently it left quite an impression. my jailer said no one will see it. and then have responded god will see it. in this version the story appears to have really affected people. >> during the 1930's an increasing number of german jews have seen the virtues of immigration. many had wanted to wait until a reasonable opportunity to live and work presented itself. many were repeatedly stymied by the brutal irony that each time the incentive to take the lead became almost irresistible they raised the bar to getting out. but as individuals and relatives and friends might sponsor them weight of the risks and opportunities what was missing was the sense that one is a very life would be at risk if one

state. now in 1938 as not the policy radicalized this missing piece of the puzzle was put in place. now it was clear one had to get out at all cost. even those who had felt it their duty to stay saw that their only choice was to leave. but right up to the last-minute obstacles were put in place of the would-be immigrants. >> our trip went smoothly until we got to emery, the city before the dutch port. came into our compartment wearing their uniforms, 20 or 22 years old. they inspected our passports and asked roughly, are you choose? we answered in the affirmative. where is the jay in your

passport? what? i am sure you would like that, traveling to the world without a jay in your passport. you need to get off the train and return. above all, give us your passports. come to the platform tomorrow morning and come and pick up your passports with the trip back. we answered we will never again going to return to germany. it must be all the same to him whether jews who were emigrating and no longer in living in germany have the jay are not. it was to no avail. we had to get off the train. we began to look for a hotel where we could spend the night. at two hotels we were told we do not allow jews to stay here. we went to the christian travelers aid office at the transition. i could have spent the night there, but not my husband. naturally i would not be

separated from my husband. in the fourth hotel no one inquired, and we were finally able to put our things down. the weather was terrible, and we were dead tired after all this excitement. first we had to make a call to holland where we had been expected that evening. it took zero long time before we get through to the hague. we then laid down in bed, but we did not sleep that night. early on a gloomy december morning it was raining and snelling. we went to the train platform to face our tormentors. they appeared around 8:00 and after drawn-out pleas give us back our passports. after repeated requests they gave their consent for us to go to the police in emery to have the j stamped into our passport

a long distance from the transition in emery through the city to the police station. there again we had to wait before it was our turn. our hearts beating anxiously. were they provided or not? the police official condescended to apply the j stamp. we were able to pick up our luggage transportation and take the next express train heading for the hague. a terrible hour still spent at the transition. the train had been delayed 40 minutes. the two ss men constantly went up and down the platform and into the waiting room. finally we could board the train. finally the train left. all of a sudden this man man dressed in black examined our passports. there were no questions about

our luggage, no questions about what currency we're carrying. perhaps they saw in our faces what this night in ehe dutch bo, and our bthat had been done to us was much greater than our feeling of happiness about being out of this land of anguish and but as we then changed over into the train to the hague and saw that the friendly well-fed people as we again heard a polite please and thank you, something that one no longer hears in germany, a true and intense feeling of gratitude and happiness arose with in us. we gave a prayer of thanks for our liberation. and a prayer of subjugation for all those who still remained in germany. after two months' stay in england we left for palestine.

we landed in tel aviv on march 21st, 1939. two weeks after we arrived my husband became ill with a mild attack of pluracy. ht in his legs became very intense. the pain was attributed to all the standing he had to do and the exertion of being in a concentration camp. on april 10th he got up for the first time again. we were sitting in the sun in the garden that morning for an hour. in the afternoon he had a heart attack that ended his life. now i am sitting here in palestine on mount kaynine without thout my beloved lead l, without my circle of friends, without having saved even a fraction of our property. because of the war we have lost

any hope that the transfer of payments may be made. truly gone with the wind. yet despite the many hours of despair, despite the many hours of the most bitter attack and the loss of faith somewhere in the depth of my soul and absolutely unshaven unshakable faith remained impervious to all the terrible things that have happened to people. although we cannot see it with our eyes this must, must all have a meaning. >> join me. [applauding]

>> and if i might am going to start of the question and answer to our firm with a question to all of our readers this afternoon. some of these documents perhaps resinated with your experience or perhaps even surprised you given your experience. i was wondering if there are a few of the panelists it might want to briefly comment on that for the audience to today. >> one that i read. it talked about six and seven year-old children not understanding what was happening but really understanding deep down that something was happening. it reminded me of my experiences. i was in the first grade in public-school, and i just hated because the children were constantly making fun of me, and i wasn't quite sure why they were making fun of me. but later on i realize that it was because i was jewish.

then i remembered that i wasn't able to do to public school anymore. i was very happy. we had to have a jewish school in our town. all of the 12th grades were in this one little room house. i was very happy to be amongst the jewish children. >> thank you, susan. >> i've fought the letter that i read from the grandfather to his christian grandson was particularly. this man sees death or the end of his, not only of his line, but also of his jewishness from two sides. one is the official nazi

persecution of the jews and eventual elimination from the in german society. and then he sees the possibility that his grandson might turn his back on the jewish side of his family. sort of a double death. it would be a double death for him. >> i have been very aware. i was very aware of what had happened to it german jews who had come to czechoslovakia to take refuge there. my mother would invite them for lunch telling me. i was ten or 11 at the time. we invented these people whom we didn't know because they had lost everything in germany and had no means of survival. yet at the same time we never believed that hitler could remain in power in germany.

we always thought this was just a temporary aberration, that it would all go away. i think it tick of very long time for people to understand that this was real and that jews had absolutely no future in it in the german dominated country. it came as a tremendous shock because i think many people had deluded themselves and were not willing to look at the reality of the situation. >> thank you. like to and by questions from the audience. if you could please kindly make your way over to the microphone