>> and the course of 1936 germany became involved in what it saw as a european fighter with bolshevism by the spanish

civil war. at that year's in nuremberg party rally hitler revised and intensified an old refrain about judeo bolshevism. with increasing frequency and vehement regime leaders and to make to that if germany were embroiled in a major war choose would feel the consequences. here the insightful wife of the leading exponent captured the atmosphere of those days. this is an extract from her diary. >> yesterday there was service at the synagogue. i had never heard them before and they devastated me. it was a bond of a calamity and misery surrounding us all in which we listened to the pleading and lamenting together. a bond of moaning that

nevertheless elevated to the commonality of feeling. all of the seven the certainty swelled up, so it seems to me, deep inside. george would go down hill. it was certainly, it was a certainty that struck me like lightning diminished again by the day, but it was so absolute that i am writing it down in order not to forget. this week was the nazi party convention which gave us something to read. why actually this identification of altruism and jury. 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, charge that if there is a war it will start with the extinction of the jews. one never knows. only conceits of the nerves of the well grounded observations. no matter what happened we are tied, and we have to stay. >> that was in september 36. a year later confided to her diary that she was no longer so sure that she could or should remain in germany. like former deputy julia's moses reflecting about his grandchildren in palestine german jews were increasingly and sure they would be remembered as a once vibrant and now dwindling community. the question presented self and particularly poignant and personal form for those jews in mixed marriage where non-jewish relatives and park jewish descendants were doing all they could to distance themselves from the non area members.

the following and sent a letter kept in the family of max meyer until after the war presents a jewish grandfather is an attempt to sensitize the generation to their ancestry. >> mine >> my dear grandson, peter, yesterday eight 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, my jewishness and my jewishness because the latter previously no more than an accident of birth which i never denied but made light of has become a stronghold during these last few years of persecution.

i saw you going off to be christened from their balconies, but i probably came to the conclusion that your father's motives were apt, not to say compelling. at present in this german era of the masked man a standard is demanded of every german. he requires in number, a pigeon all, 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 which this modern standardized german becomes. i shall also refrain from pointing out the route opened up for you by baptism and there for inclusion. in any case the 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.

on which i desire to be heard. listen to me, my grandson, peter. for five years now jews and germany have been subjected to a relentless process of expulsion from the body politic. 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 voice of law. that jews constitute a foreign body within the nation and one that is inhibiting the german nation from legitimately affirming its status as a chosen people. this people, and it is said, need to be cleansed and liberated from jewish members and 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 right all have been harnessed 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 destitute of means. belief in their human inferiority is being duly incorporated in the aryan world of ideas. as things stand now that who you are unavoidably subject to the new german legislation that iran's u.n. mission because your

shling because your mother is of jewish blood. this puts you have half a rung e your mother. your mother is classified as inferior to you in terms of human marriage. you are legally subject to these deregulations. i venture to assume that you will stand by your mother from a sense of helio duty. but should you not base your attitude on the law of nature alone whereas your arian fellow germans with their family trees in for the merits of their parents on the number of marriage and names of their area and forebear's. a jewish grandmother is a catch phrase, both humorous and serious at the present time. that is why i consider it important, my dear peter, to introduce your jewish grandmother to you. you can be proud of your jewish

grandmother and have no need to fear that she is the weak spot of your certificate of descent. you will regard her inclusion with total confidence. no nobler grandmother is inscribed in any area and certificates. she herself would reject this description in a residency self critical manner or accepted only with the resolution that there are millions like her in every class of society. true enough, and this equivalents is precisely what i wish to affirm. reading, my grandson, peter. your grandfather, max meyer. >> max meyer and his wife escaped to switzerland and peter, grandson, survived the war and later became aware in germany. whenever premonitions the man had few were prepared for the origins orgies of violence the d

on german and austrian jews in 1938. and our last two documents stem from this period. in 1938 there was the assault on an austrian jewry in vienna. in october 38 there was the brutal expulsion of polish jews from germany. in november there was the nationwide program often referred to as christoph honest. across the length and breadth of greater germany seven guards were burned, jewish shops looted, 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 who was subject to a brutal mob violence

on the night itself, but here describing his experience thereafter in prison in the following days and his account is read by susan talbot. >> when experience when i was a prisoner. saturday, november 19th. papeed ir out to me. sending you this greeting, sending you this together with their greetings. at least 52 of us are being held in one large room down in the basement. sent me a huge meat sausage as a greeting. i think the tale of a told him i could not eat it. he thought that the others might also want to eat whereupon i told him he we had our dietary laws, and each of us would have it on his own conscience.

apparently it left quite an impression. among the waters, no one will see it. and i responded, god will see it. in this person the story appears to have really affected people. >> during the 1930's an increasing number of german jews had 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 the bar was raised for getting out. but as individuals and relatives and friends abroad you might sponsor them wake up the risks and opportunities, what was missing was a sense that one's very life would be at risk if

one state. now in 1938 as nazi 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 until the last-minute obstacles were put into place of the would-be emigrants. this extract is read by margaret meissner. >> our trip went smoothly until we got to emery, the city before the dutch border. in emery three yang ss men came into our compartment wearing their tight black uniforms, perhaps 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 through the world without a jay in your passport. you need to get off the train and return to auchenback and above all give us your passports. come to the platform tomorrow morning and come and pick up your passport for the trip back. we answered we will never again going to return to germany, and that it must be all the same to him whether jews who were immigrating and no longer living in germany have the j or 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 and no one in quired, 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 a 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 snowing. we went to the train platform to face our tormentors. they appeared around 8:00. after a drawn-out please they gave us back our passports. after repeated requests they gave their consent for us to go to the police in emery to have the j. stanton to our passports. and long-distance from the transportation in emery through the city to the police station.

there again we had to wait before it was our turn. our hearts beating anxiously. will they provide it on not? the police official condescended to apply the jay stamp. we were able to pick up our luggage and go through the transition and taken the next express train heading for the hague. a terrible our still spent at the transition, for the train had been delayed 40 minutes as the two ss man 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 these young man dressed in black examined our passport. there were no questions about our luggage, no questions about what currency we were carrying.

perhaps they saw in our faces that this night in emery had done to us. we arrived at the dutch border. our bitterness about everything that had been done to ask was much greater than our feeling of happiness about being out of this land of anguish and ignominy. as we've been changed over into the train to the hague and some of the friendly well fed people as we a grand please and thank you something that were of no wonder years in germany, a true and intense feeling of gratitude and happiness of rose with dennis. we gave a prayer of thanks firm liberation and a prayer of subjugation for all those who still remained in germany. after two months' stay in england we left for palestine on

march 15th. we landed in tel aviv on march 21st, 1939. two weeks after we arrived my husband became ill with a mild attack a person. the pain in his legs became very intense. the pain was attributed to of 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 this morning for an hour. in the afternoon he had a heart attack that ended his life. and now i'm sitting here in palestine on mount canon without my beloved lead partner, without my circle of friends, without having even of a fraction of a property. because of the war we have lost any hope that the transfer of

payment may be made. and truly gone with the wind here, gone with the win. and despite the many hours of despair, despite the many hours of the most bitter attacks and the loss of faith somewhere in the depths of muscle and absolutely unshakable faith remained, impervious to all the terrible bang that have happened to d to people. this must all have a meaning. >> join me in thanking our survivor readers as well as the

introductions. and if i might am going to start off the question answered time with a question to all of our readers. some of these documents resinated with your experience or surprised you given your experience. i was wondering if there are a few of the panelists who might want to briefly comment on that? >> the first one that i've read talked about six and seven year-old children having 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 the public school, and i just hated it because the children were constantly making fun of me, and i wasn't quite sure why they were making fun of me. later on i realized it was because i was jewish.

then i remembered that i wasn't able to go to public school anymore, and i was very happy. we had to have a jewish school in our town. of the 12th grades were all in this one middle school room house. i was very happy to be amongst the jewish children. >> thank you, susan. anyone else? >> i thought the letter that i read from the grandfather to his grandson was particularly moving because this man seized debt were the end of his, of his, not only of his line, but also of his jewishness from two signs. one is the official not see persecution of the jews and

eventual then german society. 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 sort of a double that there. >> one more, and we will open it up. >> i have been very aware, i was very aware of the, of what had happened to german jews who had come to czechoslovakia to take refuge there. my mother would invite them for lunch telling me, and i was ten or 11 at the time. we invited these people whom we didn't know because they have lost everything in germany and had no means of survival. at the same time we never believed that hitler could remain in power in germany, and

we always thought that this would all go away. i think you take a very long time, really, until crisp, for people to understand that this was real and that jews have had some in the future in any german dominated country. came as a tremendous shock because i think many people had to do it themselves that we are not willing to look at the reality of the situation. >> thank you. i would like to invite questions from the audience. i invite any questions that we might have. nobel either for our readers or

two editors. >> my name is kevin taylor. something i am curious about. starting in 1933 it just seems like everything, though orders, all happened so quickly between 33 and after the war. and perhaps before 33 as well. i am wondering, is there any, and this is for anyone in the panel. do you see any analogies -- i guess the most important lesson is to remember, so it won't happen again and so we will never forget, but you see any analogies domestically in this country were something happens and the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you think, no, no. not this again, or not this type of person like in there again.

does that ever happened ? >> just to comment. i am not sure everybody in the panel would agree. but anti-semitism, it was never limited to germany. never limited to germany. when we came to this country, i can remember being pushed of sidewalks, having launched turn at me, having been called a doctor the jewish bastard. this went on all the way through the late '40's easily. so, you know, in a certain sense there was obviously, it was a unique factor. but there was a, for at least the people i grew up with in the united states there was an

awareness of almost a universality of all the problems that existed, which existed for a long time. this produced various reactions, some of which, strangely enough, maybe half of what you have heard here was a nostalgic for germany. many have the refugees. some went back. some never there is no uniqueness. at least for me. >> i happen to be reading a very american book. it is called the innings of

monticello. she writes magnificently. was a very narrow book. she only speaks about that hangs and jefferson and the times. having learned so much about my background and the holocaust and presidents and would never there were so many analogies between the laws in the united states and what later happened in germany. and those laws that were prevalent in the united states were prevalent in europe before the slaves came to america. so they had a lot to pick up from. they had a lot of documentation and material that they could learn from, which was a german. >> there is a note. >> one more comment. >> one more comment. last year some time i heard and

neighbor, an acquaintance of hours, of very distinguished professor at one of the universities here in washington he was very much concerned with american policy and american life. he is jewish, and he has been in the state department, an adviser to administration's. one of the points he made test, he said in a one thing i want to tell you is the honeymoon is over. the affect of the holocaust on anti-semitism in the world has dissipated. it is picking up. it is no longer dead. it is no longer considered to be something talk about in polite society. it is back, and it is back everywhere. the lesson that we hope we have learned may not be fully

learned. it will have to be forever vigilant. >> question over here. >> richard russell from the german institute. i want to the start by banking everyone for ira by the end moving presentation. my question is for the two editors. i was curious if you could tell us of the bit about how you arrived at this election of sources in this book, since i imagine that was not an easy process. i am curious as one thing, to what extent, he started with the sources and so were they lead you or whether you started with what you knew had to be covered and then look for sources to cover certain parts of the experience that were important. i am also curious, as you did this work, what was surprising to you? thank you. >> wow, i think the answer is