Kristallnacht Remembrance Speech

Erica Rosenthal    

This speech was delivered November 18, 2002 by Kristallnacht witness Erica Rosenthal at a Center for World War II Studies and Conflict Resolution program on "The Meaning of Kristallnacht."

Erica Tichauer Rosenthal, 15 years old
Lingfield School, Surrey, England

 

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This is what I remember about Kristallnacht, November 9th to l0th, 1938. I was twelve years old.

 

I lived in a small town in Germany with my parents, a younger brother Howard; my older brother Harry was a patient in a Jewish hospital in a larger town recovering from a forced labor accident.

My father had lost his business; we were forced to live in the Jewish Community house next to the synagogue.
We lived in constant fear.  What will they do to us next?  Will they kill us?  I did not want to die. 
I wanted to live so badly, to experience that freedom I read about in books and which our parents tried to tell us about. But lately I sensed they were losing faith. Hitler had been in power for 5 1/2 long, terrible years.

 

                            Erica Tichauer Rosenthal, 8 years old, with brother Howard Tichauer, 5 year                                    

 

 

 

 

 

November l0th, 1938

It is early in the morning. Loud raps on our door. SS men in the dreaded black uniforms stare at us. They grab my father: without saying a word they take him away. Two SS men push into our apartment - searching - dumping all our belongings on the floor. When they were finally leaving, mother asked them about my father. She was told to shut up. Jews were no longer allowed to ask questions or address Germans. We had no rights or legal protection.

After the SS men left we did not get much time to ponder about what had just happened.

Glass was flying -- rocks, bricks, and other objects came through the broken windows. We could see lots of people gathered outside the iron fence. We could hear their nasty shouts; we feared for our lives.

We felt so alone, unprotected. We did not know what was happening; we were desperate and hid behind the furniture, for hours.

Raps at our door again: we heard a familiar voice calling us.

There stood our beloved former Nanny. A righteous Christian among the nations. She found a very sad woman and two very scared children.

We were so grateful to see her. What a chance Nanny took with her own life to come to us. Nanny told us about the very angry crowd surrounding the compound -- that explosives were being carried into the Synagogue. She feared terrible things would happen soon.

Nanny asked my mother's permission to smuggle my young brother out. She promised to take good care of him; she would save his life. She instructed my brother Howard how to hold on to her waist and walk under her coat following in her footsteps.

Nanny blessed us -- crossed herself -- embraced and kissed us. She wiped away my brother's frightened tears. Mother and I hugged and kissed Howard. We helped Nanny tuck him under her big winter coat. Then they were gone. We stood for a long time in utter disbelief.

Finally mother took my hand and we went upstairs to see how the other family was. It took a long time till they opened their door. Mrs. Lippman and her son Heinz were hiding under beds. Mr. Lippman had been taken away in the morning. It was decided we should all hide in the attic: it would be safer. Now we could really see what was going on down below us and next to us in the synagogue.

The Star of David had been taken off the synagogue's dome. All stained glass windows were shattered; fires were flickering inside the synagogue. Gasoline-fed bonfires were burning all over the yard. Prayer shawls, books, wooden pieces of pews were jubilantly tossed into the flames. The holy Torah scrolls were being unrolled all over the yard, big black ugly boots stepping on them.

When it was dark enough the two mothers gave us instructions: we must escape before the synagogue blows up. We must be quiet and very fast.

We crawled on our hands and knees toward the backyard gate. I got a sliver of glass stuck in my knee. I yelled "ouch!" -- the SS men caught us. They made us kneel in front of the ready-to-explode synagogue surrounded by the bonfires. We were told that we would go up in flames next. Every time I whimpered because the glass sliver was sticking in my knee my mother got a kick in her back, from a big black boot belonging to one of the SS men guarding us.

It was drizzling -- so cold I could not feel my legs. I thought "I will die soon." I can not remember how long we had to kneel. Then we were told to get out of their sight.

We ran into the center of town where the family Berger lived in a large apartment house, which they once owned. It had been taken away from them. They now lived in a small apartment in the building.

There we found other Jewish women and children cramped into the small Berger's apartment seeking shelter. They all had experienced similar hardships during the day. Besides being stoned and beaten during their escape, all were nursing wounds. We also found out that all the Jewish males over 16 years had been arrested that morning. Nobody knew where they had been taken or even if they were still alive.

Mrs. Berger, who was a nurse, removed the glass sliver from my knee. We children bedded down on the carpet with our coats covering us, falling asleep from utter exhaustion.

Screams -- agonizing screams!

I must be dreaming a nightmare. Loud raps on the door. No dream, no nightmare -- the SS stood there again.

We were told to assemble in the large entrance hall downstairs. We were made to stand in a big circle -- women and children. The screams were coming closer, then they stopped. We saw a listless bundle being dragged down the stairs. The body was dumped in the circle -- a pool of blood was forming around it. It was Mr. Hahn.

Mr. Hahn was not a Jew, but had married a Jewish woman and so had disgraced the German Aryan race. Mrs. Hahn and her sister were told to stop crying or they would be shot, pistols were pointed at them.

We all stood like pillars of stone. It was so eerily still. When an SS man started to walk around the circle lashing his leather whip madly about, I felt a burning sensation on my shoulder down my back. I was so very cold. Am I dying? That is the last I remember.

A ray of light -- morning -- I am alive! I felt so safe and warm cradled in my mother's loving arms. Her tears running down my face brought back the awful reality. I feel a wet towel down my back.

We found out later that all the Jewish men including my father were transported to the concentration camp Buchenwald, leaving the defenseless women and children to fend for themselves in a hopeless situation.

That is my remembrance of Kristallnacht.

 

One month later, December 1938.

The Christian world celebrated Christmas. We Jews celebrated Chanukah.

We Jewish children had only one wish "Let our fathers come home." I was one of the lucky ones. My father came out of concentration camp after six weeks. Not the father I once knew. Life was now very quiet, depressed, and tearful but he was home, my father. Some of the other children were not so fortunate. They received shoeboxes with ashes labeled "Died of natural causes."

My mother wrote to a cousin in England: "Please try to save my two young children."" With the help of Jewish and Christian organizations she managed to get us on a Kindertransport to England.

 

The Kindertransport. (Kinder means children and transport to convey)

May 1939, our transport numbers are 4614 and 4615. My young brother Howard and I were put on a Kindertransport train in Berlin for England -- final destination unknown, the train was sealed. We were separated from our parents, they were not allowed near the train. We never had a chance to say goodbye.

Children, so many children. Endless hours on the train, the ominous black uniforms. Yelling at us. We are tired, hungry , and terribly afraid. We sob silently. We have been threatened to be thrown off the train if we make noise. Finally the train slowed down and came to a stop. The SS men got off and were standing on the platform. It was very quiet and still. I could hear my heart beat. What will they do to us now?

The train starts very slowly and goes a short distance to another platform, We are over the border. Holland, freedom. We are free! Gentle, smiling faces greet us. We are handed doughnuts and orange juice. As long as I live, I will equate orange juice and doughnuts with freedom.

 

England.

We will be forever grateful to the English people for saving our lives by giving us safe haven.

I thank my parents for giving birth to me twice. Once through their union of love and the second time by letting me go, giving me away to save my life.

I feel guilt. Whose place did I take? Why was I chosen?

My parents and all the other Jewish adults and children from the town in Germany in which I lived were transported to Auschwitz to their terrible end. Murdered by gassing and burning. "Men's Inhumanity to Men".

I am a Jew, a proud citizen of the United States of America. This beautiful land which I love. The home of the free.

Freedom brings an awesome responsibility; it must be guarded against all evil. We must remember the Holocaust, we must teach others to remember! We must honor those memories. For if we forget, it will surely happen again.

I have lived a terrible nightmare. Now I dream a wonderful dream that all children everywhere can live with their parents in secure homes and the world.