After Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he persuaded his cabinet to declare a state of emergency and end many individual freedoms. Here, police search a vehicle for arms. Berlin, Germany, February 27, 1933.
Edward was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited marriage or sexual relations between German non-Jews and Jews. Edward was then in his mid-twenties. Edward was arrested for dating a non-Jewish woman. Classified as a habitual offender, he was later deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin. He was forced to perform hard labor in construction projects. Edward had married shortly before his imprisonment, and his wife made arrangements for their emigration from Germany. Edward was released from custody in September 1938 and left Germany. He stayed with relatives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and later immigrated to the United States.
Hans was born to Jewish parents in a town in northwestern Germany. The family moved to Berlin when Hans' father obtained a post there as a history teacher in a secondary school. After graduating from university, Hans married and settled with his wife Margaret in an apartment in Berlin. In 1920 their child Wolfgang was born. Hans worked as foreign representative for a sewing notions company.
1933-39: When the Nazis won the election a few weeks ago, Hans was afraid for people like himself who are active members of the socialist party. He was right. Someone has just slipped a note under his family's door with a warning: The Nazis are rounding up socialists, and, as the local district supervisor for the Social Democratic Party, Hans is on their list. They're going to leave in a hurry and try to sublet a room under an assumed name in another neighborhood.
1940-44: It's been almost 10 years since Hans fled Germany. Hans and his second wife, Lucie, used to live in Paris but when he had a falling out with his business partner, they decided to move here to Nice. The city is a kind of haven for Jews in France because the Italians, who have occupied this area, leave them alone. Hans and Lucie run a lending library. Sometimes they think about going to Spain and from there to the United States, but they still feel safe here in France.
In September 1943 German troops occupied Nice. Six months later, Hans and Lucie were deported via Drancy, outside Paris, to Auschwitz where they were gassed on arrival.
Heinz was the youngest of three children born to a Jewish family in the German university city of Goettingen. His father owned a linen factory that had been in the family since it was founded by Heinz's grandfather. Goettingen had a small Jewish population, and only one synagogue. Heinz went to public school in the city.
1933-39: In 1933 the Nazis took power in Germany. A year later Heinz's family's factory was seized. Three SA men came to their house. An officer set a gun on the table and calmly informed his father that if they did not leave in a week, "You and your furniture will be thrown out the window." Within a month they moved to Hamburg. Nazi edicts prohibited Heinz from going to school, so he worked several jobs. He was also recruited by the Nazis as a forced laborer.
1940-44: In 1941 Heinz was forced with his family to sign a paper stating that, as a Jew, he was being deported as an enemy of the state. They were told they'd be going to work in the east. Many felt that it wouldn't be so bad, and they'd return home soon. They boarded a train and after four days arrived in Minsk, Soviet Union. Leaving the train, Heinz saw guards throwing loaves of bread into open cattle cars full of Soviet POWs. As the starving men fought over the food, German guards shot at them. Heinz then realized they were never going to return.
Heinz was in the Minsk ghetto until 1943. Over the next two years he was sent to 11 Nazi camps. He was one of the few survivors of the tens of thousands in the Minsk ghetto.
Anna, affectionately known as Aennchen to her family, was the daughter of non-religious German-Jewish parents. Her father died when she was young and Anna was raised in the town of Bruchsal by her impoverished mother. Anna married a well-to-do, older gentleman in 1905 and moved to the fashionable city of Duesseldorf, where he was a department store manager. By 1933 they had two grown sons.
1933-39: The Pfeffer's comfortable life unraveled after the Nazis came to power. The Nazis arrested Anna's brother and deported him to a concentration camp, where he was murdered. Anna's oldest son, who had married a Dutch woman, emigrated to the Netherlands. After her husband lost his job and after the November 1938 pogrom, the Pfeffers also emigrated to the Netherlands. There, they joined their oldest son and daughter-in-law.
1940-44: Anna's husband passed away, and she spent her time in Amsterdam with her grandchildren. In May 1940 the Germans occupied the Netherlands. Jews were ordered to register and their rights were curtailed. Like other Jews, Anna lost whatever property she had. A year after being required to wear an identifying yellow badge, she was separated from her family and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp for Jews. Four months later, she was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia.
On October 9, 1944, Anna was deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, where she was gassed two days later. She was 58 years old.
After Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he moved quickly to turn Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Hedissolved all political parties except the Nazi Party. He also organized the police power necessary to enforce Nazi policies. He persuaded his Cabinet to declare a state of emergency and end individual freedoms, including freedom of press, speech, and assembly. Individuals lost the right to privacy, which meant that officials could read people's mail, listen in on telephone conversations, and search private homes without a warrant.
Hitler also relied on terror to achieve his goals. Lured by the wages, a feeling of comradeship, and the striking uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men put on the brown shirts and high leather boots of the Nazi Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilungen). Called the SA, these auxiliary policemen took to the streets to beat up and kill some opponents of the Nazi regime. Mere fear of the SA pressured into silence other Germans who did not support the Nazis.
Last Edited: Sep 23, 2025
Author(s):
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
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