Nanny Gottschalk Lewin
Nanny was the oldest of four children born to Jewish parents in the small town of Schlawe in northern Germany, where her father owned the town's grain mill. Nanny was given the Hebrew name Nocha. She grew up on the mill grounds in a house surrounded by orchards and a big garden. In 1911 Nanny married Arthur Lewin. Together, they raised two children, Ludwig and Ursula.
1933-39: Nanny and her widowed mother have moved to Berlin. They feared the rising antisemitism in Schlawe and hoped, as Jews, to be less conspicuous here in a large city. They live downstairs from Nanny's sister Kathe who is married to a Protestant and has converted. Shortly after they got settled, the Germans restricted the public movements of Jews, so that they no longer feel safe when they're out of their apartment.
1940-44: Nanny and her mother have been deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Bohemia. They've been assigned a room on the second floor of a house that is dirty, crowded and infested with lice. The stove is fueled with sawdust. As the youngest in their room--and Nanny is 56--she's been lugging in the bags of sawdust on her back. She's been getting increasingly weaker, is now hard of hearing and needs a cane to walk. Early this morning Nanny learned that she's on a list of people to go to another camp. She doesn't want to go but has no choice.
Nanny was deported to Auschwitz on May 15, 1944, and was gassed immediately upon arrival. She was 56 years old.
Item ViewArthur Karl Heinz Oertelt
Heinz, as he was usually called, was born in the German capital to religious Jewish parents. He and his older brother, Kurt, attended both religious and public schools. His father had died when he was very young. His mother, a seamstress, struggled to make ends meet. She and the boys lived in a predominantly Christian neighborhood.
1933-39: It frightened Heinz when Nazi storm troopers sang about Jewish blood dripping from their knives. But his family didn't have money to leave Berlin. In late 1939 Heinz was forced, with other Jews, to work for German construction companies. Many of them were professionals and businessmen unused to manual labor. They shoveled dirt and carried rocks by hand. Passersby would grin at them, and teachers brought students to show them what Jews looked like.
1940-44: In March 1943 Heinz, Kurt, and their mother were deported to Theresienstadt, where they soon became infested with lice, fleas, and bedbugs. They became obsessed with thoughts of food. Their soup was dished out from a huge barrel by lazy men who didn't bother to stir it, leaving the good food chunks near the bottom. Heinz had to time himself just right. If he was at the front of the line he would get mostly the watery parts. If he was too far back, he might get nothing at all or watery soup from the top of a newly arrived barrel.
Heinz was eventually liberated near Flossenbürg in April 1945, and emigrated to the United States in 1949. Kurt survived the war, but their mother perished in Auschwitz.
Item ViewEdward Adler describes forced labor and conditions in the Sachsenhausen camp
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.
Item ViewNorbert Wollheim describes a roundup of Jews in Berlin
Norbert studied law and was a social worker in Berlin. He worked on the Kindertransport (Children's Transport) program, arranging to send Jewish children from Europe to Great Britain. His parents, who also lived in Berlin, were deported in December 1942. Norbert, his wife, and their child were deported to Auschwitz in March 1943. He was separated from his wife and child, and sent to the Buna works near Auschwitz III (Monowitz) for forced labor. Norbert survived the Auschwitz camp, and was liberated by US forces in Germany in May 1945.
Item ViewNorbert Wollheim describes deportation from Berlin
Norbert studied law and was a social worker in Berlin. He worked on the Kindertransport (Children's Transport) program, arranging to send Jewish children from Europe to Great Britain. His parents, who also lived in Berlin, were deported in December 1942. Norbert, his wife, and their child were deported to Auschwitz in March 1943. He was separated from his wife and child, and sent to the Buna works near Auschwitz III (Monowitz) for forced labor. Norbert survived the Auschwitz camp, and was liberated by US forces in Germany in May 1945.
Item ViewJulius (Julo) Levin
Julo was born to a Jewish family in the city of Stettin in northeastern Germany. From an early age Julo showed an interest in art; at 6 he had collected more than 3,000 pictures. His family hoped he would become a businessman, but his interest in painting absorbed all his energy. In 1926 he graduated from art school and by 1931 he secured his first commission in Duesseldorf.
1933-39: Until the Nazis came to power in 1933, Julo was a highly regarded artist. The Nazis' strict interpretation of art, however, left little room for expression. Many artists who did not support the Nazis were labeled communists or "degenerates." In 1933 he was arrested and forbidden to show his work in public. Julo began to teach art in Berlin's Jewish schools in 1936.
1940-43: When the Nazis closed the school where he was teaching in 1941, he was assigned to work as a handyman. Working at the train yard he saw freight trains crammed with Berlin's Jews leaving continuously to the east, and when these trains returned empty, he cleaned the wagons of blood and excrement. On New Year's Eve 1942 Julo made a woodcut titled "Cart rolling downhill," reflecting these dreadful events. He sent it to a friend. On May 17, 1943, he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz.
Julo died in Auschwitz. His precise date of death cannot be determined. His artwork, and that of his students, was preserved by his friends.
Item ViewGertrud Teppich
Gertrud, born Gertrud Herz, was one of three children born to a Jewish family in the German capital of Berlin. In her early twenties, Gertrud married Richard Teppich and the couple had two daughters. Richard owned and operated a dry-cleaning business.
1933-39: When Gertrud's husband died in 1931 she stayed on in their Berlin apartment. In 1938, five years after the Nazis came to power, Gertrud's oldest daughter, Ilse, and her family fled to Amsterdam. A year later her youngest daughter was able to leave for Switzerland on business, and rather than return to Nazi Germany she remained there. Gertrud was left alone in Berlin.
1940-42: During the war, Nazi edicts forced German Jews to sell their furniture and possessions to "Aryans" and then turn the proceeds over to the Nazi government. Gertrud's sister-in-law was an "Aryan" German and she helped Gertrud by "purchasing" the furniture, thus allowing Gertrud to keep her possessions. In November 1942 Gertrud received notice that she was being deported.
On November 18, 1942, Gertrud committed suicide rather than be deported.
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