![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
This study offers a transnational history of the Holocaust based on a study of a well-known Berlin Jewish family, the Veit Simons. The authors use this tangled family history as a point of departure for a transnational history of the Holocaust. In particular, they show how to read the links connecting the protagonists to the wider world as a means of writing transnational history. Their history also shows the interconnectedness of perpetrators and victims. Moreover, they demonstrate the importance of the category of class for our understanding of the experience of Holocaust history. While the Veit Simons could hold off some of the persecution, eventually the Holocaust brought them to the ground, resulting in a story of illness, death and loss. Finally, the authors read the story from a feminist angle, offering an examination of the interplay of gender, class and persecution, examining how gender played out in coping while losing one’s former class.
Acknowledgements
We are deeply grateful to the Veit Simon descendants for their generous assistance in making papers available, answering questions and being open to the view from outside: Irene Japha, Ron Louie, Mikaela Louie, Judith and Tom Klein, Carol Japha, Gaby Levine, Susie Mackey, Tony and Joan Japha, John Veit Wilson, Michael Weill and Martin Kluger. We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Warwick Transatlantic Fellowship that enabled Anna Hájková’s research trip across North America. We should like to thank our friends and colleagues: Dana Smith, Stephen Ross and Harvey Day for proof-reading; Laura Schwartz, Atina Grossmann and Robert Fine for sage comments on various drafts; Roberta Bivins, Michael Ehmann, Donna Harsch, Harro Jenß and Hilary Marland for medical advice; Martina Voigt and Barbara Schieb for sharing their unparalleled knowledge on helping networks for Berlin Jews in hiding; and to Alexandra Garbarini and Michael Simonson for counsel of all kinds. We are indebted to Albane Duvillier for drawing and re-drawing the family tree and putting up with one of the authors. Thanks to Michael Berkowitz (UCL) and Johannes Heil’s (Hochschule für jüdische Studien Heidelberg) invitations to present this work. We also appreciate the Katharinenhof circle for asking us to present at the house’s centenary and Johanna Bussemer’s and Hermann Aurich’s benevolent input. Finally, great thanks to Jean-Marc Dreyfus for his wise and hands-on interventions, and to the anonymous readers’ suggestions that made the piece far superior and saved it from terrors of positivism. The shortcomings that are bound to remain are ours.
Notes
1. That is, beyond memory studies. See, among others: Dreyfus and Stoetzler, “Holocaust Memory in the Twenty-First Century,” 69–78.
2. Isabel Hofmeyr in “AHR Conversations: on Transnational History, C. A. Bayly, Sven Beckert, Matthew Connelly, Isabel Hofmeyr, Wendy Kozol and Patricia Seed,” 1444; see also Jenkins, “Transnationalism and German History” and Jarausch, “Reflections on Transnational History,” January 2006, H-German Forum.
3. See, among others: Lahusen, “Harbin and Manchuria;” Grossmann, “Remapping Relief and Rescue,” 61–79; and Goda, Jewish Histories of the Holocaust; Heim, “Widersprüchliche Loyalitäten,” 237–52.
4. For reasons of brevity, and to focus on the Holocaust rather than the forced migration, the bulk of the article discusses events in continental Europe.
5. Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 2, The Years of Extermination, xxvi.
6. Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews.
7. Important exceptions include Meyer, “Jüdische Mischlinge;” Ofer, “Everyday Life of Jews under Nazi Occupation,” 42–69; Miron, “History, Remembrance, and a ‘Useful Past’,” 131–70.
8. Hilberg, The Destruction of European Jews, ch. V.
9. Bourdieu, Distinction.
10. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, directed by Vittorio de Sica (1970). Giorgio Bassani’s original novel ends in 1939, four years before the deportation, which is mentioned only in epilogue. See also Marcus, “De Sica’s Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” 91–111. Thanks to Steven Carr for drawing our attention to this piece.
11. See, among others, Grossmann, Jews, Germans, and Allies, ch. 2; Herzog, Brutality and Desire; Mühlhäuser, Eroberungen; Hedgepeth and Saidel, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust.
12. Milton, “Women and the Holocaust,” 297–333; Holmes, “Love, Labour, Loss.”
13. Louie, Etta at 80 (unpaginated). When Ron Louie interviewed Etta Japha, his mother-in-law, she implied she did not want to be asked beyond what she was willing to tell, in particular on matters of sexuality in Theresienstadt. Ron Louie to X, 20 May 2014, Seattle.
14. See also Halberstam in “Forum Cultural History and the Holocaust,” 63f.
15. Among others: Strassmann, The Strassmanns; de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes; Erpenbeck, Heimsuchung; Wildman, Paper Love.
16. Etta Japha’s reparation file, 76079, M 4 LL (all three reparation files are at Reparation Office Berlin); Hermann Veit Simon, “Address to a Family Society Meeting in Berlin,” 13 August 1908, Seattle papers (= papers of Etta Japha, kept at her daughter’s, Irene Japha); Veit Simon family papers, Leo Baeck Institute (LBI), AR 4015.
17. Hermann Veit Simon, “Address;” “Generalschutzprivileg,” 12 March 1764, John Veit Wilson collection, Jewish Museum Berlin. Henriette was herself a descendant of a prominent Berlin Jewish family and also a former niece by marriage of Dorothea Mendelsohn-Veit-Schlegel.
18. We use first names for members of the Veit Simon family throughout not as a statement of familiarity, but rather for pragmatic reasons to differentiate.
19. Heinrich’s reparation file (73837), 8f LL.
20. Within the Foreign Office, the consular ranks were considered less prestigious and predominantly middle-class as opposed to diplomatic service.
21. Heinrich’ reparation file, M8.
22. Judith’s affidavit from 9 March 1955, Judith Klein’s reparation file (274233), M 5.
23. On German Judaism in the Weimar Republic, see Brenner, The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany.
24. The resplendent dinner invites speak to this point; Seattle papers; statement of Richard Calé, reparation file Etta, p. B 33; statement of Marie-Luise Brickwell-Graeber, 1 September 1953, and Adolf Kraetzer, 31 August 1953, reparation file Heinrich, M12.
25. Adreßbuch Berlin 1933 (Berlin: August Scherl, 1932), 5388; Warhaftig, Deutsche jüdische Architekten vor und nach 1933 – Das Lexikon, 91 ff.
26. Statement of Richard Calé, 24 October 1956, reparation file Etta, B33.
27. Claudia Keller, “Juristen ohne Recht,” Tagesspiegel, 30 November 2007.
28. In the 1920s, Heinrich lent Käthe 61,000 Mark to keep the premises going, half of which was not paid back when Katharinenhof was sold in 1938. Heinrich’s reparation file, 73837, D 3, Irmgard to Käthe, 21 August 1942.
29. Doi, “Through Grandmother’s Eyes,” 49.
30. Barkai, Vom Boykott zur "Entjudung;” Ahlheim, “Deutsche, kauft nicht bei Juden!”
31. Hans Benfey to Graeber-Brickwell, 16 February 1959, reparation file Heinrich, D15.
32. Bajohr, “Aryanisation” in Hamburg.
33. Anna Hájková’s Skype interview of John Veit-Wilson, December 2012.
34. Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 140f. See also Eggert, “Dr Betty Warburg,” http://stolpersteine-hamburg.de/index.php?MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=929 (Accessed on June 4, 2016).
35. Kaelber, “Jewish Children as Victims of 'Euthanasia' in Nazi Germany.”
36. See also Kwiet, “Without Neighbours: Daily Life in Judenhäuser,” 117–48.
37. Irmgard was co-owner of the property; Heinrich reparation file, p. M 50. In the late 1930s, only Gisela was publicly named.
38. On Geltungsjuden, see von der Heydt, “’Wer fährt denn gerne mit dem Judenstern in der Straßenbahn?,” 65–80; on mixed marriages and Mischlinge in general, see Meyer, “Jüdische Mischlinge.”
39. Jüdisches Museum Berlin, ed., Heimat und Exil: Emigration der deutschen Juden nach 1933.
40. See also Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 141f.
41. Dreyfus-Armand, “Les Enfants, ces oubliés de la diaspora républicaine espagnole,” 36f.
42. Family history as collected by John Veit Wilson (John Veit Wilson’s personal papers), 2. In 1946, Harriet married Canadian-born Arthur Wilson and in 1965, founded the Child Poverty Action Group.
43. Email Alexander Zahoransky, archive of the University of Freiburg, to X, 12 December 2014.
44. Maria von der Heydt’s interview of Judith Klein, 19 June 2012, Berlin.
45. Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser, Die Reimann-Schule in Berlin und London 1902–1943.
46. Löwe, Die bunte Schüssel: Ein jüdisches Kinderbuch zum Lesen und Malen.
47. Ismar Elbogen to Adolph Oko, 25 July 1938, LBI, Elbogen papers. We should like to thank Michael Ehmann for drawing our attention to this document.
48. Schwoch, Berliner jüdische Kassenärzte und ihr Schicksal im Nationalsozialismus, 827.
49. Doi, “Through Grandmother’s Eyes,” 26.
50. Louie, Etta at 80.
51. Rolf’s police registration file, Municipal Archive Amsterdam, 5225, inv. nr. 4210.
52. Kunstamt Schöneberg, Orte des Erinnerns: Jüdisches Alltagsleben im Bayerischen Vierte, 84 f; Etta’s statement, 30 October 1956, and statement of Helga Frenkel-Brinitzer, 29 October 1956, Etta’s reparation file, B31f.
53. Doi, “Through Grandmother’s Eyes,” 24.
54. Aurich and Santarius, Die Geschichte des Katharinenhofes in Gransee, 8f; Verordnung über die Anmeldung des Vermögens von Juden, 26 April 1938, Reichsgesetzblatt, I 414.
55. Fifth regulation regarding the National Citizen Act, 27 September 1938, Reichsgesetzblatt, I, 1403; list of former lawyers admitted as “Konsulenten” for Berlin, 15 September 1939, Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep. 68 Acc. 3209, 68.
56. Ladwig-Winters, Anwalt ohne Recht: Das Schicksal jüdischer Rechtsanwälte in Berlin nach 1933, 71f.
57. Brickwell-Graeber, Erläuterungen, 15 January 1952, reparation file Heinrich, D 2f.
58. Ziegler, “Die Wertpapierkonfiskation und die Rolle der Banken,” 168–70.
59. Irmgard Veit Simon, CV (ca. 1952), reparation file Heinrich, M 8f. See also Steinweis, Kristallnacht 1938.
60. Louie, Etta at 80. The Elbogen correspondence did not bring up Ruth’s illness.
61. London, Whitehall and the Jews 1933–1948; Bivins, Contagious Communities, ch. 1.
62. Gilman, Franz Kafka, the Jewish Patient, ch. 4.
63. Ruth to her parents, 20 September 1938, Seattle papers.
64. Heim, Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945, vol. 2, Deutsches Reich 1938–August 1939, document nr. 127, 369–70.
65. Schellinger, Oswald, and Hoferer, Deportiert aus Nordrach, 12, fn 16.
66. Schellinger, Oswald, and Hoferer, 16; more generally on the Reich Association and welfare see Meyer, Tödliche Gratwanderung, 106–12.
67. Ruth to parents, 6 August 1940, Seattle papers.
68. Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 34.
69. Dring and Ehmann, “Albert Fraenkel und das Tuberkulosekrankenhaus Rohrbach,” 241–94.
70. Ruth to her parents, 16 July 1940, Seattle papers.
71. Louie, Etta at 80.
72. Etta to parents, 26 July 1940, Seattle papers.
73. Ruth to her parents, 16 July 1940, Seattle papers.
74. Louie, Etta at 80.
75. Helmuth Gabriel’s personal file (Reich Ministry of Justice), CV, German Federal Archive (Lichterfelde) (= BA), R3001, 56769.
76. Certificate of conduct, (1926), BA, R3001, 56764.
77. Doi, “Through Grandmother’s Eyes,” 9.
78. Niermann, Die Durchsetzung politischer und politisierter Strafjustiz im Dritten Reich, 150; Wachsmann, Hitler’s Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany, 117.
79. Helmuth Gabriel’s personal file, income statement for 1937.
80. Sicherheitsdienst to K.H. Frank, 6 October 1939, National Archive Prague (=NA), 109.
81. Gruchmann, Justiz im Dritten Reich 1933–1940, 287.
82. Gabriel’s police registration, National Archive Prague.
83. Werner Langbehn lived at 15 Masná, a modern functionalist building in the city centre. Davidson, Perfect Nazi, 212.
84. Thierack to KH Frank, 23 February 1943, NA, 109.
85. Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior to the Czech Liaison of the War Crimes Branch, Dr Hrbek, 2 March 1946, NA Prague, 316-1-2.
86. Case of son and father Josef Flígr from Dobruška, both executed on 1 September 1944, Security Services Archive, Prague (ABS), 141-99-5.
87. Poelchau, “Die Katze darf leben,” 155–9.
88. Email Andreas Herbst, Memorial of German Resistance, to X, 1 December 2014.
89. Irmgard confirmation, 12 February 1952, Etta’s reparation file M 4; Louie, Etta at 80. On forced labour in Berlin, see Glauning, "Alltag Zwangsarbeit 1938–1945.”
90. Von der Heydt, “Straßenbahn,” 74.
91. The plan was actually feasible; this was the flight route for hundreds of escapees: Meyer and Meinen, Verfolgt von Land zu Land.
92. For a critical assessment, see Schrafstetter, Flucht und Versteck.
93. Meyer and Meinen, Verfolgt von Land zu Land, 130 and 306, fn. 6.
94. Louie, Etta at 80.
95. “Uncle Udotimay” to Irmgard, 24 May 1942, Seattle papers, 3749.
96. Poelchau, “Katze darf leben.”
97. Statement of Adolf Kraetzer, 31 August 1953, Heinrich’s reparation file.
98. Anonymous to Irmgard, no date [end of May 1942], Seattle papers.
99. Louie, Etta at 80.
100. See Angrick and Klein, The "Final Solution" in Riga.
101. On women’s better coping abilities during the Holocaust, see the Milton, “Women and the Holocaust.”
102. Etta to Irmgard, 22 May 1942, Seattle papers.
103. Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 2, The Years of Extermination, 8f, 438–43; see also Goldberg, “The Victim’s Voice in History and Melodramatic Esthetics,” 220–37.
104. See also the interview of Marie Deimlová-Ch., Jewish Museum Prague, Vzpomínky, nr. 532.
105. Etta’s obituary for Baeck, Seattle Papers. On the Große Hamburger, see Jah, Die Deportation der Juden aus Berlin.
106. Similarly, at the beginning of June 1942, after the Jewish resistance group Baum attacked the “Soviet Paradise” propaganda exhibition, 154 hostages were killed in Sachsenhausen, their (largely young) wives deported to Theresienstadt on the transport of 5 June 1942. Jah, Die Deportationen, 292–5. The change of deportation guidelines for single Geltungsjuden was announced only on 7 June 1942, and took effect even later.
107. Damwerth, Arnold Munter: Der Jahrhundertzeuge, 84.
108. The cat comes up even in the Theresienstadt postcards.
109. Diary of Victor Klemperer, entries for 15 May and 18 May 1942, in Klemperer, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten.
110. Poelchau, “Die Katze darf leben.”
111. Jakob and van der Voort, Anne Frank war nicht allein; Dittrich and Wojak, "Geliebte Kinder ..."
112. Barnouw, Anne Frank voor Beginners en Gevorderden, passim.
113. Rolf’s police registration.
114. Schwarzschild, Niet lezen alstublieft/Nicht lesen Bitte, entry for 12 June 1941; for Schoorl, see Hijink, “Das Internierungs- und Durchgangslager Schoorl,” 106f. The other released prisoner was Günther Goldbarth, who lied about being a Mischling: Goldbarth, “Lives Lived: Guenther Goldbarth, 89,” Globe and Mail, 8 July 2013.
115. Houwink ten Cate, “Heydrich’s Security Police and the Amsterdam Jewish Council (February 1941–October 1942),” 381–93; Michman, The Emergence of Jewish Ghettos during the Holocaust, ch. 9.
116. Houwink ten Cate, “Het jongere deel: Demografische en sociale kenmerken van het jodendom in Nederland tijdens de vervolging,” 9–66.
117. Schwarzschild, entry for 11 October 1942.
118. For Nahalal, see Berg, “Zionism's Gender,” 135–65.
119. In Cologne, Rolf belonged to the Schwarzes Fähnlein, a right-wing Jewish youth organization. Dieter Corbach’s interview of Gerhard Braun, 12 October 1985, NS Dokumentationszentrum Cologne. Thanks to Nina Matuszewski for sending us the source.
120. Wenck, Zwischen Menschenhandel und "Endlösung;" Wasserstein, The Ambiguity of Virtue.
121. Sabine Simon-Smuk and Rolf Simon’s file card from the Jewish Council registry, Red Cross, The Hague. Thanks to Raymond Schütz for copies.
122. Anna Hájková’s phone interview of Mirjam Smuk-Weitzner (Haarlem), 12 December 2012.
123. Hájková, “Die Juden aus den Niederlanden in Theresienstadt,” 135–201, 145–9.
124. Rolf to Irmgard, 24 June 1943, cited in Irmgard’s letter to Etta; Rolf to Irmgard, 14 July 1943, copied in Irmgard’s letter to Etta, 26 August 1943.
125. Irmgard to Etta, 2 August 1943 citing Rolf to Irmgard, 24 June 1943, Seattle papers (In this letter Irmgard reacted to the news of Ruth’s death.)
126. Hájková, “Das Polizeiliche Durchgangslager Westerbork,” 217–48.
127. Entry for 16 November 1943, Mechanicus, In Depot; Dagboek uit Westerbork, 202.
128. Neither the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross in Bad Arolsen nor the archive of the Oświęcim Memorial have any further records of her.
129. On 14 January 1944, he was registered as sick in the Birkenau male camp BIIa. Email of Krystyna Lesniak, Oświęcim Memorial, to X, 19 November 2014.
130. Theresienstadt was a ghetto rather than a concentration camp. See Klein, “Theresienstadt: Ghetto oder Konzentrationslager?”, 111–23; White, “Terezín,” 179–84; Hájková, “The Last Ghetto,” 15.
131. Hájková, “Mutmaßungen über deutsche Juden,” 179–98.
132. Anna Hájková’s interview of Martin Kluger, Berlin, 29 December 2014, recalling Kluger’s conversation with Etta from 1975.
133. Medical certificate B, 20 December 1954, reparation file Etta, B8.
134. Hájková, “The Last Ghetto,” ch. 4 (Medicine and Illness).
135. See also Eliška K., Vzpomínky, ŽMP.
136. Hájková, “The Last Ghetto,” ch. 3 (Food and Hunger).
137. On Nadolny’s career as a diplomat, see Jenkins, “Fritz Fischer's 'Programme for Revolution,” 397–417.
138. Sharon Rivo’s (National Center for Jewish Film) interview of Etta Japha, 7 April 1985, Carol Japha papers. The National Center for Jewish Film lost the interview tape; this is the only surviving copy of the interview.
139. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941–1945, 696.
140. Lucy Mandelstam, ME 1472, LBI; memoir of Jiří Borský, 66, Beit Terezin Archive; Anna Hájková’s interview of Doris Meyer Stern, 10 April 2001 in Beit Yitshak, Israel.
141. In the 1950s, Etta related to her adoptive daughter that in Theresienstadt she was a chain smoker. Carol Japha to X, 12 May 2014.
142. Rivo interview of Etta Japha.
143. Ilse Windholz-Lerner’s entry in the database of the Oświęcim Memorial.
144. Rolf’s Red Cross wire to Ulla, 10 July 1943, Arroyo Grande papers.
145. Anna Hájková’s phone interview Mirjam Smuk-Weitzner, November 2012.
146. Manes, Als ob’s ein Leben wär: Tatsachenbericht. Theresienstadt 1942–1944, 329f.
147. Anna Hájková’s correspondence with Daniel Dražan (Löwit’s grand-nephew), March 2013.
148. Hájková, “The Last Ghetto,” ch. 4 (Medicine and Illness).
149. Statistics of Irma Goldmann, Yad Vashem Archives, O64, 50.
150. Kraus, “Boj proti tuberkulose v koncentračnich táborech,” 131–3.
151. Irmgard to Etta, 2 August 1943.
152. Irmgard to “Fräulein Käthe Veit Simon,” 21 August 1942, reparation file Heinrich, D 3.
153. Doi, “Through Grandmother’s Eyes,” 50; Irmgard’s letters to Etta in Theresienstadt.
154. Irmgard to Etta, 26 September 1943 and August/September 1944.
155. Schieb, Nachricht von Chotzen, 122–4. See also Maria von der Heydt, “‘Sobald ich schreiben kann, wirst du von mir hören,” 162–203.
156. Pieken and Kruse, Das Haushaltsbuch der Elsa Chotzen, ch. 7 (“1943/1944: Pakete nach Theresienstadt”).
157. Brickwell-Graeber to the Reparation office, 27 January 1959, A 24; Irmgard’s application for pension and memorandum from 30 November 1955, D 14, both reparation file Heinrich.
158. The literature on Berliners helping the Jews in hiding is extensive, including: Grossmann, Die unbesungenen Helden; Kosmala and Schoppmann, Überleben im Untergrund; Harpprecht, Harald Poelchau; Rudolf, Hilfe beim Sprung ins Nichts; Voigt, “Grüße von ‘Ferdinand’,” 104–16; Lutjens, “Jews in Hiding in Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945.”
159. See also Gailus, Mir aber zerriss es das Herz, 11 and passim.
160. Jacobson, Die Judenbürgerbücher der Stadt Berlin, 1809–1851, 711.
161. Cornelia Liebold, Bautzen Memorial, to X, 16 June 2014 (entry to the list of the dead and entry to Journal).
162. Maria von der Heydt’s interview of Judith Klein; Doi, “Through Grandmother’s Eyes,” 36. Irmgard became infected with HPV and developed cervical cancer. Gaby Levine to AH, May 2014.
163. Grossmann, Jews, Germans, and Allies, ch. 2.
164. Etta to Irmgard, 30 June 1945, Seattle papers.
165. Etta to Irmgard, 11 July 1945, Seattle papers; on the anti-German panic, see Frommer, National Cleansing.
166. Von der Heydt, “Sobald ich schreiben kann,” 186–8.
167. Irmgard’s Theresienstadt documentation, Seattle papers.
168. Sworn declaration Etta Japha, 8 January 1954, Etta Japha’s reparation file, C16; on Windermere, see also Gilbert, Boys: Triumph over Adversity, ch. 13 (“Windermere”); email Trevor Avery to X, 3 June 2016.
169. Louie, Etta at 80; Anna Hájková’s interview of Martin Kluger.
170. For approach of material culture history see among others, Adamson and Riello, “Global Objects: Contention and Entanglement,” 177–93.
171. Aurich and Santarius, Die Geschichte des Katharinenhofes, 26.
172. Aurich and Santarius, Die Geschichte des Katharinenhofes.
173. Rose Holmes made a similar point on the bourgeois women refugees who were only allowed to the UK to work in domestic service, Holmes, “Love, Labour, Loss.”
174. Steedman, Landscape for a Good Woman.