Odd Wisconsin Archive
Kristallnacht in Wisconsin
This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a night on which hundreds of German synagogues were burned, thousands of Jewish-owned businesses destroyed, and 25,000 to 30,000 innocent people were arrested for deportation to concentration camps. We tend to categorize the Holocaust as "back then" and "over there," so it is odd to discover the truth -- that it is still here with us, in the memories of neighbors like Manny Chulew who settled in Kenosha.
Historians estimate that as many as 100 Holocaust survivors came to Wisconsin after World War Two. They built new lives in cities such as Green Bay and Milwaukee and in small towns like Merrill and Monroe. Some still live here today. The fabric of our communities is stitched together by memory, including their memories of horrific barbarism when they were young. So the Holocaust is simultaneously far away, long ago, and right next door, tonight, in the assisted living center down the block.
Here are recollections by two Wisconsin residents who lived through Kristallnacht 70 years ago.
Eva Deutschkron was 22 years old and living with her parents in Berlin on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938:
"In 1938, in November, my mother had a visa to go to America to visit my brother, who at this time had just graduated the University of Wisconsin here in Madison. It was about November 10 that she was leaving for America, and on November 8 we heard the people that lived in between our apartments calling out to the people that lived in the attic of the building, 'Tonight at this and this hour (I forgot), we pick up Hirschhahn, Frank,' and there was another... Mentioned numerous names of the Jewish community that were all on the board of directors. And I ran in and told my parents what I had heard and we all quick grabbed whatever we could grab and grabbed the small suitcase for my mother to leave for America, and went to aunt in Neukolln, another part of Berlin, to hide us. And sure enough, during that night they picked up -- we called yet all the other Jews what we heard, that something is going on during the night. Some disappeared like we did, and others didn't want to believe it and stayed. They were picked up during the night and taken to concentration camp. While that was the Crystal Night. All the windows were broken. You remember that mugs were thrown and stones up into our apartment into the windows and everything was in shatters."
She was soon arrested by authorities and sent to perform forced labor in a munitions factory. After Nazi troops took away her family members, she and her husband Martin went into hiding and managed to survive the war underground. In 1948 they emigrated to Wisconsin, operating a clothing store in Madison until the 1980s.
Rabbi Manfred Swarsensky was a recent PhD serving Berlin's Jewish community 70 years ago this weekend:
"At about two o'clock in the morning of November 9 to 10, the telephone rang... I got up, ran to the synagogue, pushed my hat way down on my face so as not to be recognized by anyone, and there I saw German SS troopers pour gasoline into the interior of the building and over the walls and also German firemen stand on the adjoining building so as to prevent that they be burned down... There was a mob around, I don't know how many, shouting 'Death to the Jews' and all the other things... During that night not only synagogues, of course, were destroyed, but also all Jewish business establishments, and therefore the night [was] named "crystal night," Kristallnacht, because the glass panes of all Jewish shops were absolutely knocked out. There was the clitter and the noise and the clatter of everything all around."
The next day, Rabbi Swarsensky was taken away from his home at gunpoint and sent to a concentration camp. He was released a few weeks later, on condition that he would leave Germany. He arrived in Wisconsin in 1940, and served as rabbi at Temple Beth El in Madison until his retirement in 1976. He died on Nov. 10, 1981, the 43rd anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Ms. Deutschkron and Rabbi Swarsensky are just two of 24 Wisconsin survivors whose recollections will soon appear here on the Wisconsin Historical Society Web site in audio and text form. Until then, you can read selections from interviews with them in our 1997 book, Remembering the Holocaust.
:: Posted in Curiosities on November 5, 2008
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
|
