Lot 1092
PERSECUTION OF A JEWISH FAMILY IN AUSTRIA
A remarkable correspondence of around 140 letters all written in 1939 to Ernst Goldstein, a young Jewish boy living with foster parents in England, by family members trapped in Austria after its occupation by Germany in March of 1938. It is almost certain that young Ernst was one of the lucky 10,000 Jewish children allowed to take refuge with foster British families following the horrors of Krristalnacht. The annexation of Austria by Germany added an additional 190,000 unwanted Jews to its population. However, German objectives remained those of systematically persecuting the Jews, with the ultimate intention of deporting or liquidating them. Meantime, the Germans would be depriving them of their financial assets, make employment next to impossible, and enact other means of persecution designed to make their lives impossible. However, the increasing reluctance of other nations to accept Jewish refugees coupled with the vastly increased number of Jews under Nazi rule led the Germans to adopt much more stringent measures in dealing with the "Jewish Problem". Additionally, many countries demanded that Jews have an entry fee when the Germans required them to dispose of their assets before leaving. The Goldstein correspondence is unique in several ways. First among these is the sheer volume of the material, with easily around 140 letters, all of which appear to be multi-paged, and all except perhaps three written in the critical year of 1939. The correspondence appears complete, allowing us to track the experience of one family through their entire ordeal. Secondly, the father of Ernst, Mr. Goldstein, writes long descriptive letters, some of which are entirely in English, others partly in English, and many are typed and easily readable. Secondly, the German used in the letters is largely in a clear English-style script that is extremely easy to read. This may have been done for the benefit of the Tidwells, the sponsors of young Ernst, so that they could read the letters as well. The letters are extremely rich in content, detailing the increasing tightening of the noose around the family who, unlike others, seemed to be acutely aware of the dangers they faced in staying put. As the correspondence goes on, the family is forced to sell its dwelling and all their related possessions (in several letters they complain of many people coming by to look with few buyer; it is likely that they had stiff competition from the other families trying to get out.) They are obviously not as happy in their new home, where they say everything is old and worn out. Though the family clearly expects to leave early in 1939, there are repeated delays as various exit papers are rejected as not being in order and various deposits are said to have been omitted. One strongly gets the impression that bribery is involved, and that it is unavoidable. Reading the correspondence gives one the odd feeling of knowing the end of the story before its participants, and as the time draws closer to the start of the war the reader feels an increasing sense of urgency for the family to get out, yet the machinery grinds on at the same pace and while various relatives find refuge in a multitude of different places, including Australia and even Shanghai, for most of those who remain a happy outcome looks increasingly doubtful. The huge volume of the correspondence precludes anything but a representative sample of the content, of which we hope these few examples, typed in clear English, will serve to illustrate the general tone and flavor of the letters. In small part: "Vienna, April 18, 1939 [from the father]: "...The sale of the house is not yet granted, we urge almost every day and we were promised an agreement for the next time. The passport and the Unbedenklichkemt we are to get tomorrow.. Now the most important thing for us is the house sale on account of the landing money for Cuba. Mr. Hyam...promised to do his best for us...We had the intention to stay only 3 weeks in England before we leave for Cuba....April 27, 1938... [in German] ...Everyone here is very agitated...hopefully there will not be a war...May 14, We have new difficulties about our passports, nevertheless we hope to settle our matters here in a few weeks and then go to London...April 22, 1939...We are still always running from office to office, mostly on account of the house sale. We were promised it will be settled quite soon, but the concerning referee is ill. Our furniture will be packed in a lift van on 9 & 10th of May and then we shall move then to a furnished apartment...They have got already their ships tickets for the 11th of May for Cuba. They haven't much hope to come to England till then and will leave Vienna on 1st or 2nd of May for May..." There is much more of this sort of morale-building talk, apparently to little avail. The last two letters in the correspondence are from the father of the family, from Alencon, France, March 6, 1940. Though untranslated, it promises to be an extremely interesting letter along with the second letter from Alencon, for here the father voices some of his views concerning the ongoing religious persecution in Germany. Three months later, France would fall, and if the family had remained there, its fate was sealed. The sheer size of this correspondence, its complete covering of a compact period of time, and its ease of reading make it a rare relic of the period. Adolf Eichmann was also directly involved in the persecution of these people. In 1938, Eichmann was assigned to Austria to help organize SS Security Forces in Vienna after the annexation of Austria into Germany. Through this effort, Eichmann was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer and, by the end of 1938, he had been selected by the SS leadership to form the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, charged with forcibly deporting and expelling Jews from Austria. In October 1938, Nazi riots broke out in Austria and Hitler gave instructions for the deportation of 27,000 Viennese Jews. During the pogroms of November, including Kristallnacht, approximately 8,000 Jews were arrested, and 5,000 of them sent to Dachau. In Vienna alone, forty-two synagogues were burned and 4,038 Jewish shops were looted. During the first four months of the war, 11,240 Jews succeeded in immigrating to neutral countries.
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