The Holocaust Started With My Great-Uncle's Murder
Here is the foundational narrative on which I was raised: In March 1933, my great-uncle Arthur Kahn walked out of his apartment in Würzburg, Germany, for what was supposed to be a short Easter-break trip to see relatives. He was 21, training to be a doctor. He didnt know it, but his name had been placed on a list of students suspected of Communist ties. He had none, but he was arrested in Nuremberg. A few weeks later, he was transferred to Dachau, which had just opened as a prison. Adolf Hitler had been in power for 10 weeks. Within 24 hours of his arrival, Arthur was killedbelieved to be the first shot among a group of four Jewish men and the Holocausts first Jewish victim.
I learned about Arthur from the elder of his two surviving brothersHerbert Kahn, the man I called Opa. Arthur died on Passover; at the time, Opa was 12. During the second seder, when I was a child, the whole table would seem to brace itself for his palpable despair. I liked it better when Opa would sidle up and tell me stories. Arthur was a meticulous draftsman. He was a state chess champion. He had hoped to be a cancer researcher, just as the field was first developing.
Opa died three months before I graduated from college. It was a shock to realize that I was now older than Arthur had ever been. That summer, I tracked down the New York Times article that announced the Dachau murders. Its headline parrots the Nazi lie: Nazis Shoot Down Fleeing Prisoners. I read Timothy W. Rybacks book Hitlers First Victims, a meticulous account not just of the killings themselves, but of the prosecutor who tried to indict the men responsible for them at tremendous personal risk. He hadnt believed the official explanation. He couldnt overlook the obviousfour victims, all Jewish. The Nazis suppressed the case. The killers went free.
I became obsessed. I wanted to know where the police found Arthur in Nuremberghad he known he was doomed? And then: Did he like music? Did he write in diaries? Did he have a favorite book? I wrote to archivists and historians, searching for answers with a determination that bordered on compulsion. I struggled to explain what I hoped to find. Closure wasnt the right word. I felt too embarrassed to write closeness. Scholars invited me to tour their institutions. I scoured footnotes, submitting files concerning Arthurs fate to a translator so that I could read them. I took notes on the names of his torturers. I ransacked libraries. I filed research requests. I read about how he bled.
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PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,868 posts)Thank you for posting.
RicROC
(1,204 posts)I studied at the University of Würzburg, so your story, Arthur's story, made my relive my steps through that town.
Rhiannon12866
(205,731 posts)Thank you for posting, there's a lot of food for thought here. BTW, one of my last outings before the pandemic lockdown hit was to go to my first bar mitzvah. It wasn't a young person, but the anniversary of the bar mitzvah for the husband of a woman who participates in a meditation group I attend - and this lovely woman invited the members of the group, many of whom are Jewish. I found it fascinating and a wonderful time was had by all...
ShazzieB
(16,456 posts)I have put in a request at the library for Ryback's book. It's not available locally, but they can get I from another library, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.
Thanks for this!
brer cat
(24,586 posts)Thanks for posting, BtA.
Martin68
(22,843 posts)Ziggysmom
(3,409 posts)I fear more and more the mistakes of the past appear to be on our horizon.
Thank you for posting!
stollen
(419 posts)who died in the camps from the town. After Wuerzburg was bombed, it was discovered that this city didn't need a significant SS organization because the citizens were so willing to report on each other. Tell the town's police that your neighbor keeps to herself, and the next day that neighbor is gone, forever. There was a documentary about it. A reporter returned to Wuerzburg to local the people that had spied on others and were instrumental in getting them killed. The usual reply from these neighborhood spies was, "Oh, come on! That was a long time ago." No conscience. No remorse. No sense of responsibility.
I enjoyed living in Europe/Germany for 20 years, but tattletales/spying/antisemitism/racism still exist, on the QT.
After I returned to the US, I received an arrest warrant from Stuttgart, Germany, the tax office telling me that an anonymous person/people had reported that I had not paid taxes. Despite my talking to the tax office and prooffer of bank/US govt documents, the tax office blew me off. After hiring a tax lawyer, who argued the same points as I, I won the case. The lawyer cost 10,000 euro, and the 45000 euro arrested from my account is still missing though the lawyer has said it would be reinstated shortly....a year and a half after it was removed from my account.
An anonymous tattletale spy in Germany can still cause a lot of problems for the unsuspecting without any retribution. I've experienced that from the tax office and baurechtsamt (building office). I can't imagine that happening in the US.
There is now 10 euro cent difference in the exchange rate from 2020 to now, not in my favor, so I've requested that I be reimbursed at the rate of the day the money was arrested. Otherwise, we can let this drag on until 2023/24.
The Germans have a history of being their own worst enemy.