Henry Joseph - Germany
Henry Joseph was born on September 4th 1925, in Laufersweiler, Germany.
Laufersweiler was a small town of around 800 people that was thirty kilometers
south of Koblenz. The town had about twenty Jewish families. Henry's family had
lived there for many generations. The family consisted of Henry's parents,
sister, and grandparents. Henry's grandfather owned and operated a matzoh
bakery, matzoh being the unleavened bread that is used as part of the ceremony
of Passover - it is symbolic to the Jewish people of the bread the Hebrew slaves
prepared in the desert for their journey out of Egypt. Matzoh is baked only six
months of the year. The bakery was the family business. They also did some
farming, and sold coal, flour and animal feed. They owned cows and chickens and
several acres of land.
Henry was eight years old when Adolf Hitler
came to power, appointed Chancellor of the German Republic on January 30, 1933.
On April 1st of that year, the Nazis proclaimed a general boycott of
Jewish-owned businesses. Signs appeared saying, "Jews and dogs not welcome."
Stormtroopers stood in front of Jewish businesses and enforced the edict.
After Henry's grandfather retired, his father ran the bakery until his death
on February 4, 1934. Thereafter, Henry's mother had to keep the business running
during increasingly difficult conditions. The Nuremberg Racial Laws of 1935
discouraged the hiring of non-Jews by Jews and gave tacit permission to everyone
so inclined to act out in anti-Semitic behavior. Henry's mother could only hire
unskilled Jewish workers as new help as a result of these laws.
Henry's father died at the age of 44. He had two operations in one week. When
Henry's mother consulted with the chief surgeon, whom the family had known for
many years, he wore a Nazi uniform. His family could not help but wonder if his
father might have survived under different conditions.
In 1934, Henry started walking to school only in groups, and still the newly
formed Hitler Youth harassed him. They threw stones at him and hurled epithets
like "Dirty Jew". Henry and other Jewish kids were part of a Zionist Youth
Group, but as Henry was the youngest and smallest, he was often not allowed to
participate with the other members.
In 1935, the Nazi Party legislated racial hatred: On September 15, 1935, the
Reichstag passed the anti-Semitic "Nuremberg Laws". German Jews lost all their
legal rights and freedoms. These laws gave Jews an official status as inferior
beings in the eyes of many Germans. Henry's family could no longer employ a
non-Jewish maid in their service. Jews lost all political voice and were not
allowed to participate in organized music or sports. Jewish children could no
longer use public swimming pools or parks. Henry's father and other relatives
were World War I veterans who had fought loyally for Germany; now their country
was disowning them. Anti-Jewish and other minority sentiment was consistently
published in the newspapers, to indoctrinate the impressionable with Nazi ideas.
In 1936, the discrimination turned to violence. Everything for the Jews was
steadily worsening. Jewish children had to sit in the front of the classroom at
school, segregated from the other children. Some children would throw things
from the back of the room at Henry, taunting him when he was unable to
retaliate. The decision was made to tutor Henry at home until after his Bar
Mitzvah. The rabbi from the bakery lived at Henry's house for six months and
taught Henry and other Jewish children.
Many Jewish families began to leave Germany. Henry's Uncle Josef was arrested
for carrying three dollars in his wallet while crossing the border into
Luxembourg. The Nazis accused him of laundering money into another country. They
closed his business and sent him to work at a stone mill as punishment;
eventually he saved up enough money to escape to the United States. Henry's
family was increasingly separating. An aunt moved to Palestine in 1936. She was
part of the Zionist group. She survived the Holocaust and currently has eleven
grandchildren in Israel.
Between 1935 and 1938, many other
discriminatory policies were implemented. All Jewish males were designated
"Israel" for the purpose of official identification. All Jewish women became
"Sarah". Jews had the letter "J" stamped on their
identification cards to distinguish them. Henry's family had to register
themselves with the government, as all Jews did. They didn't know at the time
they were being signed up to take part in the Nazi "Final Solution", the planned
extermination of all Jews in Europe.
On September 8 1938, Henry had his Bar
Mitzvah. This is when a Jewish boy "comes of age" and assumes the religious
duties of an adult. 270 friends and relatives gathered to celebrate this
achievement. This event was the last gathering of Henry's family and of the
local community. It was also the last such celebration to take place in Henry's
synagogue, as it was vandalized on November 10, 1938. That was the date of
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. It was called Kristallnacht because on
that night there was massive vandalization of Jewish property, and the shards of
glass from broken windows littered the streets. Anti-Semitic riots took place in
Germany and Austria on this night. Kristallnacht was a drastic event. Ninety one
Jewish people were killed, hundreds of synagoges were burned, and thousands of
Jewish homes were invaded and looted. All Jewish males from seventeen to seventy
were arrested. Henry's synagogue was burned out and the interior totally
destroyed, and the police didn't interfere because they received direct orders
from Berlin to let it burn. In a town nearby to Lautersweiler, a family was
burned alive in their home.
Stormtroopers invaded Henry's house and broke furniture and dishes; they
pushed the family physically down the stairs, and Henry's 75 year old
grandfather was beaten and thrown outside, left for dead. The local Catholic
priest hid Henry's family in his attic. The damage to their home was immense.
Much was stolen, 32 windows were broken, and everything was demolished. The
family was ordered to make all the repairs at their own cost. Not long after,
the house itself was taken in order to pay the assessment taxes the Nazis had
imposed upon the Jews. The bakery was destroyed, and Henry's family had no way
of making a living. Jewish people were prohibited from driving and using public
transport, having bank accounts, and from living anywhere but certain prescribed
areas.
On December 10 1938, Henry's mother sent him into Luxembourg as an illegal
immigrant to live with his uncle. She left him at the border and they were torn
apart forever. He still thinks about her every day.
On December 13 a decree of "Aryanization" was
enacted. This was the compulsory expropriation of all Jewish business and shops.
Henry did not attend school in Luxembourg - it was considered too difficult.
He worked in a neighborhood blacksmith shop.
On May 10 1940, the German army invaded Holland, Belgium, France and
Luxembourg. The Germans occupied Luxembourg. At first things were not that bad;
the Germans reassured the Luxembourgers that they were merely being absorbed
into the Reich, were they belonged. Many families fled to France and Spain but
were deported back as illegal aliens.
Henry and his secondary family from Luxembourg
were deported to the Lodz ghetto in Poland in October 1941. The Chelmno death
camp, 20 miles northwest of Lodz, started to gas people, using trucks at first,
in November 1941. The first shippments of people from Lodz to Chelmno began in
December 1941. From January till May 1942 there were massive deportations of
54,000 Jewish men, women and children from Lodz to Chelmno. Among them were
Henry's cousin Arthur Meyer from Luxembourg, his fiancee Caroline, and her
parents. All were killed in Chelmno on arrival. All this proves beyond any
reasonable doubt that the 22,000 Jews shipped to the Lodz ghetto in October 1941
were under a death sentence from the very start to be exterminated in Chelmno.
Only after the reversals the Nazis suffered on the Eastern Front did the Germans
postpone the death sentences, and held off the killing of the reasonably healthy
for a later date. The Lodz ghetto was the only ghetto with large factories in
place and they produced items necessary to the military.
The wearing of the Judenstern, the six pointed
Jewish star, was compulsory at Lodz. Henry first began wearing the Star of David
in the Lodz ghetto. The punishment for any infraction in the ghetto was to be
hanged. Henry lived in a single room in the ghetto with twelve other people. He
was employed at a metal factory. This gave him an occupation as well as an extra
bowl of soup every day. In December, the first large scale selections took
place. Half of the people who came to Lodz previously were sent to Chelmno
between December 1941 and the beginning of 1942. Those who hadn't found work
were the first to go. This included Henry's uncle and family. It took longer if
you were engaged in work producing things used by the Germans in the war.
The conditions at Lodz were horrible. Food was drastically rationed. People
were starving to death and the apartments, besides being horrendously
overcrowded, were dirty and cold. It was not uncommon to see people lying dead
in the street. The ghetto was fenced in and sealed off from the rest of the
world. The ghetto population lived on rumors. The starting population of Lodz
was 235,000 people and it decreased steadily until the ghetto was emptied and
closed in 1944.
In January of 1942, the Germans required
20,000 residents be deported from the ghetto. The Jewish Administration pleaded
and finally the Germans agreed to take 10,000. In February the Germans required
another 10,000. All of these people were killed at Chelmno.
Henry had been in contact with his mother by postcard. She was sending him
ten dollars a week until February, when these mailings suddenly discontinued.
Henry's family was taken away and never heard from again. His mother was
deported to an unknown destination in the East, and his sister was among 10,000
people in Amsterdam sent to Auschwitz.
From January to May, 54,000 people were shipped out of Lodz. Henry lost four
members of his immediate family to these selections. During the selections the
residents were forced to undress, then stamped like animals, and had to submit
to examination by a medical group to determine who would be shipped out, and who
was fit enough to stay and work.
In September the Germans ordered 15,000
children under the age of twelve to be sent to Chelmno and gassed. Henry's seven
year old cousin Ilse was one of these children.
On September 1st 1942 the Jewish police were ordered to close off all the
streets where there were hospitals in the ghetto. Trucks would come in every
month and empty out the hospitals. The Germans would throw patients into the
trucks and send them to be gassed.
By 1943, Lodz was the last remaining ghetto. Most Jews were by now either in
the concentration camps, or else on the run. Henry was able to keep working in
the ghetto until 1944. At that time there were only 78,000 residents left.
As the Russian army was approaching Lodz in June 1944, the Germans arranged
the round-up and deportation of the remaining 78,000 Jews in the Ghetto. They
took people off the streets, from the hospitals, from jails or anywhere they
could find them. The standard explanation given was "you will be resettled to
another work camp away from the front line." As it became harder for the Nazis
to convince people in this manner they began to advertise, "volunteer for
resettlement and get shipped to a better place." It was of course another lie.
As the ghetto was emptied they started to close down the still producing
factories one by one.
Henry was deported on the second-to-last train
leaving the Lodz ghetto. Also deported on that train was Modechai Chaim
Rumkowski, in charge of the Judenrat (the Jewish Administration in the ghetto)
and his family. He had been granted a protected existance in the ghetto but now
he was being treated like the rest of them. The Germans were waiting for him at
Auschwitz and he was taken off the train upon arrival and shot.
"Juden rauss!" or "Jews out!"
was the welcome they received when the train reached Auschwitz. They were told
to leave all personal belongings on the train. The prisoners were whipped and
beaten as they were hearded off the train. Two lines were formed in front of a
German officer. This was the first selection separating the men from the women.
Then came the selection that separated out the weak and ill from those strong
enough to work as slave labor. It all happened so fast, you hardly had time to
think.
As they were walking, an SS guard tried to take a baby away from its mother.
The mother resisted but the guard overpowered her, and took the baby and left.
Henry wondered why this was happening, as the usual policy was for the women and
their children to be sent to the gas chamber together. Was the guard trying to
save the child's life, or did he have another motive for this action? Henry
never got to find out as shortly he was separated from the group of women.
After the first selection they were marched out to a separate waiting area.
While there a young Jew, evidently distressed at losing his family, screamed at
the SS person in charge "You murders, you'll pay after all this is over for what
you are doing to my people!" Several SS guards volunteered to "take care of him"
but for some reason the one in charge declined their offer. Henry still wonders
what ultimately became of this brave young man.
At the second selection, to find those strong and healthy enough to work,
Henry was with a distant cousin, the only member of his family left with him.
They were driven by guards with whips and dogs into a large funnel-shaped
building, and rushed through a process of undressing, disinfecting, showering,
and being shaved of all body hair. At this point their clothes were taken away
and they received a thin, striped, pajama-like uniform to wear. They had been
thuroughly dehumanized at this point and felt no better than animals.
At the selection they were asked if they had a useful trade. Henry stated "I
was a mechanic." Henry then left with several other young men and was taken to a
room with one guard. One young man started insisting that he be told what was
going to happen to his family. The guard beat this man mercilessly with his whip
saying, "No one asks questions here--let this be a lesson to you."
Thereafter their daily struggle for survival continued. They slept on the
bare floor and were woken daily at sunrise. Those that didn't rouse immediately
would be screamed at and beaten. Sometimes on a cold morning the prisoners would
get sprayed down with a hose and made to stand around outside in the frigid air.
Then there was a roll call to see how many prisoners had died during the night.
People were physically abused and degraded for no reason. When someone's name
had been left off a list, instead of changing the list, that person was sent to
the gas chamber. The Nazis would joke about that and think it was funny.
In October 1944, Henry left Auschwitz with a group of 1,000 for Hannover,
Germany. Professional killers were taken out of the jails and employed as kapos
- prisoner supervisors. At first Henry was working underground, digging, but
after several weeks of this work he was assigned to work above ground as a tool
maker. There was a nice gentleman there who brought him some food during the
day, saying he had a daughter around Henry's age. Every day Henry was up at
sunrise for roll call outside in any weather. This roll call was used for daily
announcements or punishments. One morning in January or February several
prisoners did not get up fast enough for the kapoes' liking and they took three
prisoners and hung them under the ice cold shower until they froze to death.
After roll call there was a light breakfast and then the group was marched
for about a mile to the Continental Tire Factory where they were employed
producing war materials. They worked until late afternoon or into the evening
sometimes. Then they were marched back to the camp area. Another roll call would
take place thereafter. In addition to a simple count of all the prisoners, this
time was also used to give punishments out to anyone who might have been
reported at work by one of the guards. The typical punishment was 25 or 50
lashes. All prisoners had to watch while this took place. It took hours
sometimes for all the "corrections" to be administered. Now and then there was a
special punishment given to the entire group where they were made ro run or
march and they would be beaten as they ran. Before they were released for
evening meal there was special work to be done in the camp at night so they
would select some prisoners out for special assignemnts and work details. This
kept on through April, 1945. On April 1st, Henry lost the last surviving person
he had known throughout his whole experience.
In April Henry was taken with a group on a four day march. Anyone who
couldn't keep up was shot immediately. At night the group would stop to rest in
a barn. The barn was so crowded there was no room to lie down, only to stand.
After four days of marching they arrived at their destination of
Bergen-Belsen, a German concentration camp. Typhus was rampant there, and the
barracks were filled with dead bodies. Henry was given the job of pushing dead
bodies into mass graves and burying them. If anyone lost the strength to move
the bodies, they were buried alive.
The camp was liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945. He entered the
hospital, sick with typhus. He only weighed 80 pounds. He was 19 years old. Less
than 100 people of the original 1000 who left Auschwitz with Henry survived.
More people were lost later when the well-intentioned British troops fed the
survivors with too much food that was too rich.
After getting some strength back, Henry returned to Luxembourg in hopes of
locating any of his family who were still alive. He is still hoping and waiting
today.
| Photograph: Nazi supporters in the village of
Laufersweiler sing in triumph, the day after Kristallnacht, November
11th 1938. |
Related Resources for this Speaker:
Books
Daniel's Story
Matas, Carol. Scholastic Books, 1993.
The fictional account of a young boy whose personal journey closely parallels
the story of Henry Joseph.
Lodz Ghetto: Inside A Community Under Seige
Adelson, Alan, and Lapides, Robert, editors. Viking Penguin, 1991.
Kristallnacht: The Tragedy of the Nazi Night of Terror
Fischer, David and Read, Anthony. Random House, 1989.
With A Camera in the Ghetto
Sened, Alexander and Szner, Zvi, editors. Schocken, 1987.
Videos
Ghetto Life: Witness to the Holocaust
19 minutes
Camera of My Family: Four Generations in Germany 1845-1945
18 minutes
