Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

children Werner and Jutta. Due to these circumstances the family moved to
Aachen pending emigration to Australia in July 1937. 69
George Mannings recalled that his father, Heinrich Manneberg, a sales
representative for office furniture and equipment, 70 was dismissed not long after
the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws. He remained unemployed and was still
struggling to survive financially when his only child, Günter, emigrated to
England after the November pogrom, toward the end of 1938. 71 Even with
retraining, the number of positions in Jewish companies either in Magdeburg or in
neighbouring towns and villages was limited, thus forcing individuals from this
sector of the workforce into unemployment. Technically, the only individuals who
were provided with some temporary reprieve until 1938 were those war veterans
and/or their families and some senior civil servants who were exempted.
However, such exemptions failed to assist both Röhricht and Manneberg, both of
whom were decorated war veterans.
Exemptions were far more advantageous to those who were self-employed or
professionals. Gerry Levy’s father and paternal uncle, Ernst and Herbert Levy
respectively, were both self-employed grain merchants. As decorated war veterans
the exemptions allowed them to continue their businesses, which required them to
travel. Gerry Levy recalled accompanying his father to both Halle an der Saale
and to Leipzig and that the family knew of other Jewish businessmen, who, not
possessing the same exemptions, were prohibited from doing this. He also felt that
owing to these ‘privileges,’ his family was shielded from the grim reality of the
69 Reed, op. cit., 4 August 1999.
70 Personal file on the Manneberg family, Bestand Pe, Signatur Nr. 31, ASGM.
71 Mannings, op. cit., 17 August 1999.
98