Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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adult level, but seldom on the family level. Another interviewee recalled his
family’s social connections with non-Jews prior to the full application of the
Nuremberg Laws:
Dad was a very strong believer in socialism and the Social Democratic Party
and had lots of colleagues. And he was a bowler. As far as I know it was not a
Jewish club. So again, he would have had quite a lot of non-Jewish friends.
I don’t think my mother had any friends at all outside the family. I mean she
had her brother, but I don’t think she had many friends. From my very small
days, there was an elderly [non-Jewish] couple living near us in Buckau and
they were childless so they took great pleasure in having me and my brother
around them and I think Mum used to go and help Dad in the shop. We spent a
fair bit of time with this couple. So, they would have been very strong
friends of my mother’s. But once we went to live in the city we didn’t see
them all that often. 100
This story, was, however, an exception to the rule. All interviewees possessed
fond memories of the social events associated with male members of the family
playing cards, which included non-Jews. Gisela Kent recalled this:
My father played Skat [Skat] and the other players were non-Jewish; naturally
they brought their wives along, and friendships developed, yet not very close.
Once Hitler came to power this all changed. So much so that some of them
made it quite obvious with such lines as: “We’ll let you know when we can do
it again.” Eventually the meetings simply stopped. 101
Hemmi Freeman had similar recollections of his father’s non-Jewish Skat
companions. 102
One of the most common areas of social contact with non-Jews was with the
non-Jewish families of those family members and/or friends who had non-Jewish
spouses. Yet, even the majority of these social contacts ceased by the end of 1935,
with the obvious exception of the immediate family of the non-Jewish spouse,
who generally retained contact.
100 Name withheld, op. cit., 18 June 1999.
101 Kent, op. cit., 5 January 1998.
102 H. Freeman, op. cit., 13 May 1998.