Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Pupils were often degraded in subtle, but no less cruel, ways. One of Gisela
Jankelowitz’s high school teachers, Mrs Grützberg, who taught her Geography or
History, 33 ignored her whenever she attempted to answer a question:
The only thing that this teacher did, you know when you answer a question
you lift your hand, and this teacher could never see my hand, so I never got
asked; she just didn’t want me to answer. But other than that she was never
abusive. 34
Teachers told pupils not to be associated with Jewish pupils. One interviewee
recalled as a very athletic teenage girl, being told by her teacher that the
headmaster of her school, the ‘Augustaschule’, had forbidden her from competing
for the school in a sports carnival. He informed the young girl that Jews could not
represent the school. 35 Negative characteristics were attributed to Jews,
reinforcing stereotypes. When pupils pronounced a word poorly in German,
antisemitic remarks followed as pupils were rebuked for ‘speaking like Polish
Jews.’ 36
Fear also became a feature of the school experience. The young Hansgünter
Jeruchem was one of the few pupils who felt accepted by his teachers and non-
Jewish peers for his entire schooling. One day he was gripped by terror during a
Rassenkunde lesson at his school, the ‘Vereinigtes Dom- und Klostergymnasium’,
when the new teacher, Mr Nüßler, set the class the task of ascertaining, who in the
class, possessed the most ‘Aryan’ cranium. The teacher, being new, did not know
that Hansgünter was Jewish and expected him to complete the task. The pupils
were each given a set of calipers, instructed to measure their peers’ heads and to
arrive at a particular figure. At the end of the task the students were asked who
33 Kent, op. cit., 12 January 1998.
34 Kent, op. cit., 5 January 1998.
35 R. Z., op. cit., 15 August 1997.
36 H. Freeman, op. cit., 13 May 1998.