Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

239
Of the recorded cases in Magdeburg this occurrence was generally the exception
to the rule and more often than not it involved family connections, as evidenced in
the quotation.
However, even when such plans were carefully and successfully organised,
they did not necessarily take place. This situation arose in the case of Hans Jensen.
Having lost his right to practise as a physician in Schönebeck in the middle of
1938, his father, Dr Max Jeruchem, realised that emigration was the only option.
He wrote to relatives in Bridgeport, Connecticut, seeking their sponsorship of his
family’s emigration to the USA. At the time his relatives could only secure an
affidavit for his eighteen-year-old son, Hansgünter. The family discussed the
option of separation and decided they wanted to remain together. Consequently,
they declined the offer. 119 It was not until mid-February 1939 that the family of
four emigrated together. They departed from Trieste on the Conte Rosso, bound
for Shanghai. Disembarking in Bombay, they decided to remain in India, where a
relative of Dr Jeruchem’s wife, Margarete, had settled. Hansgünter did not leave
India for Australia until it achieved independence from the British in August
1947. His parents left for Perth in 1946. 120
In recalling their preparation for emigration, all interviewees confirmed that
parents provided foreign language teachers and where possible parents, or in some
cases young Jews themselves, organised their own training or practical experience
in employment areas, which they thought would be useful. In early 1938, the
parents of fifteen-year-old Inge-Ruth Herrmann, after accepting that their only
child was emigrating, attempted to provide her with practical preparation for her
new life:
119 Jensen, op. cit., 14 June 1999.
120 Ibid.