Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Samuel Freiberg’s daughter remembered the fact that her father could not sell
his car, nor much else prior to their departure. She recalled a family friend drove
the two families in the same car to the main railway station. 87 Both families
travelled to France and on to Australia via Canada, as this was the only passage
they could procure. Jakob Wurmser’s daughter recalled the journey, especially
from Montreal to Vancouver. 88 Originally bound for Melbourne, they
disembarked in Sydney in January 1939.
Wurmser’s daughter also made particular comment on their crossing of the
German-French border:
At Kehl, near Strasbourg, the Germans were ready to search us bodily, and
then they let us go. Anyway half across the Rhine bridge coming into
Strasbourg my father took his Iron Cross and threw it into the [River] Rhine.
He was finished with it! And when we came to Strasbourg it was such a
feeling of relief. Absolutely! And my father spoke perfect French, and sitting
on the train from Strasbourg to Tannes, there were workers and my father
started talking. And I could see that relief, that he could say whatever he
wanted. From then on as far as I was concerned I felt free! 89
Her father’s act with his Iron Cross reflects both the anger and the loss the older
generation felt at their being forced out of their homeland. On a physical level,
however, the tension of border crossings was something all interviewees
experienced. Their fear was only equal to their sense of relief once they had left
German soil, as demonstrated by Wurmser. His daughter further remarked on how
courageous her father was to facilitate their emigration. 90 Her father’s actions
were the same actions that others were compelled to take. In the wake of the
pogrom there remained little choice. As maintained by Susanne Heim, many Jews
87
R. Z., op. cit., 15 August 1997.
88
H. B., op. cit., 15 August 1997.
89
Ibid.
90
Ibid.