Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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his retirement would commence on 1 January 1940 and that he would receive an
allocated pension for his thirty-eight years of service. 108 The Wildes remained in
England and settled in Cambridge.
Sigrid Freeman recalled vividly her family’s departure from the railway
station in August 1939, farewelled by her paternal uncle and aunt. In possession of
a visa for the USA, her uncle refused to leave Magdeburg and thought his brother,
Julius Schetzer, ‘crazy’ for leaving. 109 This was in spite of having spent six
months in Dachau Concentration Camp. He and his wife remained in Germany
and perished.
As with the other interviewees, Sigrid Freeman recollected the tension of the
situation at the German-Dutch border, where her father was taken off the train and
subjected to a body search. She remarked: ‘We were lucky that he didn’t miss the
train. At the last minute Daddy got on!’ 110 Once over the border she felt a
combination of relief and fear of the unknown. She concluded her recollections
recounting their immigration to Australia:
We went to England and our things went to Melbourne until after the war.
Then we got married and everything came back from Melbourne to London;
including rats and mice in that container! And then came the Berlin airlift. In
London it looked very much like another war, and that’s when my father said:
“Come on, let’s go to Australia.” And this was when we came. It was 1949.
We arrived at first Seder [Passover] night in Melbourne. The name of the ship
was Largs Bay, an English ship. There were three ships: Largs Bay, Esperance
Bay and a third one. They were all named after Australian bays. They were
originally troop ships. It was a beautiful journey – six weeks! 111
For the Schetzers and the previously discussed families, along with hundreds of
others from Magdeburg, their prime reaction to the pogrom was emigration.
108
Correspondence to Rabbi Dr Wilde, 14 March 1939, Bestand 5B1, Signatur Nr. 66,
CJA, op. cit., p. 340.
109
S. Freeman, op. cit., 13 May 1998.
110
Ibid.
111
Ibid.