Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Jews.’ Jewish pupils were henceforth only authorised to attend Jewish schools. 125
All interviewees who had attended public schools recalled being ‘forced out.’
Gerry Levy remembered being collected by his mother from his school on the
morning of 10 November 1938. When asked by the teacher why Mrs Levy was
taking him home, she replied: ‘At times like this, it is better to be together.’ 126
As the newly established ‘Judenschule’ possessed no staff in the wake of the
pogrom, classes were officially suspended there on 7 December 1938. 127 One
week prior to this, the city mandated that Jewish parents were to attend to the
educational needs of their children, should no Jewish school exist in the
vicinity. 128 On 17 December 1938, a memorandum from the Reich and Prussian
Minister for Science, Training and National Education was despatched,
concerning future arrangements for the instruction of Jewish pupils and indicated
that a revision of the Jewish schools’ system was set to take place shortly. 129
Despite the fact that Jewish pupils were without schooling, it reinforced the view
that even segregated classes in public schools had to be dissolved, unless the
segregated classes for Jewish pupils were located in a separate building. The
execution of lessons to both German and Jewish pupils in the same building was
125 Betrifft: Schulunterricht an Juden, 15. November 1938, Bestand Rep. C 28 II,
Signatur Nr. 88, Band 2, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 69. The cited quotation is the
author’s translation from the original German which reads: ‘Nach der ruchlosen
Mordtat von Paris kann es keinem deutschen Lehrer und keiner Lehrerin mehr
zugemutet werden, an jüdische Schulkinder Unterricht zu erteilen. Auch versteht es
sich von selbst, daß es für deutsche Schüler und Schülerinnen unerträglich ist, mit
Juden in einem Klassenraum zu sitzen.’
126 Levy, op. cit., 7 November 1996.
127 Correspondence from the office of Der Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Magdeburg, 7
December 1938, Bestand Rep. C 28 II, Signatur Nr. 3996, LHASA MD, op. cit., p.
22.
128 Correspondence concerning the schooling of Jewish pupils in the administrative
district of Magdeburg, 1 December 1938, Bestand Rep. C 28 II, Signatur Nr. 88, Band
2, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 70.
129 Betrifft: Schulunterricht an Juden, 17. Dezember 1938, ibid., p. 72.