Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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members to the community; the management of religious affairs; the conveying of
all information from the government via the Berlin office of the
Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, particularly further edicts restricting
the lives of Jews, as well as the management of the ‘Judenschule.’
In November and December 1940 the Jüdische Kultusvereinigung provided
financial assistance to six individuals. This assistance included rental assistance to
senior citizens and, in the case of eighty-five-year-old Adelland Zadek, it also
included a supplement for the services of a cleaner. 37 However, such welfare
assistance was only provided to Jews who were German nationals. When a
stateless Jewess by the name of Gitla Buchhalter moved to Magdeburg from
Leipzig in March 1941 and requested financial assistance, she was refused. On 8
March 1941, in a clinically worded letter, Leo Hirsch advised her of the rejection
of her request on the grounds of her being stateless and of having relocated
without official permission. 38
Attending to the general welfare of community members also included acting
on their behalf in legal matters, as the unusual case of Kurt Berendsohn illustrates.
Berendsohn was a casual worker and was employed in the community for odd
jobs, including assisting with housework and washing. He was also employed by
the Jewish community at the Jewish cemetery, where he transported corpses to the
cemetery, prepared them for burial and dug the graves. In May 1940, Berendsohn
was charged by the city’s health department for violation of the city’s health
regulations. The crime was for not having prepared a grave deep enough for a
37 List of recipients of financial assistance to members of the Jewish community of
Magdeburg, November–December 1940, Bestand Pe, Signatur Nr. 47, ASGM, p. 62.
38 Correspondence to Gitla Buchhalter from the Jüdische Kultusvereinigung
(Synagogen Gemeinde E. V. Magdeburg), 8 March 1941, Bestand 2A2, Signatur Nr.
2814, CJA, p. 3.