Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

337
Riese née Kochmann had already perished in Auschwitz, having been sent on the
last mass deportation from Magdeburg in February 1943. They were aged fifty-
eight years old and fifty-six years old respectively. 120
On 20 February 1943, the Reich Minister for Transport sanctioned a reduction
in public transport fares for Jews in particular categories, mainly for school
children and the disabled. 121 This was approximately the same date that the third
and final mass deportation of Jews from Magdeburg took place. By March 1943
Magdeburg had rid itself of all but a small number of elderly Jews and those in
mixed marriages and their children.
In the two-year period between the commencement of World War Two in
September 1939 and the introduction of the Star of David in September 1941, the
completion of the pre-war policies against the Jews ensued. Emigration had
reached its final phase; Jews had been evicted from their homes and allocated
housing in ‘Judenhäuser,’ and further stigmatised by the allocation of
identification numbers; all Jewish organisations, with the exception of the
religious community, had been dissolved; Jewish communities in consort with the
Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland managed and were responsible for
all Jewish matters; and Jews had been completely ousted from the economy and
all property confiscated. This period was chiefly characterised by a de-facto
ghettoisation, both physically and psychologically. When the ultimate act of
stigmatisation occurred with the wearing of the star, the preparatory steps for
deportation followed. Edicts and ordinances steadily dehumanised the Jews,
120
Zentralinstitut für sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung, Freie Universität Berlin, ed.,
op. cit., pp. 1033–1034.
121
Betr.: Bewährung von Fahrpreisermäßigungen an Juden, 20. Februar 1943,
Bestand Rep. C 20 I. I b, Signatur Nr. 1, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 263.