Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

340
designated schools and Jewish children from neighbouring areas were instructed
to enrol there by 14 October 1939. 125
In February 1940, the ‘Judenschule’ consisted of twenty-eight pupils; twelve
males and sixteen females. 126 Of this figure, seven pupils travelled to Magdeburg
daily from nearby villages and towns, including from Calbe, Burg and Köthen. 127
The profile of the pupils corresponded to eight different school grades. As such
they were divided into three composite classes. The first class consisted of Grades
One and Two; the second of Grades Three through to Five; and the third of
Grades Six through to Eight. Lessons were conducted in the same two classrooms
as previously occurred in the Jewish community’s offices in Große Schulstraße. 128
The school’s staff consisted of one teacher, Hermann Spier, and three teaching
assistants, including Dr Erwin Lehmann and Joachim Freiberg. 129 Dr Lehmann
specifically taught English and History and Freiberg taught Music and Sport. 130
The third teaching assistant was a female who attended to the needs of the
youngest class. 131 All pupils learned the same subjects from the same curriculum.
When this information was conveyed from the superintendent of schools for the
city to the provincial government, he also reported that the curriculum was
particularly designed toward the preparation for emigration and that the city
125
Betr.: jüdisches Schulwesen, 16. November 1939, Betr.: Übernahme der jüdischen
Schulen, 19. Oktober 1939, Bestand Rep. C 28 II, Signatur Nr. 88, Band 2, LHASA
MD, op. cit., p. 83.
126
Betr.: jüdisches Schulwesen, 29. Februar 1940, ibid., p. 86.
127
Correspondence from M. F. to the author, op. cit., 12 July 1999.
128
Betr.: jüdisches Schulwesen, 29. Februar 1940, Bestand Rep. C 28 II, Signatur Nr.
88, Band 2, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 86.
129
M. F., op. cit., 27 June 1999.
130
Ibid.
131
Name withheld, op. cit., 18 June 1999. The exact details of this woman’s identity
remain unknown.