Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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reply, on 3 July 1942, the Magdeburg office was reminded that such activities had
ceased almost one year earlier at the request of the Gestapo. 169 The Berlin office
also ruled that the baptisms of ‘full or racial’ Jews, who were members of the
Jewish community were in any event out of the question. From 25 March 1942
Jews who wished to leave their registered community had to be granted special
permission from the Reich Minister for the Interior. The reply furthered articulated
that baptism was permitted for ‘first-degree Mischlinge,’ who had never been
members of any Jewish community, as according to the Nuremberg Laws, they
were citizens of the Reich. 170
Some insight into how those individuals connected to the Jewish community
of Magdeburg were persecuted and treated is provided by a limited number of
documented cases. Of the known cases, the persecution and treatment of
individuals and their families varied. However, from the limited picture provided
a number of observations can be made.
Prior to the Nuremberg Laws coming into effect, Herbert Levy married his
non-Jewish partner. 171 In May 1939, the couple, together with their daughter, were
living in an apartment building located at Lübecker Straße 30a. 172 This building
eventually became a ‘Judenhaus,’ but it remains unknown whether the family
remained there. Although Levy’s relatives were all closely affiliated to the
Synagogen-Gemeinde, he was largely unaffiliated. For the duration of the war he
Saxony, 18 May 1942, Bestand Rep. A, Specialia K, Signatur Nr. 2430, AKPS,
unnumbered page, one page.
169
Betr.: Judentaufen, 3. Juli 1942, ibid., unnumbered pages, two pages.
170
Ibid.
171
Levy, op. cit., 7 November 1996.
172 Ibid.