Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Generalgouvernement. 206 All Jews were to complete a signed declaration attesting
to goods surrendered and keys to their former ‘Jew apartments’ or
‘Judenwohnungen’ were to be surrendered and receipts signed attesting to such.
All Jews would automatically forfeit any claim to their properties in Germany,
once they had entered the territory of the Generalgouvernement in occupied
Poland. 207
With this first deportation, Jewish community leaders were ordered to draw up
the list of deportees, which added to the emotional burden of the situation:
At some early stages the lists were unfortunately made up by the Jewish
congregation. It was a terrible job. The Gestapo said that so many will be
going and you supply the list. Whether they were the final arbiters or not, I
don’t know. But, I remember that Dad, who wasn’t working for them, but
assisting them, was very upset about this and obviously didn’t want anything
to do with it. I think, obviously, that single people went first, hence my aunt,
who was a spinster. The other criteria was what kind of occupation people
were doing. 208
Although the community was suspicious, the general feeling was that
‘resettlement’ meant exactly that. According to the information Jews received,
they were being ‘resettled’ to various eastern areas. One interviewee attested: ‘I’m
sure at the beginning that “resettlement” was accepted as the truth. 209 We had no
knowledge that deportation meant probable death.’ 210
One of Joachim Freiberg’s sons recalled that his aunt had been nominated for
the first deportation, but because other people volunteered, she was taken off the
list. In order to avoid splitting up families, those family members not nominated
for deportation volunteered, in order to be with their loved ones. This was a
206 Betrifft: Evakuierung von Juden, 23. März 1942, Bestand Rep. G 1, Signatur Nr.
390, LHASA MD, op. cit., pp. 15–16.
207 Ibid.
208 Name withheld, op. cit., 23 July 1999.
209 Name withheld, op. cit., 18 June 1999.
210 Ibid.