Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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normal practice and as many as between twelve and fifteen people ‘exchanged
places.’ 211 Those nominated were informed in writing and this was personally
delivered early in the morning by the Gestapo. 212 Interviewees recalled that later
on ‘the early morning door-knock’ was dreaded in the knowledge that it only
brought with it even more misery. The same son recalled the process from
notification to actual deportation:
People don’t believe this, but people used to get a notice that they should be
ready in four weeks and that they could take so much luggage with them and
they just disappeared. They weren’t rounded up. There was some sort of a hall,
a dance hall; it was called ‘Freundschaft’ [‘Friendship’], funnily enough. It
was a hall for hire for weddings and things like that. 213
On 14 April 1942, in the first deportation, 153 Jews from Magdeburg were
deported to the Generalgouvernement. 214 The destination of this first deportation
was the Warsaw ghetto. The arrival and registration of a group of the deportees
were recorded on film, 215 including that of the thirty-eighty-year-old Margarete
Katz née Waldbaum. 216 Members of this group corresponded with relatives and
friends back in Magdeburg. The addresses of all of the deportees in Warsaw were
various building numbers in Gartenstraße. This correspondence calmed some
fears in Magdeburg as they knew that their relatives and friends had arrived and
welcomed their news. However, it did not take long before correspondence began
to cease.
211 Telephone interview with M. F., Sydney, 18 February 2002.
212 Name withheld, op. cit., 18 June 1999.
213 M. F., op. cit., 27 June 1999.
214 Betrifft: Verwaltung und Verwertung des dem Reich angefallenen Vermögens, 23.
Oktober 1942, Bestand Rep. G 1, Signatur Nr. 390, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 101.
215 Film footage of the arrival of a group of the Jews from this first deportation from
Magdeburg and their registration at the Warsaw Ghetto Reception Camp is located in
the “Warsaw Ghetto Compilation”, Photos Archive Collection, Phot Registry Number
5501, YVA and at: http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/Katz/katz first.htm.
216 Sonderaufbereitung der Volkszählung vom 17. Mai 1939, Listung der
Erhebungsbögen für Provinz Sachsen, Stadtkreis Magdeburg, Gemeinde Magdeburg,
BAB, op. cit., p. 13.