Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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By July 1944 the overwhelming majority of Magdeburg’s Jews had been
deported and the city was almost ‘judenfrei.’ Most of the 185 remaining Jews
were either in mixed marriages, children of such marriages or were protected as
‘first-degree Mischlinge.’ Rumours continued steadily that the Gestapo would
round up and deport anyone to bring about the ‘Final Solution.’ A few Jews fled
to the countryside, attempting to find a hiding-place. Others remained in the city
and experienced its aerial bombardment as Hitler’s Reich entered its final months.
The remaining Jews felt that their lives would end either by deportation or
bombardment. Nevertheless, they hoped they would still be liberated by the
advancing Allied troops. Not all celebrated liberation in April 1945. By this stage,
the majority of the remaining Jews had fallen victim to bombardment. When the
Allied troops entered the city they found not more than twenty Jews alive.
The Destruction and Dispersion of a German-Jewish Community
With the advance of the Allies and the aerial bombardment of the city, the threat
of being killed during an air raid was only equalled by the threat of deportation.
Sensing the demise of the Reich and acting in the knowledge that they had nothing
to lose, Jews took more risks in protecting themselves and attempting to ascertain
the war’s progress. Some Jews stopped wearing the yellow star and a number
regularly sought refuge from bombardment in public air-raid shelters forbidden to
Jews. It was at this time that Jews who had previously gone in to hiding or had
‘disappeared,’ re-emerged and met accidentally, some for the first time in years.
In the final months of the war, the majority of Magdeburg’s remaining Jews were
killed during air raids. By the time the city was liberated in April 1945, the Nazis
had achieved success in their quest to erase any form of Jewish community from