Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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the city. At that time, of the original community, there remained approximately
twenty Jews. 246
With the changing fortunes of the war, the remaining Jews followed its
progress with keen attention, as recalled here:
We weren’t allowed or were unable to get newspapers. Everyone was very
interested in what was going on. And two or three streets away were the
offices of the Völkischer Beobachter [National Observer] and they displayed
the paper every day in glass windows. I used to go over with my jacket tucked
around [to cover my yellow star] and read all the headlines and then report
back. That was my job every day. So, I was fully aware of what was going on.
It was pretty obvious from about the end of 1943 or in the second half of 1943
that the war was going to go bad. So, with each new defeat we were getting
slightly more elated. But on the other hand we were pretty frightened of the
bombing. It was hard to work out who was going to get us first – the bombs or
the Nazis. It’s funny, but it wasn’t funny at the time. It was the truth. We were
just as likely to get killed in an air raid as getting killed by the Nazis. 247
However, their fear of being in public was real, and Jews generally avoided being
outdoors altogether, even during the day. The general exceptions were those
involved in forced labour, those involved in the task of procuring food and
unaccompanied children. Curfews were still in place for all Jews of an evening.
For those Jews who did not take flight to the countryside during the air raids,
there was no other option but to risk taking shelter in public air-raid shelters. With
the absence of shelters in the remaining ‘Judenhäuser,’ Jews were faced with little
alternative than to risk detection and take refuge:
When we lived in the Westendstraße, there was no air-raid shelter there at all.
So when the air raid was about to happen we would have to go to a public
shelter and this was a time when Dad didn’t wear a Star of David either. It was
too risky. We just went there and it became a nightly thing. And we got to
know the other people there and talk to each other. I think a lot of them knew
who we were, but they didn’t say anything. 248
246 M. F., op. cit., 27 June 1999.
247 Name withheld, op. cit., 18 June 1999.
248 Ibid.