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Then I started at the Städel School [School of Applied Arts], which was located in Mainzer Landstraße I think. One day, it was an afternoon in 1935, we wondered, why our boss wouldn’t give us any more work to do. Before we went home, they told us we couldn’t come back the next day, because they were not allowed to have any Jews enrolled at the school.
My father thought, Hitler would just go by. Just like a lot of the German Jews thought, Hitler would just go by. Oh, it’s horrible just to think about that! My grandfather and my father felt like German citizens: “Nothing can happen to us!”
That was their attitude. My grandfather, for instance, used to go swimming in the Main River. There was a designated public swimming area, and one day a sign was put up: “Entry is forbidden for Jews.” So my mother said to my grandfather: “Dad, you can’t go there anymore.
Didn’t you see what the sign said? Entry is forbidden for Jews.” “Well, but they don’t mean me,” my grandfather said. He couldn’t believe that this would apply to him as well. I remember this conversation as if it were yesterday.
My father thought, Hitler would just go by. Just like a lot of the German Jews thought, Hitler would just go by. Oh, it’s horrible just to think about that! My grandfather and my father felt like German citizens: “Nothing can happen to us!”
That was their attitude. My grandfather, for instance, used to go swimming in the Main River. There was a designated public swimming area, and one day a sign was put up: “Entry is forbidden for Jews.” So my mother said to my grandfather: “Dad, you can’t go there anymore.
Didn’t you see what the sign said? Entry is forbidden for Jews.” “Well, but they don’t mean me,” my grandfather said. He couldn’t believe that this would apply to him as well. I remember this conversation as if it were yesterday.
Period
Location
Frankfurt
Germany
Interview
Erna Goldmann