Tag #157022 - Interview #79438 (Hillel Kempler)

I want talk about the day when everything changed. After Hitler won the elections in January 1933, the Nazis immediately took through the streets, breaking windows. They wore brown uniforms and boots. I can still see it right before my eyes. The Süssapfel family lived below us. One night we heard horrible noises coming from the Süssapfel’s apartment. It woke us all up. My father was still in the pastry shop, preparing everything for the next day. Herta, our maid, quickly locked the front door. I think what I still know of it things that I both remember and things that were told to me. I can’t differentiate between them. We were really anxious. Herta said that the family was being beaten downstairs, and that we weren’t allowed to go out. Isi, my brother, positioned himself at our front door and wanted to hear exactly what was going on downstairs, but Herta kept chasing him away. There were horrible noises, and then all of a sudden, it was quiet. We waited a while longer, then Herta unlocked the door and went downstairs. As soon as she got back she told us that Nazi’s had been in the Süssapfels’ apartment and had beaten the husband and two sons: they had placed them at the wall and drove their heads into the wall. I don’t know what they wanted. Herta told us the wall was red with blood. Once the Nazis left the family wanted to call a doctor for help, but no one wanted to come. Then they called an ambulance, which also didn’t come. Then the father went with the two sons to a hospital by foot. They carried themselves there and were bandaged. Afterwards they came back home. No one knew at the time if the Nazis had been there officially, or if they could press charges with the police. They wanted to press charges, but were chased away. A couple of days later, I don’t know who told us this, it said in the police log: Grenadier-strasse 36, 1 a.m., fight between father and two sons, sons were drunk, the people were warned that it should never happen again.