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.
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Hillel Kempler
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The communists who lived in our neighborhood knew my father. There were also communists during this time that defected to the Nazis. Many thought my father was a communist. That’s why one day in April, shortly after the horrible event with the Süssapfel’s, my father was searched by the Nazis in the middle of the night. They pounded on the door. Mrs. Heinz, the doorman’s wife, heard it. She immediately knew what was happening. Mrs. Heinz was Christian. We had a very good relationship with her. My father often gave her cake as a gift. My father often gave the communists cake as well. He wanted good relationships and was a very likeable man. Mrs. Heinz ran very quickly from the backdoor of the courtyard to my father’s bakery and yelled: Mr. Kempler, Mr. Kempler, come quick! Then she put my father into her wood cellar and let the Nazis in.
She said: I don’t know where Mr. Kempler is, I haven’t seen him since midday. The Nazis stormed the bakery and cried: where is the Jew, where is the communist! They turned over all the tables and broke the machines and the furniture. Mrs. Heinz stood by and acted as though she didn’t know where my father was. The Nazis left after slapping Mrs. Heinz twice across the face. My father stayed in the basement for the whole night.
She said: I don’t know where Mr. Kempler is, I haven’t seen him since midday. The Nazis stormed the bakery and cried: where is the Jew, where is the communist! They turned over all the tables and broke the machines and the furniture. Mrs. Heinz stood by and acted as though she didn’t know where my father was. The Nazis left after slapping Mrs. Heinz twice across the face. My father stayed in the basement for the whole night.
My sister Fanny was 19 at the time. She and my mother went to the English consulate, since Palestine was an English protectorate then, and procured a tourist visa for my father, which he could use to flee to Palestine. A lot of women were standing in front of the consulate, very few men, and also people from the SA. At this time the SA still had some respect for women. They would insult the few men who were standing there, but never hit them. My mother had to pay a lot of money for the tourist visa at the English consulate. That was the deposit to get my father back to Berlin. Fanny and Gusti were politically educated through the Zionist youth organization Tchelet Lavan [Blue-White] and immediately understood that my father needed to leave Germany quickly, because the Nazis would never stop looking for him.
My father stayed with the farmer in the village until he could take the train through Switzerland to Italy, and then take a ship from Italy to Palestine without facing any trouble with his travel papers. That was still possible at this time. The Nazis didn’t have search lists for people like my father yet, that came later. Luckily, it was still crude.
My father stayed with the farmer in the village until he could take the train through Switzerland to Italy, and then take a ship from Italy to Palestine without facing any trouble with his travel papers. That was still possible at this time. The Nazis didn’t have search lists for people like my father yet, that came later. Luckily, it was still crude.
Then Fanny went to the English consulate. But even she couldn’t convince the official there to give my mother a visa. So my mother decided, maybe she also consulted with friends and family, to cross Europe by train and bus, and then be smuggled into Palestine on a ferry. I was seven years old, Miriam was nine, and my brother Isi was fourteen.
My sisters stayed in Berlin. Fanny promised mother that she would look after Gusti, and that the chances to get to Palestine with the youth organization were very good.
My mother sold and gave away everything in the pastry shop. A mover helped us pack the crates for Palestine. We couldn’t take furniture, of course, but other important things. The mover took everything and sent it to Palestine. My mother didn’t take a lot of photos, that’s why I only have a few. After our departure my sisters were looked after by the youth organization.
My sisters stayed in Berlin. Fanny promised mother that she would look after Gusti, and that the chances to get to Palestine with the youth organization were very good.
My mother sold and gave away everything in the pastry shop. A mover helped us pack the crates for Palestine. We couldn’t take furniture, of course, but other important things. The mover took everything and sent it to Palestine. My mother didn’t take a lot of photos, that’s why I only have a few. After our departure my sisters were looked after by the youth organization.
We stood there in Tel Aviv and knew no one. You must know that at that time Tel Aviv was a small city. There was a lot of sand, but on the other hand it was also European. The houses were small and had red roofs. There were already two-story houses here and there, but they were few. And there were very few paved roads, two, three main streets, otherwise there was sand everywhere. For example Ben Yehuda Street was only about one hundred meters long, maybe even less. The train station was on Allenby Street, and there were sidewalks to the left and right made of wooden planks so that the people didn’t get stuck in the sand. That was Tel Aviv in 1933, you got stuck in sand.
There were few cars on the road, there were camels and horse-drawn droshkies. The horse-drawn droshkies had two large and two small wheels. The Arabs mainly drove the horse- and camel-drawn wagons.
There were few cars on the road, there were camels and horse-drawn droshkies. The horse-drawn droshkies had two large and two small wheels. The Arabs mainly drove the horse- and camel-drawn wagons.
I want talk a little about Tel Aviv at this time: in those days no one locked their doors, since there was no crime. Groups of people were always standing together on the streets and discussing everything. You could see people dancing at night on some of the streets, for example on Allenby Street. People from various European countries danced the Horah and similar dances. It was a wonderful atmosphere, everyone was content, despite the fact that life wasn’t easy. There wasn’t much food. Arabs brought bread, eggs, milk, cheese, and vegetables to Tel Aviv on camels or donkeys. The Arabs lived on a very low level. They had even less than the Jews. The relationship between the Arabs and Jews was normal at that time. Tel Aviv was a construction site, things were being built throughout the city. The Jewish construction workers made good money. They worked together with the Arabs, and learned a lot about building from the Arabs.
There were a few offices and banks, but shops were the first to develop once Jews came to the country in 1933, since up until 1933 only poor or idealistic Jews had been coming over. They hadn’t brought much money and so couldn’t enrich the community. But the had brought along dances and songs. After 1933 a lot of middle-class Jews with ties and better professions arrived from Germany. They had to look after themselves, and it was certainly difficult for these people. But they opened stores – groceries, clothing, shoes – the basics. A lot of Poles also came to the country at that time, because they were afraid of what could still develop. There were two groups of Poles: a large group, the Chalutzim, and a small group, the middle class. The middle class people already had small stores in Poland. They had some money and also opened shops in Palestine. The whole atmosphere was easy. I think the atmosphere was so good, that it was stronger than everyone’s worries. Of course we heard about what happened in Germany, but maybe the adults worried. I didn’t notice it as a child, anyway.
There were a few offices and banks, but shops were the first to develop once Jews came to the country in 1933, since up until 1933 only poor or idealistic Jews had been coming over. They hadn’t brought much money and so couldn’t enrich the community. But the had brought along dances and songs. After 1933 a lot of middle-class Jews with ties and better professions arrived from Germany. They had to look after themselves, and it was certainly difficult for these people. But they opened stores – groceries, clothing, shoes – the basics. A lot of Poles also came to the country at that time, because they were afraid of what could still develop. There were two groups of Poles: a large group, the Chalutzim, and a small group, the middle class. The middle class people already had small stores in Poland. They had some money and also opened shops in Palestine. The whole atmosphere was easy. I think the atmosphere was so good, that it was stronger than everyone’s worries. Of course we heard about what happened in Germany, but maybe the adults worried. I didn’t notice it as a child, anyway.
We didn’t know how things would progress. My father went to this office and asked: Can I get a place here with my family? They could accommodate all of us, but not together. In the camp there were rooms for men and rooms for women. There weren’t rooms for couples. Children were housed in a village in an area near Tel Aviv until their parents had found something. It was difficult, but that’s how we had to do it. Our father got a spot, our mother got a spot, and they’d meet up every morning.
Then my father decided that we would open a restaurant – not a pastry shop, but a restaurant. A restaurant still involved food. Mr. Rabinovich continued to help him. He looked with my parents for a place for the restaurant. They found a single-story house south of Tel Aviv, in Shrunat Shapira. That was where the old bus station was. Shrunat Shapira was still under construction, and Mr. Rabinovich helped my father get credit with the bank. The building was still under construction, and my father had to fill it with chairs, tables, and appliances for the kitchen, and he began cooking. The lower floor was made up of five rooms and a closed terrace. That was our apartment, and that’s also were the restaurant was supposed to go. Two rooms were for the guests, one room was the kitchen, and we lived in one and a half rooms. Other people lived on the second floor.
Then the Fellers wanted us to go to school. Good, we went to school for one, two days. We sat there and didn’t understand anything. And the children called after us “Yekkes, Yekkes” [colloquial term in Yiddish for German-speaking Jewish immigrants to Palestine in the 1930s, and their descendants in contemporary Israel]. The children are always rude. “Yekkes, Yekkes, Yekkes,” so we didn’t want to go there anymore.
They built a couple of school buildings in Tel Aviv. But there weren’t enough schools because a lot of people from all over the world were immigrating to Palestine. So apartment buildings were rented as from the city school buildings. For the first two years we went to the Bialik School, which was located in an apartment building between Berech Salame and Rechov Lewinsky. There was no schoolyard, so during breaks we would walk around the street. Because there weren’t enough classrooms, they rented another house. That’s how the schools were in those days. Miriam and I learned Hebrew very quickly. There were always around twenty children in a class together. I went to this school for two years.
My parents never learned Hebrew. They knew some words in Hebrew, but they conversed in Yiddish. There were a lot of people in our neighborhood who spoke Yiddish. That means that the conversational language was Yiddish. The majority of residents were from Poland and Russia. And the ones from Germany picked up Yiddish quickly, since German and Yiddish are so similar. Yiddish literature was brought over from abroad, so that was also no problem.
The general atmosphere back then was determined by the chalutzim. There was a saying: Yehudi daber evrit! [Jew speak Hebrew!] The chalutzim’s goal was to have all Jews in the country speaking Hebrew. I can remember that when people spoke in Yiddish with eachother on the street, the chalutzim would go up to them and say: “Learn Hebrew!” To them, Yiddish wasn’t a rich language, but Yiddish stayed strong since many people couldn’t learn Hebrew. The children all quickly learned and spoke Hebrew. They became real Israelis very fast. But even today there are circles where people still speak Yiddish because it’s their mother tongue.
The general atmosphere back then was determined by the chalutzim. There was a saying: Yehudi daber evrit! [Jew speak Hebrew!] The chalutzim’s goal was to have all Jews in the country speaking Hebrew. I can remember that when people spoke in Yiddish with eachother on the street, the chalutzim would go up to them and say: “Learn Hebrew!” To them, Yiddish wasn’t a rich language, but Yiddish stayed strong since many people couldn’t learn Hebrew. The children all quickly learned and spoke Hebrew. They became real Israelis very fast. But even today there are circles where people still speak Yiddish because it’s their mother tongue.
At this time, 1936, my parents went broke with the restaurant. We had to sell the restaurant and leave our apartment, since we couldn’t pay for it any more. 1936 to 1939 was the most difficult time in Palestine. There was a lot of unemployment at this time and even young people were on the streets and starving. Many went back to Europe.
We had to move out and our family lived in one room. There was no bath, no shower, and the toilet was in the courtyard. But I didn’t suffer. It was difficult back then, but it was difficult for everyone. You didn’t have the sense that one person was rich and the other poor. There was only a very small class who had it better. But it was really very small. The majority was poor. Even my father couldn’t get any work and we needed to count every penny. My father then set up a lift on the street – it was a big crate in which personal effects from Germany and Austria were sent to Palestine, and which often served as a first residence in Palestine – and opened a small pastry shop. He still owned a few appliances from the restaurant that he could still use. He built a table and began baking cakes. Then he sold the cakes to stores, and that’s how we lived.
We had to move out and our family lived in one room. There was no bath, no shower, and the toilet was in the courtyard. But I didn’t suffer. It was difficult back then, but it was difficult for everyone. You didn’t have the sense that one person was rich and the other poor. There was only a very small class who had it better. But it was really very small. The majority was poor. Even my father couldn’t get any work and we needed to count every penny. My father then set up a lift on the street – it was a big crate in which personal effects from Germany and Austria were sent to Palestine, and which often served as a first residence in Palestine – and opened a small pastry shop. He still owned a few appliances from the restaurant that he could still use. He built a table and began baking cakes. Then he sold the cakes to stores, and that’s how we lived.
My sister Gusti came to Palestine in 1934 with the youth Aliyah. Gusti came with the first group from Berlin, which was organized by Henrietta Szold. Gusti and her group – they had already been together in Berlin – went directly to En Harod.
I was a member of the youth organization Noar Oved. That’s where I met my wife, Ester.
Leo Luster
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Time passed, May 8th came and the war was over. The Russians came to us and said, “The war is over, go wherever you please. You can do what you want. You are free, really free!
We then hitchhiked to Vienna with a Russian truck. Our driver was a little drunk and a Russian officer was driving behind us and wanted to pass, but our driver wouldn’t let him. When he was able to pass, he wrote down the number of the truck. We arrived in Schwechat where there was a roadblock by the Central Cemetery. There the officer pulled our driver from the truck. He saw us and determined that we didn’t have authorization for the Russian zone. We said that we didn’t need authorization, since we are very familiar with Vienna. The roadblock was in front of Gate 4 of the Central Cemetery. We went along the cemetery wall, climbed over it, and went through the cemetery to the other side. And then we were in Vienna. They had just done work on the tram tracks, so we could ride into the city.
Then I went to the family of the woman my mother had entrusted with the jewelry. And what did they say? The Russians had taken everything from them. But I didn’t make anything of it.
We had a very nice time in Deggendorf. We stayed there for four years. I began to work, initially for the aid organization UNRRA – the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Later the IRO [International Refugee Organization] took over this work, and then I worked for the Joint [American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee – a US-American Jewish aid organization for Jews, active since 1914, primarily in Europe]
I lived with my mother in a large room in the barracks. We lived well, I had a good job, I had my mother and a few friends. There was a motor pool there. We transported everything the people in the camp needed with the UNRAA cars. And we kept the cars in order. Later I was also responsible for a larger motor pool for the Joint in Straubing, and then later I worked for the Joint in Munich-Schleissheim. I had a car, a Jeep. I was given as much gas as I needed and could drive around in Germany.
I lived with my mother in a large room in the barracks. We lived well, I had a good job, I had my mother and a few friends. There was a motor pool there. We transported everything the people in the camp needed with the UNRAA cars. And we kept the cars in order. Later I was also responsible for a larger motor pool for the Joint in Straubing, and then later I worked for the Joint in Munich-Schleissheim. I had a car, a Jeep. I was given as much gas as I needed and could drive around in Germany.
The State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948. It was pretty difficult back then, of course; there wasn’t anything there. It was a very poor country. The British didn’t leave much behind and didn’t invest that much money. They took out as much as they could. The British were not good colonial rulers.
My mother and I came here [to Israel] on a ship from Germany. We went by train to Marseille. And in Marseille we were in a little camp for one, two weeks. That was a sort of turnover camp. From there we traveled by ship. We rode on an Israeli ship under the Israeli flag. That was, of course, the first time either of us had ever seen a ship with a large Israeli flag. We even had cabins and were given food. That was a terrific journey! It really was a wonderful trip. All of us – there were about 100 people on board – were very, very eager. The voyage took around five days. On the last night we didn’t sleep. We danced; everyone wanted to see Haifa as it appeared. Around five in the morning we approached the coast. We saw the lights in the distance. That was a great moment – a wonderful sight! We slowly got closer and then rode into harbor. The ship road to the landing site and we got off.
One later worked as a nurse with the Joint and met a Polish Jewish dentist who studied and lived in France. I had heard that he had begun working for the OSE [Obshchetsvo Zdravookhraneniya Yevreyiev, Organisation for the health protection of Jews], a Jewish relief organization, after the war in France. And I had heard that they had immigrated to Israel, since the OSE had opened a branch here. And what’s more, I had heard that he had come to Israel with a mobile dentistry clinic. At that time they were looking for someone to who wanted to work with the dentist – Edek Fisher was his name. Since I had worked for the Joint in Germany, they knew me there and liked me, and so they hired me. So I started working for them.
Thus began my work as a dental technician’s assistant. That was all new for me, of course. I learned how to make fillings and helped Dr. Fisher a lot. We went to schools and sorted out the teeth of the students there. We drove to all the areas where Arabs had earlier lived and where many immigrants had settled after the war of liberation; Ramlet or Beersheba, for example. Schools emerged there, as well. It was a giant vehicle and I could drive very well, since I had driven a lot in Germany. We drove everywhere and examined the teeth of every child. If they needed a filling, they got one immediately.
My wife Shoshana, born Riesenberg, was born in Milnica in 1924. Milnica was part of Galicia until 1918, which belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and after World War One it was part of Poland. Her father died very early. Milnica was promised to the Russians after the Hitler-Stalin Pact in August 1939. The Germans and Russians divided Poland back then. Today the city is in Ukraine. In 1939 my wife was 15 years old. She also learned Russian in school when the Russians occupied the region. When the Germans began their assault on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, the Russians fled and the Germans marched into Milnica. First there were mass shootings of the Jews. Those remaining were deported to a giant ghetto further east where many died of hunger and illness. Shoshana’s mother was hidden by a family. The Germans found her and killed her and the people who were hiding her. My wife and her sister Sonja were in the ghetto. My wife and her sister ran into the forest as the Germans began liquidating the ghetto. There are large forests there. There they found a Ukrainian who was already harboring a Jewish family. The Ukrainian made them pay, but he didn’t betray them and saved their lives. When the Russians came, they were free.
Shoshana and I were married in 1955.
I kept working for the OSE. Back then the OSE didn’t have enough money and we could no longer ride with the mobile dentistry clinic. I looked for another job and found one with Malben. Malben was the main institution of the Joint in Israel. It had built up a network of rehabilitation centers, hospitals, and homes for old people and disabled migrants. I worked there for ten years. In 1969 the Joint handed over all the Malben establishments to the government and concentrated their efforts on improving existing social services through collaboration with the government. I began working as a “maid-of-all-work” in a hospital not far from Tel Aviv. That was a hospital for the chronically ill and for older people. There I was the buyer for vegetables and all the other things. I got the job because the director of Malben, who was head of personnel there, was a Czech, a Dr. Bensch who was with me in Theresienstadt. He didn’t know me, but he knew.
Then I worked for the Joint again and could pay back the mortgage. The restitution payments from Germany also started at this time and life got somewhat easer for many people in Israel. Before we moved here, I bought my mother her own apartment in Givatayim. I filed an application for payments from Germany for her, after my father was killed, and it was approved. We bought her a refrigerator with the first payments. A refrigerator was very important. They manufactured the refrigerators here, but you had to pay in dollars.
The atmosphere in the country was good, despite the poverty and many problems. We had a lot of friends. It was a strange country: parents learned the language from their children, not the other way around. I first learned Hebrew from my children. My wife spoke Hebrew well. She had studied Hebrew in school, so she could interpret. I could make myself understood, but couldn’t speak Hebrew. There were many Jews from Germany and Austria living where we were. We met and talked and we celebrated all the holidays together and took trips. It was really a big family. The whole neighborhood! That was very nice. We weren’t rich, but we had everything. For example, every Friday we met and everyone brought something to eat. There weren’t enough groceries. There were a lot of vegetables and fruit, bread was dirt cheap, but there weren’t proper things. And everything was rationed in the beginning. Sugar and oil were rationed. That was already over by 1953.
My wife and I travelled to America at the end of the 1950s. We took a ship from Haifa to America. All they way to New York. That was one of the most beautiful trips; I will never forget. The journey took 20 days. The ship was called the “Shalom.”
One of my friends was a manager with El Al in New York and we stayed with him. I saw all of my old friends who had immigrated to America after the war. We were there for a month and had a really nice time with friends. Then we took the bus to my wife’s sister in Canada, in Toronto. She and her husband had a grocery store in Toronto where they worked. After the husband died she frequently visited us in Israel.
One of my friends was a manager with El Al in New York and we stayed with him. I saw all of my old friends who had immigrated to America after the war. We were there for a month and had a really nice time with friends. Then we took the bus to my wife’s sister in Canada, in Toronto. She and her husband had a grocery store in Toronto where they worked. After the husband died she frequently visited us in Israel.
I had kept my Austrian citizenship. There was a man working in the Austrian Embassy in Tel Aviv whose father was the founder of Hakoah. His partner was a distant relative of my uncle’s who had passed away in America. The Embassy was looking for a driver. I made a good impression and got the job. That was a really good job. I had very good relationships with all of the Austrian ambassadors. Because I am a victim of the Holocaust, they all had respect for me. I was even allowed to criticize Austrian politics. The ambassadors and embassy secretaries really liked living here. If you’ve lived here a while, it makes a strong impact. My wife and I also travelled to Vienna a lot. We were also in Germany, and we were together in Theresienstadt.
I saw a lot through my work at the embassy. During the Six-Day-War in 1967, for example, I drove the car through the old city of Jerusalem just as the army had. And then I was in the Golan Heights when the Israelis captured it.