Autobiographical interviews of Jews born in German speaking countries ("Yekkes") - 50/60 years after their immigration to Israel

Born 10/13/1917, Zwickau. Schooling: secondary school, carpenter apprenticeship, evening school for interior design (without final examination). Emigration: 1937/38 to Italy, agricultural training, 1939 to Palestine (Kibbutz Mazuba). Career: agricultural work in Germany, Kibbutz worker until 1942, from 1942 in the English Military, training as precision engineer, from 1946 carpenter in Tel Aviv; from 1950 in postal service as telecommunications engineer. 1978 retirement and work as tourist guide. Interview: very religious parental home, he himself was never religious -> conflicts with parents, felt disgusted with religion; thinks that intelligence excludes religion. Siblings were religious. AB Education: 4 years of religious education, religious school, was beaten in school, Jewish primary school in Leipzig, after two years he was transferred to a public school. Friends: primarily Christians, went to church with them, to the synagogue with his father, was allowed to go to school on Saturdays. 9th and 10th grade at a Jewish secondary school. Anti-Semitism: did not experience it in Christian schools but outside. Member of a non-religious youth movement, leader until 1937, meetings had to be registered. 1937 Emigration. Siblings were in a religious youth movement. One brother fell in Israel. Live in a Kibbutz, sister was killed in a concentration camp, parents also died there. Finished school at the age of 16, carpenter apprenticeship to get worker's certificate for ; emigration. Evening school for interior design. Examination to become a travelling salesman, fair treatment at the celebration. Agricultural work because he couldn't find work as a carpenter. Examination in 1937. Emigration: was assigned land for a Kibbutz with 50 other German Jews, bad soil in the north of the country. Kibbutzniks were from his youth group, lived in tents, work in other Kibbutzim, no cars, road construction, cultivation of land, water shortage, help by English police. 1942 he volunteered for the British Army, worked as a carpenter, training as precision engineer, reparation of gadgets, released in 1946, carpenter in Tel Aviv, in postal service as telecommunications engineer. Language: within the Kibbutz Hebrew, had already learned it in Germany, at work Hebrew, German with his wife, primarily English literature, knows German best, children understand German, sons in law know a little German, grandchildren understand a few words. He prefers Hebrew. 2 visits to Germany, good relationships with Germans. Attitude towards Germany changed after the Gulf War, not much interest in German politics, detects latent Anti-Semitism in most Germans. Jekkes: positive influence on Israel, he liked to grow up in Germany, his children are proud of their Jekke parents.