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

Friedel Loewenson was born Elfriede Hollendersky on 09/22/1908 in Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad). Attended a “Gymnasium” (comparable to a Brit. grammar school) and a domestic science school in Hamburg. Training as medical laboratory assistant in Berlin and work as doctor's receptionist in Berlin. Emigration to Palestine in 1932. Worked as housewife and boarding house mother for children. ; Loewenson's life in Germany until her emigration: About her maiden name (her father was Russian). At the beginning of Word War I, all Russian (esp. Jewish-Russian) families, and so the Hollenderskys, were expelled from Koenigsberg because they were suspected of being spies; they were deported to inner Germany (Weser-area). Friedel Loewenson attended school in Berlin, at the age of 16 she returned to Koenigsberg together with her mother. Her first experiences with antisemitism (according to her experiences, Eastern Prussia was more antisemitic than Berlin). About the Zionist attitude among the family members: Her brother, a doctor, gave lectures on Palestine in Koenigsberg already in 1924. After his emigration to Palestine he tried to get certificates for his family members. Their mother emigrated in 1926 and worked as a teacher in Haifa. Friedel Loewenson did her hachshara in Hamburg in the domestic science school. About her husband: He was not a Zionist, worked as precision mechanic, attended evening classes and got his professional certificate at the advanced technical college (“Fachhochschule”) in 1931. Yet he could not find employment because of Nazism. In 1930 Friedel Loewenson went on a trip to Palestine to visit her mother in Haifa, her brother at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and her brother in law in a kibbutz: She was enthusiastic about the country. In 1932 she also decided to emigrate to Palestine. ; Loewenson's life in Palestine/Israel and general topics about the German aliya, culture and language: First Loewenson lived in Tel Aviv, from 1934-1967 in Jerusalem. In 1940, after the bombardment of Haifa, her mother also moved there. About the lives of her mother and her mother's relatives: Since the time in Koenigsberg they were friends with the author Agnon, his wife gave Hebrew lessons. Loewenson's mother had a prominent circle of friends. The language spoken among the family members was still German in Israel. Episodes from the period of German-Jewish mass immigration since 1933 (about relatives, encounters with Arnold Zweig, Else Lasker-Schueler etc.). Analysis of the language problems in general and her own language-biography: She speaks German with her children, but Hebrew with her grandchildren, reads a lot in English. She is in contact with German homeland associations in Israel where lectures in three languages are given. About her problems with reading Hebrew texts and her reading of German literature. Her first trip abroad was in 1965 to Switzerland, since 1967 she has also visited Germany several times. But she has only visited areas that she had not known before. In Germany she repeatedly was asked about her “old-fashioned” German.