Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

Born in Stralsung, Pommern. Lived until 1949 in Berlin, Germany. A "Geltungsjude": his father Jewish, his mother christian. Member of Jewish Reform Movement. Forced to do hard labour in 1939. Member of Zionistic illegal groups whose leader was Gad Beck. Imprisoned in 1945 in a Jewish hospital, from where he escaped at the end of the war. UNED Survival in Berlin during period of Nazi regime. People born of mixed marriages. Interviewee's father Jewish but mother Aryan protestant. First grade mixed families not deported but had to do forced labor and give up radio and newspapers. Even the youths had to work in munition and waste clearance. Differences between sections of the Jewish commnuity. Protection. "Coffee Jews" who brought export from South America protected. Second grade mischlinge (children of mixed marriages) in more danger. Moral and physical assistance (shelter, food, non-betrayal) by Christian relatives. Other relatives breaking off relations. Jewish collaborators working with gestapo. Illegal youth groups defying Nazi regulations. General hunger. Reduced rations for Mischlinge. Hundreds of Aryan wives demonstrating against arrest of Jewish husbands. Failure of attemted murder of Hitler in 20.7.44. Disbelief by Berlin Jews of genocide in East. Conquest of Berlin in 1945.