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

Born 10/14/1908, Stettin. Grammar school in Stettin, women's school, kindergarten teacher seminar, practical training in children's homes. Social Academy for women. Practical training as career advisor. Training as a community worker. Academy of Arts in Munich. Preparation for the emigration in an agricultural company. 1934 emigration to Palestine. Wedding. Sheep breeding in a Yawziel. Vegetable plantation in a Ayelet Hashachar 10 years work in a laboratory for soil and water examinations. Has been living in Tivon since 1964. Painting. Parents: mother from Hannover, father from Pommern, 7th Generation in Germany . Characterization of parents. Parental home and family situation. Grandfather: physician, great-grandfather professor at rabbinical seminary. Traditional Jewish family, father businessman, mother musician. Her younger sister had Down-Syndrome and was the focus of the family's attention. Mother was chairwoman of the Bne-Brith Lobby, secretary of the women's association and of the community council. Relationship to her mother. Her school situation: old fashioned german school, few Jewish girls. Wanted to become a kindergarten teacher or a psychologist. Her father owned a factory for working clothes, was a traveler. Very tough times due to inflation. At the age of 15 she suffered from malnutrition and was sent to Vienna by the Red Cross. Characterization of her father who always wanted to live up to the talented and gifted mother. Episode regarding dancing lessons ; where she met a non-Jewish boy. Lessons in painting. Career choice and education. Work in Jewish children’s home and welfare institutions. Positive Effects of being away from home on personal development. tape 2 A: Contact with former boss, who was deported to Poland with B’s parents and then moved to Sweden. Interests in vocational counseling and job placement. Worked in Stettin as care-taker (i.e. for East Jews). Experience with anti-Semitism - 2 episodes. Situation of the Stettin community. First news about the persecution of Jews and concentration camps. First news about Dachau and Oranienburg. 1933 a rabbi forbids her to talk about it in the streets. Experience with boycott, she didn't take it seriously in the beginning. Rapid willingness of the community to emigrate. Father's contact with Hirschfeld, who turned out to be a Nazi and went to the USA. Refusal of a health certificate for the sister hinders the emigration of the family. They did not want to go illegally. Personal experience of the family with a collaborator. The Nazi program for resettling the Stettin community. Mother’s visit to Palestine. Arrested at her return. Father’s attempt to sell house and farm as a condition for the emigration. Her attempt to bring the family out. Tragedy: in place of her parents by mistake relatives with the same name emigrated. Hachshara in Yugoslavia. Getting to know her husband who was from Pommern, a small city with vivid Jewish life. They got the certificate and ; entered a Kibbutz. Episode, death of sister-in-law because she poisons herself by accident. Hard working conditions and difficulties in living together with parents in law in the Moschav, birth of both sons. Conviction of an ideology (brain washing). Death of her parents: she read about the deportation of Stettin Jews. A Letter from her former boss. Perplexity of fate through correspondence between her and her mother (1934-42), she couldn't read her letters again. She still dreams about Stettin and repetition of destruction when the Kibbutz was attacked and shelled and she had to flee again. Her love for Stettin. Return to the Kibbutz. Separation from her parents in law. Birth of her daughter. War of 1948: destruction of the Kibbutz and evacuation to Tiberias. Later Haifa, accommodation in the German quarter, then return to the Kibbutz. Birth of 4th child under disastrous circumstances. new beginning in the Kibbutz. Lessons in painting. Worked in the institute for soil research. Supplement to work situation in the Moshava. Language situation: English and Hebrew. Says that she speaks Pidgin Hebrew, it was not allowed to speak German inside of the Kibbutz, therefore she did not feel comfortable. 1964: Compensation money from Germany. First son married and left for England, second son moved, daughter stayed in the Kibbutz. Betty moved to youngest daughter in to Tiv'on. Language situation: the two sons had learned German and spoke it with their grandparents. Oldest son ; married an English aristocrat and visits Israel every year. He wrote a book about himself and thinks that he is an Englishman. Critical attitude towards Israel Second son: head of a big factory in Haifa, sees himself completely as Israeli. First daughter lives in a Kibbutz, paints but works as hairdresser and is likely to leave the Kibbutz. Second daughter lives in Arad, rediscovered her Judaism and became a member of the ultra-orthodox group. About the Kibbutz: socialism disappointed them, she feels that hey were brainwashed. Definition of life and her attitude towards Judaism. Judaism as her creed. About her painting and what it means to her. Illness - painting - convalescence. Painting as compensation. tape 2 B: Relationship with her children and her husband. Death of her best friend who was a confidante to Henrietta Szold. No connections with other fellow countrymen/women. No access to agricultural associations. German lobby and parental homes. Her paintings, reading interests. Contact with Germany. Motive for this conversation. Thoughts about writing stories. Attitudes toward non-Jewish Germans. Character traits of Israelis and of the Jekkes (German Jews). Relationship to Eastern Jews. Attitude toward problem of emigration. The ideal of the future Israeli. Will German Judaism survive in Israel? Love of the Sephardic elements.