The Winter’s Journey of My Youth

The Winter’s Journey of My Youth recounts my life as a young Jewish girl from a small provincial town in Germany growing up in Nazi Germany. Starting from1938 till 1945 these are the stages of my journey.

EARLY GRIEF

When our swim club put up a sign: “Jews not welcome,” the local nudist association invited my sister Ruth and me to swim with them in the river Biese. We gladly accepted, although Father did not approve. He was a respected merchant, convinced that “those good-for-nothing Nazis” wouldn’t last. Besides, we were the only Jews in Osterburg, a small, provincial town. Six months later, on November 9, 1938, the Nazis came and took Father away. That night, they demolished our shoe store. When Father returned, we left Osterburg. Ruth, who was nearly twice my age, accepted a job as a maid in England; Father and I moved into a boarding house in Berlin.

A PLEASANT INTERLUDE

Despite the worsening political situation, Berlin seemed like paradise. Our landlady took Father and me under her wing. We became a happy family socializing with the other boarders who included the former owner of a publishing empire, his Aryan wife who stayed with him for protection, an actor from Prague, and the Manchurian consul. Berlin had an all Jewish orchestra that was allowed to play music by Jewish and other “degenerate” composers. Father, our landlady, and I heard them play Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

GOING INTO HIDING

Meanwhile, Goebbels’ prediction that Berlin soon would be free of Jews was becoming a reality. As other Jews were deported, Father and I seemed safe because we worked in two different munitions factories. Still, it was a matter of time. A Christian couple offered to hide us. We left the boarding house and moved in with them.

CAPTURED

During one of the nightly air-raids, a bomb exploded near our house. The building was declared unsafe. In the confusion, nobody asked who we were. We received false identification papers and, when our building was declared safe, moved in with our protectors, this time legally. I left every morning, supposedly to go to school. One day, I ran into one of the Nazi big-shots from the munitions factory. She had me arrested and deported to Auschwitz.

SURVIVAL

The fact that I survived was luck, coupled with help from unexpected places, my youth, and timing. When I arrived at the concentration camp, the war was nearly over. Father survived in Berlin and we found each other again. A year later, the two of us came to New York.

THE TITLE

I chose Schubert’s “Die Winterreise” (The Winter’s Journey) as the title because the song cycle deals with love, loss, and longing--sentiments that echoed mine during the difficult years of the war. Schubert continued to be my companion as I traveled back in time.