Memoirs from Else Teutsch Gottlieb

Graciously Provided by Marian Price

Transcribed by Jerry Zeisler

[please see the overview for background]

Since my father passed away a few months before we got married it was good that Leo could take over his business. We all had been surprised how fast Leo became acquainted with the farmers and butchers in Venningen and in the surrounding villages. We started off very well and we were happy and content. My mother lived 2 houses apart from us with my sister Lotte and a few relatives lived close by. Quite often Leo traveled to Bosen and bought some cattle from his father. We enjoyed also the visit of Leo’s sister Irma who was very pretty.

After our son Gert was born she drove him around in his little carriage.  It was surprising that Gert looked so much like his aunt Irma.  When a holiday came around the 3 of us visited Leo’s parents and there we met Leo’s brother with his wife Martha and their son Fred who was 5 months older than Gert. We all had an enjoyable time.

When Hitler came to power in 1933 we didn’t notice much change, but in 1936 Leo lost his license because he was Jewish and so he was not allowed to buy or sell cattle. When my sister in Brazil heard it she wanted us to move there. A big farmer was looking for a supervisor. Then my mother said, if you want to do farm work we have plenty of land and vineyards. So we stayed.

Since we lived in a Catholic place and had had nice neighbors we didn’t notice much from the SS until in 1938. Then the youth marched around and they sang anti-Semitic songs. Then the stores in the cities had signs on, Jueden sind hier unerwinscht - Jews are not wanted here. Leo and Gert could not get a haircut anymore where we lived and they had to go out of town where no one knew that they are Jewish. Now we decided it’s time to leave Germany.

We wrote to our relatives in America and it didn’t take very long and they sent us an affidavit. We still are very thankful and we will be as long as we live. But meanwhile we had to go through a very sad time. On November 9th a policeman stopped at out house and asked for Leo who was not at home. Leo was out of town and when he came back I told him that he should to our city hall.  Leo wanted to talk first to our uncle Oscar and he took Gert along, but on his way a policeman arrested him and he was not allowed to bring our son Gert home. We did not know what had happened to Leo when Gert came home crying. We all had been very excited and when evening came my mother and Lotte stayed with me and Gert in our house. We did not go to sleep, but stayed in our living room.

I have to mention here that all the houses in Venningen had big yards. Before you entered the yard there was a big door through which a wagon and a horse had to go through and a smaller door for people to enter, and then a bell was ringing so we heard in the house if somebody was coming in. In the middle of the night we heard the door bell ringing. Then we ran through our house, through part of our yard, our big barn in our garden, broke a door open to a neighbors’ garden and landed at a neighbors barn where we stayed all night. Gert slept in a wine barrel. We had been lucky that the night was mild.

In the morning we went back to our house and also to my mother’s house. The SS had broken some windows and had thrown some chairs through the windows. Before we recovered from the excitement of the night, an SS man came to our house and said “Jews get ready.” I said “get ready for what?” but he didn’t answer. I packed a suitcase very fast.

I never forget when I saw my cousin Ilse wearing a couple of skirts and sweaters on top of each other. Then the SS came by bus and took us first to Edenkoben the next town which is 3 km from Venningen. They stopped at the jail and luckily they let all the Jewish men out who they had arrested the day before. When Gert saw his father he was so happy. Then they drove us through the main center in Edenkoben to show that they had a full bus of Jews. My uncle Oscar sang in excitement “Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles” and showed his crippled hand which was shot in the first world war. Then they drove us away and brought us to the other side of the Rhein.

They left us on a field. Then they said to us “Jews, we have brought you here, don’t every try to go home again.” So we were sitting for a few hours, scared when a car drove by and we walked a little. Someone found out that we are in Karlsruhe. Luckily I had an uncle living in Karlsruhe. We called him up and we drove there by streetcar. That was Friday, November 10th. My uncle and Aunt even had a meal ready for so many people.

They had a large home and room for all of us to sleep. The younger people slept on the floor on mattresses. Gert slept in my cousin Walter’s bed, who was 4 years older than Gert. Everyone was so nice to us. Since we didn’t want to make much noise in my uncle’s home we spent some time in the park or we walked around.

So many Jewish men got arrested and landed in concentration camps. My uncle Siegfried, who lived in Ludwigshafen with his family, was brought to the concentration camp in Dachau and he heard that they had called out Leo’s name and also the names of all the Jewish men in Venningen and Edenkoben. My uncle thought they had killed those Jews. That’s why I said before that it was luck for those Jewish men to let them out of jail in Edenkoben and took them by bus to Karlsruhe.

A few days later Gert and I traveled to Bosen, but Leo remained in Karlsruhe. It was very dangerous for a Jewish man to be in a place where people knew him. After some time had gone by, Leo, my mother, Lotte and some more Jewish people took a taxi to Venningen, but they were not allowed to stay there. A week or two later they finally could return. They still were scared especially at night.

I guess about a week later Gert and I returned from Bosen. That was the last time that I saw Leo’s parents and also for Gert to see his grand-parents who loved him and of course Nora and Fred. They had just received a lovely picture of Nora who was just two years old. We were lucky that we were able to leave Germany on February 24, 1939. Shortly before Leo still visited his parents.

My mother accompanied us to Ludwigshafen where we visited some more relatives including my uncle Siegfried who was in a bad shape since he had just returned from the concentration camp in Dachau. All these relatives died in concentration camps, also my uncle Albert and Aunt Jenny from Karlsruhe. Luckily their 2 sons, Hans and Walter escaped to Israel where they live with their families. I felt very sad when I said good-bye to all those nice people including my mother, but I didn’t know that I would never see them again.

Shortly before we arrived in New York on March 4, 1939 on board the SS Manhattan, we saw the Statue of Liberty lightened up and that made us feel very good. The very religious Jews started to pray and we all felt very happy.

Finally when we arrived in New York there was a letter from Leo’s cousin Regina with a check of $60 welcoming us. Since the Hitler regime allowed us only to take $10 along, that money came just at the time when we needed it. We will always be thankful and also for giving us the affidavit. We were allowed to pay for our tickets with our money in Germany. 2 years later when Irma, Karl and Nora came, their tickets had to be sent to them from America. Eleonore gladly mailed them to Luxembourg.

We only stayed in Philadelphia for 2 ½ months. At that time Gert was only 5 years old and since Leo and I had a job it was not good to leave Gert with strangers. Finally, Leo found a job at the Woodbine refugee farm as a manager. Later on we both worked in a clothing factory making army coats.

In October 1947 we bought a poultry farm here. Since we are in America we made a living and did not need any financial help. In July 1944 we became American citizens. We are very proud to be accepted as Citizens of that great country. Leo’s sister Irma and her family and my 2 sisters Lotte and Grete were able to arrive in America during the war. All of them became American Citizens long ago and they could tell a lot about the Nazi regime. My sister Gertrude lives in Brazil with her family.