Nadene Goldfoot
In 321, Roman Emperor Constantine issued regulations indicating that there was a Jewish community with rabbis and elders in Cologne and other places on the Rhineland at the time. It's even thought from discoveries that there were Jewish soldiers in the Roman garrisons, but invasions of the Barbarians make history hazy after that. However, during the 700s, the Carolingian royal house had a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged the settlement of Jews in its lands to develop trade. The were found in Augsburg, Metz; then Worms, Mainz, Magdeburg, Ratisbon, and in Speyer.
Along came the Crusaders in 1096 who then massacred Jews throughout the Rhineland and adjacent areas.
1933 and my uncle by marriage, Werner Oster, born on October 15, 1916 in Westerburg, Hildesheim, Niedersachsen, Germany, was 17 years old.
That's when the National Socialists of Germany came to power. They established Concentration Camps for the detention of opponents of their new regime. They were to used especially for the Socialist and Communist parties who had opposed them. After a while, people were also sent there on a detention order from the Gestapos (State Secret Police). Later, entire groups were arrested and committed to the concentration camps.
The first general action against Jews in Germany was in November 1938 when 20,000 male Jews were placed in camps; especially at Dachau and Buchenwald. Werner Oster was then 22 years old. He was placed in Auschwitz on the pretext of harming a cow. (He was walking it along a path to his father's slaughter house as he was a sausage-maker).
Werner was finally released, but his parents knew then that it was bad in Germany and thought the politics would change for the best. Germany had lost in World War I (1914-1918) and the economic state was bad, allowing Hitler in by 1933.
Adolf Hitler was Austrian, a soldier in the war, and had built up the Party into a major force. He exploited the antisemitism already in Germany and became the German chancellor in 1933. He imposed a totalitarian regime on Germany with extreme militaristic tendencies.
From March 1938 many Austrian Jews were detained. Most of the Jews arrested at this period were allowed to emigrate on the surrender of a great part of their property. In the camps, they were confined in special blocks, under conditions inferior to those of the non-Jewish prisoners. The explanation for the arrests was either punishment for general crimes or "protective custody."
My uncle boarded the ship, SS Washington, on May 4, 1939 for New York. He went from Boppard to Hamburg to get to the ship. His family had just enough money to get him out, and his parents and his beautiful 16 year old red-headed sister stayed behind, hoping he would be able to send for them and pay for the fares after working in the USA. They had no idea of what was coming. It had taken a great amount of time and money just to get Werner out.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler in invaded Poland. That was the beginning of WWII for Europe; the USA entering on December 7, 1941. Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. German forces broke through Polish defenses along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital.
The war ended September 2, 1945.
The deportation of Jewish masses eastward from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in 1941 bore a different character. The Jews sent in these transports were first held in the ghettos built in the occupied areas of Poland and Russia; in Warsaw, Poland; Lodz, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia.
Werner's parents, Ferdinand Oster of Oberfell, Germany and Rosa Ullmann of Westerburg, Germany, and his sister, Giesela Ingeborg Oster, all died in Krasniczyn concentration camp, Poland, Concentration and Extermination Camp on August 1, 1942.
Hitler declared that his Third Reich would last “a thousand years.” In actuality, it only last 12 years. But in those dozen years more harm would be done to civilization than in all of history until then.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishhistory.org/the-coming-of-hitler/?gclid=CjwKCAjwr7X4BRA4EiwAUXjbt_rJbDkjHXrmml_k1NX98FL5SkpG3PPkxUf6B_FSn8EctTzH0I28QBoCa2gQAvD_BwE
https://hmlc.org/holocaust-history/timeline/?gclid=CjwKCAjwr7X4BRA4EiwAUXjbt4EG9rANJQ19QWFC-Bd-MyDvo1Ql-4GrRlamkgJBsdvip-5q-sNhcxoCxS0QAvD_BwE
In 321, Roman Emperor Constantine issued regulations indicating that there was a Jewish community with rabbis and elders in Cologne and other places on the Rhineland at the time. It's even thought from discoveries that there were Jewish soldiers in the Roman garrisons, but invasions of the Barbarians make history hazy after that. However, during the 700s, the Carolingian royal house had a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged the settlement of Jews in its lands to develop trade. The were found in Augsburg, Metz; then Worms, Mainz, Magdeburg, Ratisbon, and in Speyer.
Along came the Crusaders in 1096 who then massacred Jews throughout the Rhineland and adjacent areas.
1933 and my uncle by marriage, Werner Oster, born on October 15, 1916 in Westerburg, Hildesheim, Niedersachsen, Germany, was 17 years old.
That's when the National Socialists of Germany came to power. They established Concentration Camps for the detention of opponents of their new regime. They were to used especially for the Socialist and Communist parties who had opposed them. After a while, people were also sent there on a detention order from the Gestapos (State Secret Police). Later, entire groups were arrested and committed to the concentration camps.
The first general action against Jews in Germany was in November 1938 when 20,000 male Jews were placed in camps; especially at Dachau and Buchenwald. Werner Oster was then 22 years old. He was placed in Auschwitz on the pretext of harming a cow. (He was walking it along a path to his father's slaughter house as he was a sausage-maker).
Werner was finally released, but his parents knew then that it was bad in Germany and thought the politics would change for the best. Germany had lost in World War I (1914-1918) and the economic state was bad, allowing Hitler in by 1933.
Adolf Hitler was Austrian, a soldier in the war, and had built up the Party into a major force. He exploited the antisemitism already in Germany and became the German chancellor in 1933. He imposed a totalitarian regime on Germany with extreme militaristic tendencies.
From March 1938 many Austrian Jews were detained. Most of the Jews arrested at this period were allowed to emigrate on the surrender of a great part of their property. In the camps, they were confined in special blocks, under conditions inferior to those of the non-Jewish prisoners. The explanation for the arrests was either punishment for general crimes or "protective custody."
My uncle boarded the ship, SS Washington, on May 4, 1939 for New York. He went from Boppard to Hamburg to get to the ship. His family had just enough money to get him out, and his parents and his beautiful 16 year old red-headed sister stayed behind, hoping he would be able to send for them and pay for the fares after working in the USA. They had no idea of what was coming. It had taken a great amount of time and money just to get Werner out.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler in invaded Poland. That was the beginning of WWII for Europe; the USA entering on December 7, 1941. Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II in Europe. German forces broke through Polish defenses along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital.
The war ended September 2, 1945.
The deportation of Jewish masses eastward from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in 1941 bore a different character. The Jews sent in these transports were first held in the ghettos built in the occupied areas of Poland and Russia; in Warsaw, Poland; Lodz, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia.
Werner's parents, Ferdinand Oster of Oberfell, Germany and Rosa Ullmann of Westerburg, Germany, and his sister, Giesela Ingeborg Oster, all died in Krasniczyn concentration camp, Poland, Concentration and Extermination Camp on August 1, 1942.
 |
| Werner Oster, standing on right in 1944 d September 10, 1988, Portland, Oregon: |
Hitler declared that his Third Reich would last “a thousand years.” In actuality, it only last 12 years. But in those dozen years more harm would be done to civilization than in all of history until then.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishhistory.org/the-coming-of-hitler/?gclid=CjwKCAjwr7X4BRA4EiwAUXjbt_rJbDkjHXrmml_k1NX98FL5SkpG3PPkxUf6B_FSn8EctTzH0I28QBoCa2gQAvD_BwE
https://hmlc.org/holocaust-history/timeline/?gclid=CjwKCAjwr7X4BRA4EiwAUXjbt4EG9rANJQ19QWFC-Bd-MyDvo1Ql-4GrRlamkgJBsdvip-5q-sNhcxoCxS0QAvD_BwE
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