Germany 1933 and What Developed For Jews- Citizens Since 321 CE

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.   
                                                      

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

SUPERMAN-Guess Who Created Him and Why?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

I should have guessed.  Good things have come from our Jewish minds.  Out of despair came Superman!
                                                                                 

Jerry Siegel (1914-1996) and Joe Shuster (1914-1992) were bothered by their sense of Jewish powerlessness when they were facing growing anti-Semitism at home and oversees.   They were 2 young American Jews,  so they got together and created Superman, a fabled character who reflected their own Jewish values.
                                                                                                                   

Joe Shuster from Toronto, Ontario-Artist

Jerry  Siegel from Cleveland, Ohio-Idea-man and Creator

Superman was created in the early 1930s to help fight Hitler and the Nazis.  They were so angry when they heard about the slaughter of helpless Jews that was going on that they wanted to do something about it.
                                                                         

I note that Superman's father warned his people of the imminent destruction of their planet but was ignored.  The same thing happened in the 30's when there were warning of impending doom.  As a result of closed minds, the people of Krypton and the Jews of Europe were both exterminated.  Though I must add that when Jews woke up to what was happening, it was already too late.
                                                                               

SS Washington:
Werner's passport came from Stuttgart;  then he went from Boppard to Hamburg to board the SS Washington that headed for New York.  

 They couldn't just pick up and leave.  To come to the USA, one had to pass a literary test and have a job promised.  I know because my uncle Werner was one of the last to get out of Germany and left on  May 4,  1939 on the SS Washington for the price of $M350  and it was impossible for his parents and young sister to leave with him.  He arrived in New York on the 12th of May.  Hitler marched into Prague, Czechoslovakia already on March 15th, so finally people were waking up.  It was all the family could do to get him out first. He was to try to get them out after reaching the USA, but it was already too late.  This tore him apart to be the only survivor of his family.   The Nazis had made it impossible by causing it to be so expensive to leave, and then the rest of the world also made it impossible by not allowing Jews to enter their country such as most South American countries-people had to have baptism papers which eliminated Jews.  .
                                                                         

Notice that Superman always yearned for his parent's homeland.  This is the same with Jews yearning for our ancient Eretz Yisrael, our eternal homeland that our ancestors were led to by G-d.
                                                                           

Superman's archenemy was the Nazi-like Lex Luthor,  a most evil man.  Siegel and Shuster even used Superman to fight against Luther when he was mimicking Senator Ellison DuRant (Cotton Ed Smith), a segregationist whose infamous "Shut the Door" immigration speech caused the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act which actually caused the deaths of millions of Jews who remained trapped in Europe, unable to escape the impending Holocaust.  "The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia."  What's interesting is that we genealogists cannot find the 1890 census.  It was destroyed.  We can get the 1880 and the 1900 only. "   First, "The literacy test alone was not enough to prevent most potential immigrants from entering, so members of Congress had sought this  new way to restrict immigration in the 1920s."  The USA was  not anxious to take in immigrants.  
                                                                           

In order to get out of Germany, Werner had to have someone sign as a sponsor and be responsible for any financial needs of his. They would not take on someone who could wind up on Welfare.  My great Uncle Max Turn took that risk and had my father hire him as a butcher, since Werner's parents had their own shop where Werner was a sausage maker.  This was why he was able to emigrate from Germany.  Then Germany Shut their doors and all the Jews left were trapped and doomed.

Resource:  The Jewish Press, 7/24/15  Is Superman Jewish? by Saul Jay Singer, front page & back page 87.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Siegel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Shuster
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act