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Authors: Edith H. Beer
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awful.
“Did you hear about Elfi Westermayer?” he said bitterly. “Shedidn’t even finish her medical studies and she’s taking patients. Apparently all you need to practice medicine in this country now is a membership card in the Nazi Party.”
He agreed to see Jultschi, but in the end he would not give her an abortion. “I cannot perform this operation safely,” he explained. “I have no surgery, no place at the hospital, no access to drugs. God forbid, you could become infected…. There might be terrible consequences.” He held her hand. “Go home. Have the child. It will be a comfort to you in the days to come.”
So Jultschi went home to her husband. He was packing his gear, getting ready to go off to conquer Poland. He kissed her, promised to return, and left her to wait alone for her baby.
Mama and I descended into poverty with astonishing speed. Denied the ability to make a living, working for customers who paid us in groschen (now re-counted as pfennigs by the Germans), we began to barter our possessions for things we desperately needed.
Mama had a decayed tooth that was killing her. Our Jewish dentist was no longer allowed to practice, but with Pepi’s help, Mama found an Aryan dentist who would pull the tooth. He wanted gold. Mama gave him a gold chain. He wanted more. She gave him another. He wanted more. She gave him her last. Three gold chains for one tooth.
I tried to collect the installments for sewing machines and motorbikes that had been rented through my grandfather’s franchise. But nobody who owed a Jew money felt obligated to pay anymore. Most of them laughed in my face.
Mama’s younger sister, Aunt Marianne, had married a man named Adolf Robichek and settled in Belgrade, where he worked for a Danube shipping company. The Robicheks sent food packages to us with the ships’ captains, and we shared our good fortunewith Frau Maimon and the two sisters. These packages became a lifeline for us.
Did the rest of the Austrians understand what was happening to the Jews? Did they understand that we were being dispossessed, that we were beginning to go hungry? By way of answer, let me tell you a story.
Once, after the Anschluss, I was stopped by a policeman for jaywalking. He ordered me to pay a stiff fine. “But I am Jewish,” I said. That was all he needed to hear to know that I was penniless and could not possibly pay, and he let me go.
So you see, when they tell you that they did not realize how the Jews were being despoiled, you must never believe them. They all knew.
C HRISTL D ENNER’S LOVE life, always frantic, now became tumultuous because of Nazi politics.
We were talking in the bathroom, because the other rooms, with their palatial windows, were all freezing.
“Let me tell you, Edith, this is such a stupid situation that only the SS could have created it. The Nuremberg Laws on race say that you are not a legitimate Aryan unless all your grandparents on both sides are Aryan, right? So if you have even one Jewish grandparent, you are considered Jewish and deprived of all your privileges as a citizen, right? Well, guess what. Bertschi’s father is a Czechoslovakian Jew.”
“Oh, my God,” I said, appalled.
“So,” she continued, “my father helped Bertschi’s father buy illegal papers ‘proving’ that he too was an Aryan three generations back. A good idea, right?”
“Excellent,” I said.
“The result of this was that Bertschi’s father was immediately drafted.”
“Oh, my God!”
“In the army, they discovered Herr Beran’s true identity and put him in jail. But meanwhile they had drafted Bertschi, who now appeared to be satisfactorily Aryan because of his father’s false papers. But then, in short order, the army discovered that Bertschi’s father was in jail, but not why he was in jail, so they slapped Bertschi with a dishonorable discharge and sent him back to Vienna. And, listen to this, Edith, you won’t believe this—”
“What?
“Did you hear about Elfi Westermayer?” he said bitterly. “Shedidn’t even finish her medical studies and she’s taking patients. Apparently all you need to practice medicine in this country now is a membership card in the Nazi Party.”
He agreed to see Jultschi, but in the end he would not give her an abortion. “I cannot perform this operation safely,” he explained. “I have no surgery, no place at the hospital, no access to drugs. God forbid, you could become infected…. There might be terrible consequences.” He held her hand. “Go home. Have the child. It will be a comfort to you in the days to come.”
So Jultschi went home to her husband. He was packing his gear, getting ready to go off to conquer Poland. He kissed her, promised to return, and left her to wait alone for her baby.
Mama and I descended into poverty with astonishing speed. Denied the ability to make a living, working for customers who paid us in groschen (now re-counted as pfennigs by the Germans), we began to barter our possessions for things we desperately needed.
Mama had a decayed tooth that was killing her. Our Jewish dentist was no longer allowed to practice, but with Pepi’s help, Mama found an Aryan dentist who would pull the tooth. He wanted gold. Mama gave him a gold chain. He wanted more. She gave him another. He wanted more. She gave him her last. Three gold chains for one tooth.
I tried to collect the installments for sewing machines and motorbikes that had been rented through my grandfather’s franchise. But nobody who owed a Jew money felt obligated to pay anymore. Most of them laughed in my face.
Mama’s younger sister, Aunt Marianne, had married a man named Adolf Robichek and settled in Belgrade, where he worked for a Danube shipping company. The Robicheks sent food packages to us with the ships’ captains, and we shared our good fortunewith Frau Maimon and the two sisters. These packages became a lifeline for us.
Did the rest of the Austrians understand what was happening to the Jews? Did they understand that we were being dispossessed, that we were beginning to go hungry? By way of answer, let me tell you a story.
Once, after the Anschluss, I was stopped by a policeman for jaywalking. He ordered me to pay a stiff fine. “But I am Jewish,” I said. That was all he needed to hear to know that I was penniless and could not possibly pay, and he let me go.
So you see, when they tell you that they did not realize how the Jews were being despoiled, you must never believe them. They all knew.
C HRISTL D ENNER’S LOVE life, always frantic, now became tumultuous because of Nazi politics.
We were talking in the bathroom, because the other rooms, with their palatial windows, were all freezing.
“Let me tell you, Edith, this is such a stupid situation that only the SS could have created it. The Nuremberg Laws on race say that you are not a legitimate Aryan unless all your grandparents on both sides are Aryan, right? So if you have even one Jewish grandparent, you are considered Jewish and deprived of all your privileges as a citizen, right? Well, guess what. Bertschi’s father is a Czechoslovakian Jew.”
“Oh, my God,” I said, appalled.
“So,” she continued, “my father helped Bertschi’s father buy illegal papers ‘proving’ that he too was an Aryan three generations back. A good idea, right?”
“Excellent,” I said.
“The result of this was that Bertschi’s father was immediately drafted.”
“Oh, my God!”
“In the army, they discovered Herr Beran’s true identity and put him in jail. But meanwhile they had drafted Bertschi, who now appeared to be satisfactorily Aryan because of his father’s false papers. But then, in short order, the army discovered that Bertschi’s father was in jail, but not why he was in jail, so they slapped Bertschi with a dishonorable discharge and sent him back to Vienna. And, listen to this, Edith, you won’t believe this—”
“What?
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