Crucible of Terror. Max Liebster

1938. I briefly met Adolf the day of their wedding, a very sad occasion. There were no vows of love and devotion exchanged, no festive ceremony. Adolf came just long enough to sign the papers and then left again to prepare for their emigration. My sister was to follow him to Mainz a few weeks later.

      Ida, my older sister, lost her job as a maid. The family she worked for suddenly realized that she was Jewish, a racially inferior woman. This pure “Aryan” family could no longer tolerate her presence. They literally chased her out. Determined to emigrate to Palestine, she joined a Zionist organization and trained to take up life on a kibbutz. The waiting list was very long. While she waited for word, she met Sydney Nussbaum, a young man who had been sent to Buchenwald concentration camp after the pogrom in Hamburg in spite of the sacrifice his family had made for Germany. Sydney’s father and his four brothers had all been killed in combat in the World War. While in camp Sydney had received his immigration papers from the U.S., which allowed him to walk out, empty-handed but free.

      Sydney related frightening stories about his time in Buchenwald. He had seen an old Jewish man in the camp meet a violent end at the hands of a sadist. Sydney himself had undergone drastic weight loss in just a few weeks, which left him terribly weakened. But he had made it out of camp alive—so many others had returned to their families in black boxes.