So that is what guided thinking in dealing with Hitler and I’m afraid we will live to see the price the world will have to pay.
So that’s where we are now, Sam. Keep your fingers crossed, and again my heart bleeds for your loss. I’m back in Poland now, and I worry about its fate.
Al
CHAPTER 17
By 1938 one in four German Jews fled Germany. They recognized that continued residence in Hitler’s Germany had become extremely dangerous to life and limb. Being anxious to get rid of Germany’s Jews, the Nazi authorities actually tried to make things easier for them to leave, but other countries were still not as willing to be the recipients of this Jewish exodus.
The German authorities allowed Jews to leave as long as they left as paupers, because the money they made in Germany belonged to Germany and nothing of any material value could leave with them: money, bank transfers, the title to their homes and businesses, and, broadly speaking, anything of value. They were allowed to leave with ten reichsmarks, the equivalent of four U.S. dollars. This assured that all Jews could leave, but only when impoverished.
Heavy immigration taxes would help see to that.
Other countries imposed elaborate hurdles on potential immigrants, requiring entry visas that were geared to eliminating those who might become “wards of the state.” Also in the 1930’s the severe depression made countries leery of foreigners. They became extremely discriminating in their choices of who to allow entry. Also the Jews had to face anti-Semitism even in certain countries they desired to emigrate to.
This situation became worse for German Jews when Germany annexed Austria in March of 1938 adding an additional 185,000 Jews to their sphere of influence.
As more and more Jews faced increasing difficulty attempting to emigrate, President Franklin Roosevelt called for an international conference to take on the problem of increasing refugees. In the summer of 1938 a meeting was called in the French resort of Evian. Thirty-two countries sent delegates including the United States represented by a friend of Roosevelt’s, Myron C. Taylor. The meeting was filled with expressions of sympathy for the refugees followed by reasons making it impossible to accept them. The only one gleeful at this outcome was the German government. Even the United States Senate refused to support a bill admitting 20,000 Jewish refugee children. “The refugee children would deprive American children of aid.” So much for world sympathy! In addition, the British government refused to allow Jewish immigrants in Palestine, but many managed to sneak in nevertheless.
Sam’s appointment for his final discussion before immigrating, took place at Berlin’s Gestapo headquarters in March of 1938. Facing him was Lieutenant Sigmund Strossman, a man of about thirty years of age, as best as Sam could tell. Without even looking up, Strossman said, “Your name, please.” Staring Strossman straight in the eye, Sam answered quietly, “Sam Tepper.”
“Your date of birth, Mr. Tepper?”
Sam answered immediately. “April 20th, 1896.”
With this response, Strossman picked his head up and stared directly at Sam. “How interesting,” he said, “You and the Fuehrer have your birthdays on the same day.”
“Yes, that’s true. Only the Fuehrer is seven years older than I,” said Sam trying to sound respectful.
“That would make you 42 almost. Let’s see. In 1914 you would have been about 18 years old.”
“Yes, that is correct, sir,”
“Did you serve in the first World War?”
“I did, Sir.”
“And what did you do?” Strossman asked.
“Since my interests were in the medical field, they made me a corpsman. I first attended to wounded on the battlefield, but then I was chosen by the doctors to assist in surgery, and I spent about three years doing that until the end of the war.”
“And you are a physician now, I see. Germany gave you great preparation for your future, don’t you think?”
“Yes, sir, I ended up being a general and traumatic surgeon,” said Sam.
“So you must be indebted to the Fuehrer for giving you such an education.”
Sam tried hard not to change his facial expression, and answered, “Yes, sir, I am.”
“Now you understand why we take your assets. You owe it to the Fuehrer.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It says here you’re going to Bialystok, Poland.”
“That is correct. I am going to work in the University Hospital as a surgeon.”
While carefully looking at the multiple typewritten papers on his desk, Strossman said, “You have all the necessary papers and signed everything you had to. You are free to go. I wish you luck in Bialystok.”
“Thank you, sir,”
Five days later, a sad and still mourning Sam left for his new career at Bialystok’s University Hospital. He had been assured that Hitler’s sights were now on the rest of Czechoslovakia and following that, Poland. Sam hoped that was true, because his new and most important career path now was to fight Hitler with all his strength as a guerilla warrior and do everything in his power to avenge his wife and daughter even if it meant the cost of his own life. He was as certain as most that Hitler was planning a war with all of Europe. He wondered about Al, now living in Poland. How had his thoughts evolved?
After Germany incorporated Austria into the Third Reich in March, 1938, Hitler advocated for the ethnic Germans and triggered what would become known as the “Sudetan Crisis” named after the Sudetenland, or the mountainous northern and western portion of Czechoslovakia where mostly ethnic Germans lived. After much back and forth discussion between nations, Hitler’s Germany was ceded the Sudetenland in what the world viewed as another act of appeasement by Great Britain and France. In March of 1939, after taking over the Sudetenland, Hitler threatened to send his troops into the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Czech President and Foreign Minister arrived in Berlin only to be told by Hitler that unless they surrendered the country, Prague would be bombed into complete ruin within two hours. President Hacha had no choice but to sign. He issued a statement turning the Czech people over to the “protection of the Third Reich.” Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Hitler gave his troops the order to march. The Luftwaffe occupied the airfields. In Czechoslovakia, he had conquered his first Slavic country without firing a single shot. Great Britain and France now learned what their appeasement policy had wrought.
CHAPTER 18
1939…Poland invaded…WWII starts
In 1924, as Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while in prison, he developed a central theme of Germany’s need for lebensraum (living space). Most observers were unaware of this theme, and those who were tended to ignore the “ravings of an inconsequential mad man.” To Hitler, Lebensraum meant Poland and principally Russia, with its vast empty spaces ripe for colonization by Germans running massive farms to harvest food for the greater German fatherland. Such was their due after all—they were the master race.
Opposition to the living space concept came principally from Great Britain and France, both of whom felt that appeasement would be the best method to prevent all-out war and allow Germany to remain a bulwark against Communism, or at least that was the justification for continued appeasement. Hitler accomplished much going along with this approach, but the down-side was that he became emboldened and felt that he could