Surviving the Holocaust A Story of Survival

 1920-’s Germany is in a deep depression after Word War I.  Nazi Party comes into power.  Jews are blamed for Germany’s economic turmoil.  1933: Adolph Hitler elected Chancellor (equivalent to that of a prime minister).  1934: Hitler becomes president and abolishes all opposition parties. Takes personal control of the military. Hitler’s rise to power

Jews under the Nazis (1933–1939)  Jewish doctors, shops, lawyers and stores were boycotted.

Jews under the Nazis (1933–1939)  Laws passed banning Jews from being employed in government. These laws meant that Jews were banned from privileged and upper-level positions reserved for “Aryan” Germans.  Jews were forced to work at more menial positions, work for non-Jews, pushing them to more labored positions.

Jews under the Nazis (1933–1939)  Eventually Jews were were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing, and evicted from their homes... sent to concentration camps and ghettos.

Forced evictions

Mother: Ruth Dresel Nahari  Born: Feb 27, 1926  Kiel, Germany – Famous shipbuilding city on the border with Denmark.  Mom’s father – Doctor  Mom’s mother – Housewife  Brother – David born 1924  Grew up speaking German

Europe after World War I Kiel, Germany

Mother (Ruth Dresel Nahari)  Age 9 (1935) - Forced to quit ballet school. Brother is bullied and beaten up in school.  Patients of Dr. Dresel tell him about the “Black List” and help the family escape Germany.  Brother David is sent to Palestine (Israel before it became a country) with a Jewish youth group.  My mother and her Dad escaped to Holland while her mother stayed behind to liquidate the family assets.  When her Mom joined them in Holland, they took a train to Italy, and from there a ship to Palestine.

Lost 8 members of the family in the Holocaust.

Mrs. Nahari died in March She was 78.

Father: Hans Auerbach  Born: Feb 14, 1924  Teplice, Czechoslovakia – famous for its hot springs and spas.  Dad’s father – Shop owner  Dad’s mother – housewife  Sister – Else, born 1918?  Grew up speaking German

Europe after World War I Teplice, Czechoslovakia

Father (Hans Auerbach)  Age 14 (1938)  Kicked out of school for being Jewish.  Bullied and beaten by former “friends” and their families.  He & his father collected stamps that they were able to sell.  With the money he was able to buy a one-way ticket to Palestine with a Jewish youth group.

 His father put him on a bus with the youth group. This was a tearful goodbye not knowing if, or when they would see each other again.  The bus took them to the Yugoslavian border where they met a group of Partisans (the resistance). They walked through the forests for 3 days in freezing temps and very little food until they reached a small Yugoslav fishing village where they boarded a fishing boat, retrofitted to smuggle human cargo.

 The boat was made to haul around 30 people, but it carried almost 300. It was very crowded and he was forced to sleep sitting up because there wasn’t enough room to lay down.  There was not enough food for everyone for the 2-week voyage, yet there were plenty of cigarettes onboard (in case they were needed for bribery).  He was able to get a few cigarettes, it helped soothe the hunger pains.

 At age 18 he joined the Jewish underground fighting the British who were stopping ships from entering Palestine.

 Changed name from Auerbach (German for river) to Nahari (river in Hebrew).  Lost almost entire family in the Holocaust.  Only he and his sister survived.

Telegrams via the British Red Cross were not to exceed 25 words and had to be strictly personal.

 In 1997, at the request of granddaughter Aimee’s 6 th grade classmate, the following letter was written by my father. It was the only time that he wrote about his Holocaust nightmare.

Summer 2001  LCDR Nahari visited Yad Vashem Holocaust Center Jerusalem, Israel to research into his family’s demise.  German recordkeeping was very accurate.  Ledgers showed that Emil and Marketa Auerbach were on the very first transport of Jews from Prague to Terezin (Theresienstadt) Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia … 11 Oct 1941

 LCDR Nahari contacted Terezin Initative Institute in the Czech Republic and received the following reply:   Lodz Ghetto is in Poland. Of the 672,000 Jews that were sent to Lodz, only 900 survived.  In Auschwitz, about 1,600,000 people were exterminated.

Uri Nahari with granddaughters Aimee & Danielle

Mr. Nahari died in Sept He was 81

LCDR Nahari with grandparents, Dr. Walter Dresel & Dr. Rita Dresel

LCDR Nahari with parents and sister Galia

1939 US position on Jewish refugees.

What do Jews look like? Orthodox Jews

Conservative Jews

Why is it called the Wailing Wall?

Reform Jews

In loving memory of my parents … Ruth and Uri Nahari