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Alex's Wake

Page 37

by Martin Goldsmith


  boarding St. Louis, 85–86

  departing for Martigny-les-Bains, 138

  disembarking St. Louis in France, 119–120

  dismissal of Jews from school, 58–59

  early life and schooling of, 49–54

  hardships of, 2–3

  at Hotel International agricultural center, 160–162

  internment at Agde, 202–204

  internment at Auschwitz, 297–298

  internment at Camp des Milles, 245–251

  internment at Drancy camp, 277

  internment at Montauban, 188–189, 192–194

  internment at Rivesaltes, 223–225, 227–229

  letters from Camp des Milles, 249, 253–255, 257–263

  memorial service in Oldenburg, 316–324

  name on Wall of Names at Shoah Museum, 274

  Nazis’ murder of, 4

  plea for help, 269

  Goldschmidt, Levi (great-great-grandfather), 19–22, 28

  Goldschmidt, Max (uncle), 25

  Goldschmidt, Moses (great-grandfather), 22–26, 28

  Goldschmidt, Peter (brother), 4–5, 8

  Goldschmidt, Toni (grandmother), 36–41, 59–60, 166, 309–310, 319

  Goldsmith, George Gunther (father)

  affection for Saint-Rémy, 235

  early life of, 37–40

  emigration to United States, 1, 3, 226–227

  employment in U.S., 250, 255–256, 258

  failure to save family from Nazis, 3–6

  last years of, 6–8

  letters from Camp des Milles to, 247–249, 251–254, 258–262

  memorial service in Oldenburg and, 319

  reaction to The Inextinguishable Symphony, 2

  saying goodbye to father and brother on St. Louis, 86

  scattering of ashes in Oldenburg, 315–316

  securing affidavit for Alex and Helmut, 256

  Goldsmith, Rosemary (mother)

  affection for Saint-Rémy in Provence, 235

  emigration to United States, 1, 3–4, 226–227

  employment in U.S., 250, 255–256, 258

  letters from Camp des Milles to, 247–249, 251–254, 258–262

  working for Pierre Boulez, 171

  Good King René, 236

  Göring, Hermann, 77–78

  Goseling, Carolus, 115

  Gottschalk, Max, 115

  Gouges, Olympe de (feminist writer), 179–180

  Gouin, Katell, 265–268, 270

  Gould, Glenn, 217

  Graepel, Friedrich Otto, 38

  Great Freedom (Grosse Freiheit), 87

  Great War. See World War I

  Grosse Freiheit (Great Freedom), 87

  Grynszpan, Herschel, 55–56, 58, 182

  Gumpert, Julian, 226

  gypsies (Roma), 194, 296

  Hamburg

  author’s arrival in, 74–76

  emigration of Jews to Cuba, 79–82

  HAPAG ships sailing from, 76–78

  music in history of, 87–89

  preparing St. Louis for Cuba, 82–86

  Hameln (Hamelin), 20

  HAPAG (Hamburg American Packet-Shipping Joint Stock Company), 76–82

  Hapsburg Empire, 286

  Harkis (Algerians), at Rivesaltes camp (1954), 223, 229

  Harlingen, 132

  Hart, Peter, 157

  Haus der Mode, 34–35, 38, 41, 42–44, 61

  Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America (HIAS), 263

  Herrmann, Frau, 29–30

  Herzl, Theodore, 152

  Hestermann, Ottheinrich, 51, 54

  Hestin, Audrey, 272

  Heydrich, Reinhard, 77–78, 290–291

  HIAS (Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America), 263

  HICEM organization, helping Jews emigrate, 243

  Himmler, Heinrich, 287–288, 291

  Hindeloopen, 132

  Hitler, Adolf

  assuming power in 1933, 149

  early history of National Socialism, 44–47

  French armistice and, 181–182

  on meaning of St. Louis voyage, 130

  Munich Agreement and, 202

  Nuremberg Laws of, 48

  social, ethnic, and military goals, 287

  Holocaust

  Auschwitz as epicenter of, 288

  Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, 299

  author as Jewish descendant of victims of, 62

  Birkenau and, 301–302

  Camp Agde and, 208

  German legacy and, 283

  memorial at Yad Vashem in Israel, 191

  Peschanski, Denis, as historian of, 230

  Rivesaltes and, 212

  survivors, 309

  Zuccotti, Susan, as historian of, 265

  Holocaust Memorial Museum (United States)

  archivists of, 168

  author’s visits to, 8–9

  letter from Alex at Camp Agde, 204–205

  researching Alex and Helmut’s journey through France, 165

  researching Camp des Milles, 241, 244

  researching Rivesaltes, 221–224

  researching St. Louis refugees, 11, 83, 96, 98, 121, 123

  Holthusen, Claus-Gottfried, 78, 84

  Holy Roman Empire, 286

  Hope Chained, war monument in Montauban, 192–194

  horse trade, 21–24, 36

  Höss, Rudolf, 288, 295

  Hotel des Emigrants, Boulogne, 135–138

  Hotel International, at Martigny-les-Bains agricultural center for Jewish refugees, 156–164

  history of, 148–149

  ruined hopes for, 168–169

  visit to, 145–147

  House of Coats. See Mantelhaus Goldschmidt

  House of Style. See Haus der Mode

  Hugo, Victor, 273

  Immigration Act of 1924, 127–129, 245

  Inextinguishable Symphony, The (Goldsmith), 1–2, 5, 165–166, 226

  Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (painter), 180

  International Red Cross, 202

  International Relief Association, Inc. (IRA), 250

  IRA (International Relief Association, Inc.), 250

  Iron Cross, First Class, 2, 38, 44

  Jacob, Max, 278

  Jacoby, Dietgard, 70

  attending memorial in Oldenburg, 313–315, 317–318, 320, 323–324

  hosting author in Oldenburg, 34, 62

  scattering of George’s ashes, 64–65

  James the Conqueror, 213

  Janssen, Ingrid, 275, 279–281, 283

  Jaspers, Karl, 50

  Jeudi noir (Black Thursday), 263

  Jewish Cultural Association, 226

  Jewish Problem, 47–48, 77–78, 185, 290

  Jews

  anti-Semitism of Vichy government, 184–187

  Aryanization of Jewish enterprises, 58–60

  commemoration of Jews persecuted in Germany, 313–314

  expelling Jewish children from schools, 58–59

  extermination policy via Final Solution, 290–291, 296

  fleeing Germany, 154–156

  fleeing Germany via Hamburg, 77–82

  Gestapo round-up of, in Sachsenhagen, 28–29

  history in France, 149–150

  Hitler’s social, ethnic, and military goals, 287

  life in Sachsenhagen, 17–19

  mass deportation to extermination camps, 190–191

  Nazi Party and, 45–48

  policy enforcing delivery of foreign Jews to Nazis, 263–264

  professions/excluded professions of, 21

  subtle and overt attacks on, 50–55

  Joffre, Joseph, 218

  Joint, the. See American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

  Joseph, Liesl, 118

  Journey Into Freedom (Hart), 158

  Judaism, 4–5

  Karliner, Herbert, 113–114, 128

  Karliner, Joseph, 82

  Kennedy, Joseph P., 116

  Kindertransport, 308–309


  Kishagashugah, chief of Osage tribe, 175–178

  Klarsfeld, Serge, 190

  Knochen, Helmut, 184

  Kremer, Johann, 289

  Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

  arrest of author’s grandfather, 319

  German Jews response to, 78–82

  Grynszpan, Herschel, blamed for, 182

  Janssen, Ingrid, and events in Oldenburg, 279–280

  spurring France to take refugees, 155–156

  violence of, 28, 56

  Kryl, Bohumir, 250, 255

  La Cité de la Muette (The Silent City) (Lods and Beaudouin), 275–281

  La France juive (Drumont), 150–151

  La Libre parole, 151–152

  Labarthète, Henri du Molin de, 184

  Lambert, Raymond-Raoul, 117, 135, 155, 186

  L’Auto daily, 152

  Laval, Pierre, 240, 263

  Law Against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities, 50–51

  Law for the Defense of German Blood and Honor, 48

  Le Velo sports daily, 152

  Lebensraum, 287

  Leger, Alexis, 116

  Lenz & Company, 295

  Leopold III, King, 115

  Les Milles, 238–239. See also Camp des Milles; Les Milles, concentration camp

  Les Milles, concentration camp, 307

  artists and intellectuals at, 244–245

  author and wife’s visit to, 264–270

  author’s research on relatives in, 9–10

  brick factory as internment camp for refugees, 239

  letters from Alex and Helmut, 251–255

  living conditions, 240–243

  as product of Vichy government, 239–240

  U.S. immigration policy and, 246–251

  Lichtman, Allan, 127–128

  Liliane, Madame Gerard, 163–164

  Lipman-Wulf, Peter, 244–245

  living conditions

  Agde, 203–204

  Auschwitz, 288–289

  Camp des Milles, 240–242

  Drancy, 276

  Rivesaltes, 218–221

  Lods, Marcel, 275–276

  Long, Breckinridge, 246

  Louis XV, King of France, 175

  Luther, Martin, 284

  Maginot Line, German invasion and, 180

  Majdanek extermination camp, 291, 295

  Majorca, 213–214

  Manen, Henri, 264–265

  Mann, Golo, 244

  Mantelhaus Goldschmidt, 43–45, 61

  Margoshes, Samuel, 124–126, 140–142

  Markreich, Max, 166, 225–226, 245, 250–251, 260

  Marseille (Massalia), 236, 243–244

  Martigny-les-Bains

  agricultural center for Jewish refugees, 156–162

  author’s journey to, 143–149

  internment of Alex and Helmut at Camp du Martinet, 167–169

  meeting with Madame Gerard Liliane, 163–164

  ruins of Hotel International, 307

  St. Louis refugees disembarking in, 10–11

  Master Race, twenty-five-point platform, 45–46

  Maussane-les-Alpilles, 237

  Mauthausen concentration camp, 287

  medical research (experimentation), at Nazi concentration camps, 289

  memorials. See also Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States

  at Agde, 208–209

  at Altes Gymnasium in Oldenburg, 316

  Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, 299

  at Camp des Milles, 265

  at Drancy, 275

  at family home in Oldenburg, 310–313

  at Gerda Philippsohn school, 29

  for Jews persecuted in Germany, 313–315

  at Montauban, 192–194

  at Rivesaltes, 230–231

  Menage, Pieter Pieters, 132

  Menage, Pieter Thomas, 132

  Mengele, Josef, 289–290

  Merton, Thomas, 216

  Meyerbohlen, Carsten and Monica, 70–73, 310–311, 316–324

  Meyerhof, Otto Fritz, 244

  Milhaud, Darius, 181

  Mitterrand, François, 190

  Mona Lisa (da Vinci), 180

  Mont Sainte-Victoire, 237

  Montauban

  anti-Semitism in, 191–192

  author’s research on relatives in, 10

  Drouilhet family as hosts in, 173–180

  internment of Alex and Helmut, 188–189

  memorial service honoring Alex and Helmut, 193–194

  millennial flood in 1930, 187–188

  war monuments in, 192–193

  Montbrison, 171

  Montes, Elodie, 214, 217–218, 229–232

  monuments. See memorials

  More Judaico, 150

  Munich Agreement, 202

  Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, in Montauban, 180, 191

  Musée Ingres, in Montauban, 180

  National Center for the Gathering of Jews (Centre National de Rassemblement de Israélites), 221–222, 264

  National Jewish Daily, 124–126

  National Socialist German Workers’ Party. See Nazi Party

  National Youth Organization (NYO), Belgium, 120

  Native Americans, 174–177, 193–194

  Nazi Party

  American public opinion and, 111

  Aryanization methods, 58–60

  attempts to erase evidence of war crimes, 295–296

  climate of fear created by, 65

  desecration of Jewish cemeteries, 314

  emergence of, 44–46, 317

  extermination statistics, 301

  forcing resignation of Professor Moritz Weiler, 96–97

  history of Goldschmidt family in Oldenburg and, 319

  on meaning of St. Louis voyage, 130

  medical research (experimentation) at concentration camps, 289

  national violence and, 55–56, 58

  Nuremberg trials of Nazis, 294

  policies, laws, edicts, 46–48, 50–51, 69, 92, 115, 184, 287, 291–292, 319

  protecting art in the Louvre from, 180

  regarding Jews as “criminal race,” 112

  Wannsee Conference and, 290–291

  Neidhardts, Roland and Hiltrud

  attending memorial for Alex and Helmut in Oldenburg, 316–324

  author’s relationship with, 33–34

  on hypocrisy of citizens of Oldenburg, 68–70

  role in placing memorial plaque for Alex and Helmut, 310–315

  scattering of George’s ashes, 60–65

  Neufchâteau, 166–169

  Neutrality Acts during 1930s, U.S., 127–128

  Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht). See Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

  Nostradamus, 237

  Nuremberg Laws, 47–48, 184–185

  Nuremberg trials, of Nazi war criminals, 294

  NYO (National Youth Organization), Belgium, 120

  Occitania

  capital of, 199

  history of, 178–179, 191, 198

  Occitan language, 171

  Occupied Zone, 182, 185

  “Ode to Joy” (Schiller), 285

  Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE, Agency for the Rescue of Children), 138

  Oldenburg

  Aryanization of Jewish enterprises, 60

  author and wife’s visit to, 32–35

  as first state with elected Nazi leaders, 45–48, 317

  Goldschmidt family home, 37–44, 49

  history of, 35–36

  Jewish history in, 279–280

  memorial for Alex and Helmut, 310–314, 316–324

  national violence, 55–56

  prisoners herded to Sachsenhausen, 57

  scattering George’s ashes in, 315–316

  Oldenburg, Friedrich August von, 36

  Oldenburger Pferde, 36

  Ordre des Médecins, anti-Semitism of Vichy government, 185

  Osage tribe, 174–178, 193–194, 197

&nb
sp; Ossietzky, Carl von, 32–33

  Oswiecim, 282–283, 285–287, 299. See also Auschwitz

  Paris

  assassination of German Embassy official, 56, 58

  author and wife’s visit to, 272–274

  Central Refugee Committee, 116–117, 155–156

  as cultural center (1920s), 153

  invasion and occupation by German army, 180–182

  James Joyce fleeing, 14

  Jeudi noir (Black Thursday), 263

  Osage delegation visiting, 175–176

  Rothschild bank, 150

  Vélodrome d’Hiver (Winter Velodrome) detention center, 189–190

  Pawhuska, Oklahoma, 178, 197

  Pearl Harbor, 290

  People of the Middle Waters. See Osage tribe

  Perpignan, 213–214

  Peschanski, Denis, 230–231

  Pétain, Henri-Philippe, 180–184, 189, 195

  Peyrouton, Marcel, 185

  Pferdehändler profession, 21–22

  Philip the Fair, King, 179

  Philippsohn, August (great-grandmother), 24–25

  Philippsohn, Gerda, 29

  Philips, Deborah, 273, 311, 315, 317

  “phony war,” 180

  Pied Piper, 20

  pilgrimage, author’s trip as, 308

  Pitchipoi myth, 276–278

  Place des Martyrs, in Montauban, 180, 191

  Plague, The (Camus), 198

  poison gas. See gas chambers

  Poland, Lebensraum policy and, 287

  Port Barcarès, 213

  Poult, Adolphe, 187, 191, 307

  Poult, Emile, 187–188, 189

  Prades, 215, 216–217

  Provence, 235–237

  Rameau, Jean Phillippe, 170

  Rassenkunde, 52

  Ravensbrück concentration camp, 287

  Reeperbahn, 86–87

  Reich Citizenship Law, 48

  Reich Security Office (RSHA), 290

  Reitlinger, Gerald, 293

  Relatives Rule, U.S. immigration policy and, 246–247

  Renoir, Pierre-Auguste, 152

  Resistance

  Jean-Claude Drouilhet on, 197–198

  monument to local partisans in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, 194–195

  public hanging in Montauban, 180

  role of Marie-Rose Gineste in, 191

  Resolution 111, 129

  Reynaud, Paul, 180–181, 183–184

  Rhakotis, 122–123, 134–138

  Ricciotti, Rudy, 230–231

  Riga, 319

  Righteous Among the Nations designation, Yad Vashem, 130, 191

  “Rite of Spring” (Stravinsky), 171

  River Marne, 144

  Rivesaltes concentration camp

  author and wife’s visit to, 214–216, 229–233, 235

  author’s research on relatives in, 8–12

  bleakness of, 307

  history of, 221–223

  internment of Alex and Helmut, 223–224

  living conditions, 218–221

  policy enforcing delivery of foreign Jews to Nazis, 264

  Roach, Amy (wife)

  accompanying author on trip to Europe, 12–13

 

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