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Issue 14 (2020), 26

Dear readers and dear friends of Medaon,

This issue was finished – like many things in these times – under particularly difficult circumstances. Owing to the Corona Crisis and a chain of unfortunate events several planned articles were withdrawn on very short notice. It was impossible for us to find suitable replacements without jeopardizing our usual publication date. However, against all these odds the great commitment of all the people involved has enabled us to still present to you an issue full of interesting contributions.

Both of the peer reviewed articles in this number deal with memoires of German Jews from the years of National Socialism. Vivien Rönneburg analyzes autobiographies of Jewish Germans who fled to the USA, her focus is on the tangled identy constructions between German-Jewish and American self-images. Kurt Schilde on the other hand describes the history of the Frey family and presents extracts from a report to the daughters in exile by the parents that have been murdered in Auschwitz.

The enforced exile of Jews fleeing antisemitism – in this case from Austria – is also the topic of Chiara Conterno‘s biographical piece on Stella Rotenberg. A different time frame – the early nineteenth century – is covered by Cornelia Aust‘s presentation of the last will of Jewish businesswoman Judyta Jakubowiczowa.

To our great pleasure, this issue sees the beginning of a series about German-Jewish movie history titled „Einblendungen“. Lea Wohl von Haselberg and Johannes Praetorius-Rhein are introducing the new series. The issue is completed by a presentation of the critical edition of Hannah Arendt’s works, two reports about the Foundation EVZ‘s (Erinnern-Verantwortung-Zukunft) work against antisemitism and about the new exhibitions on Anne Frank at the institutions of that name in Berlin und Frankfurt/Main and finally a number of reviews.

As always, we thank the reviewers wholeheartedly – without their help issue 26 would not have been ready now. Corrections and translations have been carried out carefully as usual by Cathleen Bürgelt, Phillip Roth and Gunther Gebhard of text plus form – we wish to express our deepest gratitude to them.

The Medaon editorial team, May 2020.

„Vielleicht sind wir aber auch nicht mehr am Leben“ – Der Bericht von Erich und Elsbeth Frey von 1942 für ihre Töchter im Exil

The blind Jewish bank employee Erich Frey, his wife Elsbeth and their daughters Liselott and Marie Anne lived in National Socialist Berlin. The children emigrated to Great Britain and to Mandatory Palestine. The parents were not able to follow them. In April and May 1942, Erich Frey, with the support of his wife, wrote a dense and descriptive report to inform the children about their life in Germany. One of the originally four versions has reached the daughters after the Second World War. Until March 1943, Erich Frey had worked  in Otto Weidt’s workshop for the blind in Berlin-Mitte, Rosenthaler Strasse 39. With deportation looming, he and his wife went underground. In the beginning of April 1944 the couple was tracked down by the Gestapo and taken to Theresienstadt. From there they were transported to Auschwitz, where they both died. Historian Kurt Schilde edited the report and researched the family history of the Freys.

„[We] have shed our European mentality“ – Identitätskonstruktionen in Memoiren aus Deutschland in die USA geflohener Jüdinnen und Juden

This article looks at memoirs written by four Jews fleeing from Germany to the USA between 1934 and 1940. The memoirs are understood as identity practices, meaning the act of writing memoirs serves to integrate different collective identities. They are aimed to bridge the divide between a German-Jewish and a U.S.-national identity, thereby constructing a biographical narrative that is coherent across time and integrated in various contexts.