I’ve posted about this twice, here and here. This is either the last or penultimate post depending on what further thoughts I have.
I had never wondered, but I should have, how the Jews of Germany and Austria were doing day to day under the Nazis before they were deported. One thing that emerges from the first sixty pages is the daily difficulties, and sometimes even actual torments, that Jews faced.
Here is one story from the author:
I refused to let the political situation keep me from my studies. I had taken both state exams and passed with high marks. One final exam and I would be a Doctor of Laws, qualified to serve not only as a lawyer but also as a judge. I felt that if I got my degree, if I was trained, qualified and certified, I would have a much easier time emigrating.
In April 1938 [DRH note: the Anschluss had happened the previous month] I went to college to pick up my final exam papers and receive the date for my doctoral exam. A young clerk there, actually someone I knew, said, “You’re not going to take the exam, Edith. You are no longer welcome at our university.” She gave me my papers and the transcript of my grades. “Goodbye.”
For almost five years I had studied law, constitutions, torts, psychology, economics, political theory, history, and philosophy. I had written papers, attended lectures, analyzed cases, studied with the judge three times a week in preparation for my PhD exam. And now they wouldn’t let me take it.
My legs buckled. I leaned on her desk for support.
“But…but…this last exam is all I need for my diploma!”
She turned her back on me. I could feel her sense of triumph, her genuine satisfaction in destroying my life. It smelled, I tell you, like sweat, like lust.