Transcript of interview with Henry and Anita Schuster by Claytee White, March-April 2011

An Interview with Henry & Anita Schuster An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ?The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2007 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Editors: Barbara Tabach and Gloria Homol Transcribers: Kristin Hicks and Laurie Boetcher Interviewers and Project Assistants: Barbara Tabach and Claytee D. White ii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer and the Library Advisory Committee. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Additional transcripts may be found under that series title. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iii Table of Contents List of Illustrations & Appendix v Preface vi Interview 1-124 Index 125-126 iv List of Illustrations Anita And Henry Schuster - 2008 Frontispiece Following Page: Ceremonies memorializing Jews who died during WWII in Germany 61 Appendix 1997 Letter - Governor's Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust 1998 Letter - Rabbi Felipe Goodman 2007 Letter - Rabbi Sanford Akelrad 2007 Certificate - Congressional Recognition from Rep. Shelley Berkley Miracles Do Happen - a story by Betty Kale, Henry Schuster's sister Hans Michel Story - by Henry Schuster v Preface In this oral history, the long married couple Henry and Anita Schuster recall the history of the 1930s and how they eventually met and created a life together. Their childhoods were distinctively different, but charter a future where they would inevitably meet. Born in Germany in 1926, Henry recalls the dawn of Hitler and the Nazism. His mother would arrange for his evacuation to France, where he would not know her fate or that of his two sisters for a number of years. Along with hundreds of other displaced children, he escaped to America and lived with relatives in Louisiana where he finished his schooling and joined the US Army. Anita on the other hand grew up with her family in New York. They share the story of meeting when she was 16, falling in love and marrying in 1948. They had four children and moved several times before settling in California. They retired to Las Vegas in 1993. Henry recollections include childhood memories of the Holocaust and its affect on his family, including the loss of his mother and one of his sisters. Finding his surviving sister Bertel (Betty Kale) after the war is a heartwarming tale of survival. The Schusters are members of the approximately 300 members of the Holocaust Survivor Group that has settled in southern Nevada and Henry is President Emeritus of the group. He published his memoir, Abraham's Son?the Making of an American in 2010. vi Anita and Henry Schuster (2008) This is Clay tee White. It is March 1st, 2011. I am in the home of Anita and Henry Schuster. Would you please pronounce your name and spell your last name for me, Henry? Henry, Dittmar is my middle name, and Schuster, S-C-H-U-S-T-E-R. And how do you spell your middle name? D-I, double T, M-A-R. I think that's right. I haven't used it for years. Okay, great. I am in the Schuster home here in Las Vegas. I want to get started with your early life. Talk about where you were born, when you were born, let me know the date as well, and tell me about your early family. Okay. I'll start telling you about the town where I was born. It is part of the province of Hesse. It was strictly a farming community. There were 1300 people, population in the town, of which a hundred were Jews. We all had a wonderful life, as life goes. I was born in 1926. I was a spoiled brat. My mother and my two sisters treated me as if I were a doll. But I was adventurous. I did a lot of things that children do, and I did some mighty dangerous things. We had a horse, we had a cow, and we had chickens, and we had the hayloft where we kept the hay. Our father could care less what was in the house, but his farm and his stables had to be spick and span. He would polish the horses' hooves. We had a beautiful carriage and a beautiful sleigh. My father traveled some with the horse in the neighboring towns to sell his wares. Many times he went further and he took a train, a local train that would stop in the town of Sterbfritz (Germany). I know he went as far as around 25 miles where he had customers. My mother operated a grocery store. It was typical like the country store, so was our country store. My mother was the most wonderful woman, just a wonderful person. I am fortunate now that I have one sister that survived the Holocaust. My other sister and my mother perished in the Holocaust. My sister that is living lives in Santa Rosa, California. She thought I was her doll. I know that because she got a hernia and everybody attributed it to the fact that she carried me around when I was a little bitty baby. So give me their names. Okay. My oldest sister's name is Bertel, B-E-R-T-E-L. She changed it to Betty once she came to this country. My other sister was Margot, M-A-R-G-O-T. She was my protector. When the 1 Nazis came into power, even a year before they came into power, the little towns were hurt the most. So was the town of Sterbfritz where I was born. We children were being stoned and beaten by the non-Jewish children. Until 1933, we had a Jewish parochial school. It was a one room schoolhouse. Once the Nazis took power they absolutely cut off all assistance for the Jews of Germany. Also, in 1935, the edict came out from the headquarters of the Nazi that no one that owes money to Jews is no longer obligated to pay them. And also the teacher in public school, for some reason or another, took it out on me. Why, I don't know. But there wasn't a day that I was not punished, being hit with his stick that he would carry around. He encouraged the rest of the children to really act against us Jewish children. I, again, feel like I was singled out because ? my sister Margot was my protector. She was three years older than I was, but she was a very brave young child. She would definitely protect me from all the punishment that was doled out by our classmates. The usual thing after World War I, it was, I would say ? what's the word I want to use? ... Anita Schuster: When people got together? Is that what you want to say? Yeah. The usual thing was that they got together, they played cards, they visited with one another, the community. So this was the way it was before. Before Hitler. And everybody in the village are friends, Jewish people and everyone? Absolutely. And also, before that we had Jewish friends, the playmates, and we had non-Jewish playmates. But once the Nazi Party came into power, things completely changed. Before that it used to be an election. The governors, the mayors, and all were national. After Hitler came and they took over, it was now a dictatorship and the individual towns were granted positions of the German government. So was the town of Sterbfritz where I was born. Hermann Goring, who was the number three man in the Nazi hierarchy, he went on a hunting trip in our area. There were a lot of wild boars. Goring came with his whole group. They were staying at an inn in a little larger town than Sterbfritz, which was about 30 miles from Sterbfritz, and they needed a weapons carrier and someone who knew the area. Well, the 2 innkeeper's son was 22 or 23 years old. They chose him to be the guide. Now, this particular young man became the mayor of the town of Sterbfritz and he had full power to do whatever he wanted to. So that's when life with the Jews completely changed. We Jewish children were forced to participate in the horrible inhumane stories - I've got to stop. This young man of 23 got the appointment of being the mayor of Sterbfritz. He was a Hitler Youth to start off with, and he was a typical Nazi. It was his privilege to punish. Anything possible, they had the Jews do. One of the things that stands out in my mind ~ one person of each and every Jewish family had to report to a certain street, which was a dirt street. They brought in a load of rocks. And the Jewish men and women were forced to spread that. I went along with my mother because my father had passed away. It was very hard work, difficult work. But at the same time, people laughed and joked about it and made the best do. Now, this mayor would encourage the teacher to punish us Jewish children. My father passed away in 1935. Before he died, fortunately he found someone who wanted to buy the grocery store. This man occupied the lower part of the building of our house, which, by the way, our house was one of the nicest in the town. My father built it in 1919. It was a three-story building. This man by the name of Kirst bought the grocery store, not living in the house yet. Maybe three or four months later he decided he wanted to take over the rest of the house. So he forced, actually with the help of the biirgermeister, forced us to move up into the third floor, which was more like an attic than anything else. My mother's brother came to visit. He was from the town of Muehlhausen, he and his son, Gunter. Here this would be Gunther. They came to visit us. My uncle was known by the Jewish people of Sterbfritz. So a lot of people wanted to come and say hello. So they came through not the store but the house entrance and go upstairs to where we were living at the time. He didn't like the idea that Jews had the audacity to walk by his apartment. He made a sign. The sign was ~ I'll say it in German. Then I'll give it to you. (Speaking German.) "The private entry for Jews is strictly prohibited." My mother, as clever as she was, she snuck down during the night and changed one letter in the word Juden. Juden is Jews. She changed the "U" in Juden to an "E." So now it was, "The private entrance for everyone is strictly prohibited." 3 He called the burgermeister, the mayor, and showed him what somebody did to his sign. So they were discussing it. I was in school. Here comes Kirst, the mayor, and the teacher. They participated in a conversation. When they opened the door for the teacher to come out, I could see those and I knew right then and there this is what's going to happen. So he questioned me. The mayor took over. He questioned me, Who changed the sign? I played dumb and I said, What sign? The first thing, the teacher gave me a good slap and says, You know who did it; you better tell us. But I was really a brave little boy and I definitely knew that if I would say my mother did it she would be taken away right then and there. So they kept questioning me over and over again and I kept doing the same thing, I don't know what you're talking about. So the teacher decided to let the class -- for the rest of the day was no more school. So the burgermeister took me by my arm. We walked to the town hall where the jail was also located. Very seldom was there anybody incarcerated. But here was an opportunity to really make a mark. So constantly beating me. Then on the way the kids would throw rocks at me and yell. The teacher made me sing the most horrible songs about the Jews. He took me after maybe I would say at least a half hour and pushed me into a room, which was attached next to his office. There was no light switch in there. So he pushed me in there. It was pitch dark. One of the Jewish classmates ran to our house and told my mother as to what happened. They were deciding what shall they do. But anyhow, I was so scared and just petrified that I constantly cried. I finally fell asleep. The next morning I begged my mother not to make ? A Jewish girl, a classmate, came running to our house to tell my mother what happened. I begged her not to make me go to school. Again, this Jewish girl came and told the story, what had happened. So my uncle who was visiting us and my mother, they decided to take me away from Sterbfritz. My uncle said he would take me home to the town where he lived. That's what we did. My mother packed a few things that I had and we left Sterbfritz. It was many, many years before I saw Sterbfritz again. Another activity what happened, it was springtime and the public swimming pool was open. So is this before you left Sterbfritz, this story? 4 Yes. This was before this business with the sign. This girl came and told my mother what happened. My uncle Moritz Steinfeld agreed to take me with him to his town. We left Sterbfritz. As I said a minute ago, I hadn't seen Sterbfritz for many, many years. But somehow or the other, my aunt, my uncle's wife, she was a convert. She was a Christian and she converted to Judaism. They lived in an apartment building. Before he had me come in to say hello to my aunt, which she was, he asked me to stay in the hallway till he goes in and tells his wife what happened, that he brought me along to be with them. Even though she had converted to Judaism, she says what? I already have three Jews in my house; I don't want another Jew. But he convinced her. So I stayed there for about six weeks. Then it came to the point where she absolutely did not want me anymore. So my mother made arrangements with a sister of my father if she would take me in. This was in a town called Burghaun, B-U-R-G-H-A-U-N. My aunt Rita was a wonderful woman. She just embraced me. I was crying. I was homesick. She embraced me. She showed me love and everything else. So life became much more pleasant for me. So your mother was able to arrange to get you moved. Yes. How did she know what you were going through? There were some people, Christians that were absolutely against the Nazis. My mother knew who they were. I assume ~ I don't know this for sure ? but I assume that my mother wrote a letter to my aunt Rita in Burghaun. I think that's how it came about. So I came to be with her. After about six months there, my cousin, my aunt's oldest son who lived in a big city in northern Germany, came to visit his mother and his brothers. He had two brothers there. He came and he drove. He worked for a department store. But the town was large enough that the businesses could be operated by only doing business with the Jewish population. One other big incident that happened, the same teacher took us to the local swimming pool. The town had a swimming pool. He got the great idea that he needed a drowning person and he wanted the older boys to go out and rescue me. I begged. I said, I can't swim. He said (speaking German.) In other words, he yelled at me that I should go into the pool. I didn't want to. So he just grabbed me and pushed me in. Then the teacher decided, okay, somebody has to go out there 5 and try to pull me in. So one of the older boys -- see, in the classroom would be three grades. So I was there in second grade and the older boys were already close to teenagers. One of those older boys somehow or the other got me out of the pool. I was lying next to the pool. I think I was unconscious. I didn't know whether I was or I wasn't, but I think I was unconscious. But this same Jewish girl that came before again came to our house. My mother and my oldest sister went out to the public pool. I was there. They saw me. I was alive, but I was full of water. Somehow or the other, I think I threw up and got rid of a lot of the water. Now comes the third big incident. Somehow these people ? my mother would write a letter and give it to one of them and they would mail it to wherever I was. While I was still in Sterbfritz, Weitling, which is the name of the teacher, decided to take the whole group out bird watching. We went out there. I remember he had his shotgun or a rifle. There was a squirrel up there. He aimed and he shot and killed the squirrel, trying to impress to everybody that he was the great teacher. On that outing he took two of us Jewish boys, me and another one whose name was Hans Stern. He was going to teach them how to tie knots with a rope. In his knapsack he had a rope. He brought it out and he told Hans and me to stand next to two trees right there. They took both of us and turned us upside down and tied us to the tree. Now, this Hans Stern lives in Rhode Island now. He was one of the kids that was tied up. When we were in Germany together to dedicate these monuments that we installed, he was there. We were talking about that particular time. So it's not something that I made up or anything. There was definitely proof to the fact. Eventually my sister Bertel got a job. Tell how you got rescued from the tree. Oh, yeah. Bertel, my oldest sister -- this same Jewish girl came and told - Bertel was already 141 think at the time. So she wasn't at school. She came and she untied Hans and me. Hans is now Henry. He changed the name. We took up our friendship again from when we were children. What was it, two years ago, five years ago we went ~ Anita: More. 2004. Seven years ago. Seven years ago. Now, Henry and I, we met. We met his wife and family. He was telling the 6 same story that I was telling. So these are facts that we have proof for that they did happen. My mother got a job to take care of an old lady. She had room and board. The lady died, so there was no more job for my mother. But my sister had gotten a job as -- what do you call that? Nursemaid. Not nursemaid. But she got a job to take care of two young boys whose parents were the directors of this Jewish old age home. So she was a nanny. A nanny. Right. Yes. My sister got a job as a nanny for these two children whose parents were just ready to migrate from Germany into South America. So she had the job. My mother through her also was hired to work as a laundress and as a cook or whatever at this old age home. The people that were at the time directors, they recognized my mother's capabilities and everything else. She recommended to the board of the Jewish community of the city of Frankfurt that she is the person that should take over the directorship of this old age home. So did your mother and sister leave Sterbfritz? Yes. My sister Bertel went to Frankfurt. She got the job there at this old age home. My sister Margot got a job as a nanny for a Jewish dentist. My mother was given the job as the director of this old age home. In the meantime, my mother tried desperately to get me into a safe situation. She was successful and I was accepted in a Jewish orphanage in the city of Frankfurt. At the old age home, my mother was director and my sister Margot also came there to the old age home to work. So they were right next door to where I was. The rear yards of both of those buildings had a wooden fence. We loosened a couple of boards so we could sneak through there. So I would go over there every day when I had some free time. My mother would feed me and I was with her and life was very pleasant. The time came in 1938 that Germany decided that all Jews whose origin was from Poland, going back to grandparents and great-grandparents who lived in Germany and had made a successful life for them, but the ruling came out that all Jews of Polish decent had to leave Germany and go to Poland. So they actually picked up every Jew that they could find and pushed 7 them into Poland. Poland didn't want them, but there was nothing else to do. So they did go to Poland. In 1938, in November, this young man who was going to school in Paris, his folks were pushed into Poland. But he was going to school and lived with his father's brother. He heard about what happened to his parents. So he decided he was going to get even. He got a gun. From where, I don't know. I don't think anybody knows. He went to the German embassy with the idea of he wanted to kill the ambassador. The ambassador was not in, but the third in the hierarchy was there. He took the gun and he shot this man by the name of Rob?I think that was his name. Whatever. It doesn't matter. That's when the program really started. That's when you had Kristallnacht. Yes. Kristallnacht is the night of the broken glass. Was that all over Germany? Yes. Yes, it was all over Germany. How did they orchestrate that? How did they program that so it could happen everywhere? The radio. The radio was a very powerful thing. Like in the town of Sterbfritz, one of the tenants in our house was an electrician. He was from some other city, but he came. They were stringing all the electric power lines into these small communities. He and his family lived on the second floor of our house. They were decent people. Whatever possibly they could do to help, they did. But if the Nazis would have known what they did, even those people would have perished. So the world finally woke up and decided we must do something with the Jewish children of Germany. England took a large quantity of around 10,000 children from Germany into England. France had I don't remember exactly how many, but in the hundreds of children they took in. Holland did. Switzerland did. Belgium did. That's the famous Kristallnacht when they burned all the synagogues. They destroyed the Holy Scriptures. They trampled on them. They defecated on them. Just anything to aggravate the whole situation. Well, several of the Gestapo, that's the secret service, and the brownshirts?they came through all the Jewish properties, confiscated everything. They had free will. They could take anything they wanted to. Well, in the orphanage where I was we had a built in synagogue, full-fledged synagogue with all the Holy Scriptures and all of that. Some elderly Jews who knew what was going on, they 8 were afraid for their lives. They came into the orphanage and asked for asylum to be accepted. Our director was smart enough that he told them don't come in here where the children are, go into our synagogue and see what happens. Well, they went into the synagogue, the Nazis. This was before they came into our dining room. They went into the synagogue. There were several Jewish men. Some had beards. I remember distinctly how they dragged one man by his beard right in front of us kids. Then when the world woke up, as I said, and took these children, I was very fortunate. I was on one of the transports to France. This was a new life. I mean we blossomed, we children. How old were you then? I was just 13. No. I was going to be 13. Anita: It was before your bar mitzvah. Yes. I was going to be 13. That's right. I think he was ten years old. When he first left with the uncle. Yes. Because he never really came back. *Well, he did for a visit one time. He came back once when this young man came to visit his mother, his aunt, he took him back. But that was a traumatic experience for him. He saw his mother and he didn't want to leave. And his mother had to make him leave because he was in danger. Henry started to tell a story about the family on the second floor. Anita: Yes. This man was an electrician. He came as an electrician to electrify the rural community. He decided he liked the community, so he stayed. He had a radio and he had communication devices because he was an electrician. So that's what he was trying to bring out. They had a radio and that radio said we will make sure that the Jews don't have anything anymore and we will destroy all the synagogues. That was the way it was proclaimed throughout the land. So people knew, everybody knew a certain night that was going to happen? Anita: That was going to happen. And then, of course, the mayor was informed and all his cohorts were informed and they were ready to do this. Now, some of the people were notified. One of his 9 cousins ? you ask him about this story. One of his cousins was notified that this is going to go down because he was a friend of all of these young men. So they told him to get out of town. So he went into the rural part in the countryside and he met a sheepherder. The guy knew him and he said look, you stay with me when they come. So he told him to lie flat on the ground. The sheep all came around him and he was in the middle. They asked, Did you see that Jew come by here? And he said, yeah, he went that way. He saved his life. So there were people that did the right thing, but not everybody did right. When we had the memorials, the ambassador that came as our keynote speaker is a friend of ours. He came to speak at this memorial. Ambassador to? He was the German ambassador to Madagascar. He was an ambassador in South America. He was an ambassador here in this country. So we know him. He told the people that were congregated for this memorial, he said, you didn't do anything bad, maybe, but you didn't do anything good, either. He told them that point blank in their faces. So this is one of theirs who told them that. So that's quite a deal. I have been to Germany many times and we have very good friends there that have been extremely helpful to us. I don't feel any animosity. Neither does Henry. Good. And Henry always says,If you hate you can't love. That's correct. Yes. And he never has had any hatred for anybody. Now, he spoke at a high school in Germany. The kids asked him after he spoke, Do you hate us? And Henry said no. Well, we don't believe you? that was their reaction. They felt so guilty that they could not believe that Henry did not hate them. After going through all of that. Yes. And he doesn't because he's a loving man. Yes. Amazing. Yes, it is amazing. I mean, of course, he faults the people who destroyed his family. But to have that hatred around your neck for all your life, you can't do that. 10 It's an amazing time, that was. You know, you see what's happening in the Middle East right now. People are rebelling against these tyrants and you want them to succeed. You want them to succeed because you feel that they should have the same privileges you have. Exactly. Yeah. We watch that. Yet, we are fearful because if they are so anti-Israel, will they want to destroy Israel? This is a problem. So you think that some of the people coming into power now ? Yes. I want to know what their feelings are. Are they still going to carry on that hatred? Are they still going to have that hatred? Yes. We fear that. We have been persecuted for many, many thousands of years. So, what else is new? Wow. Translating it. Most of them said ? you know, I would ask how much will you charge? Three to $4,000. It was out of the question. I mean we could have paid it, but we didn't want to do that. So I talked to our friend Sigrid Sommer. Sigrid was the consul for Germany here in Las Vegas. She is a fine, fine lady. We had been correspond ? relationship between us ? She's a good friend. She's a good friend. Yeah. She says you know what? There's Dr. Villanueva in the German department. Why don't you talk to him? She called him first to introduce me. I met Dan and I said how much will you charge me for doing it? He says nothing. He said it would be an honor to do it. Yeah. And believe me, it's a big job to do that. This is a very healthy sized book. Yeah. And not only that, it's an emotional book. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And the thing is you just can't put the bare facts out like that. They have to be readable. Yes. It has to be in context. Yes. Daniel did a fabulous job. He did have some help with Sigrid Sommer, more or less editing some of the things. Now I consider Daniel a good friend of ours. So does Anita. 11 Yes, I do. He's like a son of ours. Good. Good. You see that E-mail there of all of the things. He segregated it. I have a lot, lot more. Philadelphia has a new Jewish museum. They would like to have whatever they can get. I would much prefer, if UNLV is interested, to give it to UNLV. Now, it's a lot of paper, not only my and Anita's life but life in general, how it affects the Jews in the United States. Then with this Cuban situation, the people had a visa to go to Cuba from Germany. They took a ship ? are you familiar with that? No. It was a ship of 900 people who had the money. [St. Louis, German transatlantic line episode.] So all 900 were from the same place? All 900 came from the same area? I don't think so. I think throughout. A lot of children were on there, too. Well, they had the visas to go. So when they came to Havana, they wouldn't let them get off the ship. It built from nothing to a big story. Roosevelt was afraid. He didn't intervene at all. But Mrs. Roosevelt. In the papers that I have here is -- so they tried to come to the United States. It just so happened that the captain of that German passenger ship was a very humane, very fine man. The ship went up and down the East Coast, hoping that the State Department would allow these people to come in. They did take the children. Part of the story when we record I will tell you how that happened. But Roosevelt absolutely would not. The State Department was worse. Part of my story is my dealing with the State Department. I mean those things you'll see in the book. It's all of that. But anyhow, we can continue now. There were 11 of us from Frankfurt from the orphanage that were on a children's transport from Germany to France. I was one of the 11. Madame Rothschild greeted us. She made us welcome in France. Then there was an organization called OSE. They established several homes for refugee children to come and live. I was fortunate to be part of that group. That's how I came to the United States. So how long were you in France? Two years. What was the living situation like? For most in France was good. It was. First of all, we had plenty to eat. There was not only the 11 12 of us from Frankfurt. There were kids from Vienna. There were kids from Berlin and kids from Czechoslovakia and all of that that came. So which city in France were you? We were in Paris. In the meantime, these homes were established by this organization, the OSE. What does that stand for? I don't know how to say that in French. They had two homes. One was for little kids and the other group was for children who came from orthodox Jewish homes. I was one from the orthodox Jewish home. We had a great life, believe me. We had ball games. We had dances. We had plenty of food. We were just greeted by the neighboring people that lived near these homes. All together I think there were around 600 children that they established. When the time came that things were going to go from bad to worse, even in France, the OSE did a fabulous job of taking us children from the various homes into unoccupied France. There was the war between Germany and France, and England was there. They did a fabulous job situating us in free France. We had plays. We had all kinds of ball games. We did not have official schooling. There were a few who went to the French schools and then they established trade schools. They offered for the boys cabinet making, woodworking, and for the girls knitting and sewing. The war between France and Germany started. Everybody wanted to ~ the Germans were going to Paris. This is Claytee White. I am again in the home of Anita and Henry Schuster. It is March 3rd, 2011. Mr. Schuster is going to start right now by telling us a little more about the teacher that he talked about the other day. Once the Jewish school was closed ? the reason this Jewish school had to be closed was because in Germany at the time all schools were subsidized by the federal government. Naturally, being such horrendous anti-humanity - let's put it that way ~ we had to attend the public school. Now, the teacher by the name of Weitling, before the Nazis came