Essay, Eyewitness to History by Alexander Kuechel

Eyewitness to history: Alexander Kuechel remembers Kristallnacht I was born in Berlin, Germany and was14 years old on the night of Kristallnacht. An Aryan (German, not Jewish) neighbor knocked on our door and told us not to go out because something terrible would happen. I didn?t listen. I had no fear. There was no particular reason for me to be afraid at that time so I went out onto the streets. There was a store named Wertheim. It was a well known textile store where you could buy material for suits and dresses. Stars of David were drawn on the store and the words ?don?t buy from Jews? were written on the building. There was a synagogue nearby where I went to school. It was on Ryke Strasse and it was a private Jewish school. Before Hitler came to power I attended the public school but the Nazis put an end to that and I was forced to go to a school for Jews. A small police station was right next door. They synagogue was vandalized but not burned. It probably wasn?t burned because it was so close to the police station and apartment houses. Other than this I didn?t personally see much on the streets that night. I later learned about synagogues in other areas being burned. The SA had gone crazy over Berlin and Jews were beaten and taken away to Oranienburg and stores had been vandalized. I saw my father get arrested and taken away. I didn?t really understand and there was nobody for us to talk to about what was happening. My mother tried to go to the police station to see my dad and bring him some clothes. My parents were originally from Poland. On Kristallnacht my father was arrested and put in the small police station next to the synagogue. We later learned he had been sent to Poland but the Poles didn?t want to accept my father and other Jews who had been left in a no-man?s land on the border. He was stuck between Germany and Poland for a few months. He was finally able to get to the Polish town Zb?szy? I remained with my mother and older sister in Berlin. A few months later, in February of 1939, I was packed to go to Palestine with the Youth Aliyah. Our local Zionist (Zionism) leader came to my mother and asked if I would forfeit my certificate to Palestine to someone who had been arrested on Kristallnacht and sent to a concentration camp. In order to be released from the concentration camp you had to promise to leave Germany. German Jewish refugees trying to get permission to go to Palestine (USHMM) I was promised another certificate to Palestine or a place on a Kindertransport to England. At that time it was possible for a limited number of children to go to England. We agreed. At the time my mother was concerned about my sister who had become engaged to a Jewish man. My sister and her man tried to go illegally to Switzerland but they were not admitted. Instead they left Germany for Antwerp, Belgium. By 1942 my sister was married and had a son. On August 8th of that year she and her family were sent to Maline, a former barracks for soldiers, and then to Auschwitz. I learned this after the war. But when my sister left Germany I remained in Berlin with my mother. In June 1939 the Gestapo came and closed our apartment and we were ordered to leave Germany with one suitcase and 10 Reichmarks. 5 Reichmark bill We crossed into Poland, went to Zb?szy?, found my father, and the three of us together went to Krakow. I was in Poland when the paperwork came in for me to go to England on a Kindertransport. I was waiting for my passport when the war broke out and I got stuck in Poland. I was in seven concentration camps and am the sole survivor of my family.