Biographical essay by Alexander Kuechel, 2014

Alex Kuechel I was born in Berlin, Germany. My parents were originally from Poland. My father was a manufacturer of men?s clothing. I had a sister who was three years older than me. I went to a Christian school which I was forced to leave so I attended private Jewish school on Rykestrasse. Behind our building was the largest synagogue in Germany. Rykestrasse Synagogue In the afternoon I went to the Talmud Torah. I belonged to a Zionist organization, Maccabi Hatzair . 500,000 Jews lived in Berlin. They were German citizens and resided in Germany for many generations. Most of them did not believe what Hitler promised in his book (Mein Kampf ). They thought the anti-Semitism will pass. In 1933 Jewish people started to leave. It was very difficult. No one wanted the Jews. Breckinridge Long, from the State Department, a virulent anti-Semite, gave a directive to all the consulates in Europe, to make it very difficult to immigrate to the USA. 90% of the quotas were left open. Shanghai was the only country one could go to without a visa. The world did not care about the Jewish people and their plight and Hitler saw they were expendable. October 5, 1938?following a request by the Swiss authorities, Germany marked all Jewish passports with a large letter J to restrict Jews from immigrating to Switzerland. October 28: 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany were expelled and my father was among them. He was first taken to a small police station near my school. I recall my mother bringing him some clothing. Then 8,000 were stranded in the frontier village of Zb?szy?. The Poles refused to admit the Jews. November 9, 2938: I was 14 years old. I remember our neighbor knocking at our door telling us that something terrible would happen the next day and we should not leave the premises. Kristallnacht , Night of Broken Glass: anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria and the Sudentenland. 200 synagogues destroyer, 7,500 Jewish shops looted, Jewish men sent to concentration camps Dacha, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. A one billion mark fine was leveled against German Jews for the destruction of property during Kristallnacht. A sad day for humanity. At the time my mother was concerned about my sister who had become engaged to a Jewish man. She urged them to leave Germany. They tried to go to Switzerland but were denied entry because of the J in their passports. They went to Antwerp, Belgium and then Brussels. They got married and had a son. In August 1942 they were sent to Maline, an old army barracks, and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they all perished. I remained with my mother in Berlin. March 1939: I was packed to go to Palestine with the Youth Aliyah. Our Zionist leader came to my mother and asked if I would forfeit my certificate so someone could be released from a concentration camp. I was promised another certificate to Palestine or place on a kindertransport to England. In June 1939 we received notice to meet at the Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof train station to be sent to Poland. We had one suitcase and ten Reichsmarks. We were reunited with my father and we went to Krak?w and then to Chrzan?w, a shtetl 20 kilometers from Auschwitz. (O?wi?cim) A few weeks before the war started I received my papers to go to England with the Kindertransport. While waiting for my passport I got stuck in Poland. In 1942 the small town of Chrzan?w was cleared of Jews. They were sent to Auschwitz. My parents were among them. Jewish prisoners descending from the cattle cars in Auschwitz-Birkenau I survived seven concentration camps and am the sole survivor of my family. Shalom.