The Kristallnacht: One Boy's Story revisited.

Monday, November 9 is the seventy-seventh anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust.  This post is in remembrance of the night that changed life for Jews in Germany and Europe.

Late in the afternoon in Trier Germany,  November 9, 1938, there was a bang on the door on the Klepper home.  Outside were 5-6 young men in their late teens and early twenties who pushed Otille Klepper aside and barged in. Her husband wasn't home, she was with her small son and their maid Anna.   The men were armed with large sticks and tire irons.  As they pushed past Frau Klepper, they hit the mirror of the hall tree, just inside the front door and shattered it.  Frau Klepper grabbed her five year old son, Manfred and ran out the back door, down the stairs and into the cellar.  They were joined by Anna and the upstairs neighbors. Otille locked the cellar door from the inside, and waited.

The Klepper family about 1934.   Otille, Manfrred, Charlotte and Moritz.

Kristallnacht, November 9 and 10, 1938, the night of the broken glass, marked the beginning of the Holocaust.  On the night of November 9, gangs of young men broke into and destroyed the homes of Jewish families all over Germany. On November 10, Jewish Temples and businesses were destroyed.

Manfred,  known today as Manny, heard the furniture being thrown around and glass breaking in their home for what seemed like hours.  The noise let up for a few minutes then the gang went up the stairs and destroyed the neighbor's home.  After about 40-45 minutes, the noise stopped.    Frau Klepper and her neighbor unlocked the door and went upstairs.  When they entered the Klepper home, she exclaimed, "Our place is a total disaster and so is our neighbors."    The floor was covered with broken glass and dishes, not a single dish was left.  Their dining room  buffet had glass doors, which were shattered, the drawers were pulled out and the silverware was dumped on the floor.   The furniture was broken, the beds were ripped apart, Glass shelves in the bedroom were torn down and the china and glass figurines were thrown on the floor and smashed to pieces. Nothing  was usable. The Klepper home was uninhabitable.

Shortly after the noise stopped, there was a knock on the back door. Mrs Klepper slowly opened the door and saw four nuns from the Convent behind the Klepper's home. As she let them in, they said that they had heard the noise, and wondered what happened. They took a look around and left. Soon  four more nuns came in with brooms, shovels and buckets.  Manny's mother, her neighbor and the nuns began to clean up the mess.  It took them all night and part of the next day to clear out the debris from the two homes.  Manny and the neighbor children stayed in the cellar while the cleanup was taking place.  When the  two places were cleaned up, the nuns brought  food and new dishes for the families.

Trier is one of the oldest cities in Europe. The Porta Negra is an ancient Roman building in Trier.

Manfred Klepper,  Manny, as he is known today, was born in Trier on November 18, 1931.  He lived with his family Mering, a small village outside of Trier, where they owned a general store. Most of his family was in the farming business, one side of the family raised cattle, the other side owned vineyards. 
In 1937, Manny and his parents moved into to Trier. They lost their business to the Nazis, so they moved in with the grandparents. Since the Nazi party and Hitler took control of Germany in 1933, life for the Jews became difficult.  There were boycotts of Jewish businesses and Jewish people were continually harassed.  In 1937, a large Nazi Rally was held in Trier making their  situation more and more dangerous.   The Kleppers had relatives in the United States, so they decided to  leave  Germany and come to America.  But US foreign policy made it difficult for Jews to get permission to immigrate and it often took a long time to get the paper work together.  Manny's grandparents' and sister's papers came through first, and they left Germany in 1938.

Nazi Rally in Trier, 1937

Manny Klepper is my brother-in-law.  He frequently  speaks about his Kristallnacht experiences  in  Lousiana.  His story continues in my next blog entry: After the Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht: One Boy's Story--An Education Lost and Found

The Klepper Family, Ottilie, Manfred, Charlotte, Moritz

Nothing was going well in Mehring for the Klepper family. Mehring was the home of the Klepper family, a village on the Mosel River, near the city of Trier in western Germany. The Klepper’s, Ottile and Moritz, their children, Charlotte and Manfred were Jewish with deep roots in the Mosel region.  They ran a general store in the village, a business once owned by Ottille’s first husband. He fought for Germany and was wounded in World War I, but that meant nothing to the Nazi controlled government that ran Mehring.  It took the Klepper’s home and store so the family moved into a building owned by Otillie’s parents in Trier.  

 

Merhring (in red) is on the Mosel River, in western Germany

Ever since Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control of the government in 1933, everyday life was getting more and more difficult for the Jewish people of Germany. The Great Depression caused serious world wide economic problems, which lead to the election that gave control of the government of Germany to the Nazi party in 1933.  Democracy ended in Germany when Hitler became Chancellor.  Germany was divided into districts, each one headed by a person appointed by and responsible only to Hitler.

Changes came quickly. In 1933, the owners of the Kaufhaus Hass, a fashion house in Trier, Albert and Max Haas, were taken into “protective custody” and later jailed.  Members of the Communist and Social Democratic political parties were arrested and tortured. Jewish businesses were boycotted and Jewish children were harassed in school. The goal of Gustav Simon, the Nazi appointed director of Trier, was to make the area a model of the Nazi state. In 1937 Hitler visited Trier, the name of the square around the Porta Nigra, built by the Romans, was changed from the Porta Nigra Platz to the Adolph Hilter Platz.  By then all Catholic youth organizations were banned and Jewish children were not allowed in public schools. By November of 1938, all Jewish owned businesses were “aryanized.”  The local police were replaced by the SS and Gestapo, members of the Nazi Party; the SS wearing brown shirts, the Gestapo wearing blue.

 

Nazi Rally in Trier, 1937

Jewish families began to leave Trier, when the Nazis came to power, some moved to Holland, others left for the United States.  Otille’s sister and brother-in-law left for Chicago in 1935.  It was getting harder and harder for Jews to get exit papers from the German government and difficult to get residence visas from foreign governments. After a long wait, Otilie’s parents and sister got their papers and left Trier for the United States in 1938.  The Kleppers had applied for exit visas and permits to immigrate to the United States, but nothing had worked out yet.

Manfred Klepper turned six in November 1938.  He should have been in school, but no Jewish children were allowed in public school.  Synagogues stepped in and expanded their religious schools to teach Jewish children regular school subjects.  This ended on November 9, 1938, the first day of the Kristallnacht, “The Night of the Broken Glass.”  After that, it was  too dangerous to leave the house.  Manfred’s mother left only to visit the City Hall to check on the status of the family’s exit papers. His father Moritz disappeared. All the shopping and errands were taken care of by Anna, the family housekeeper.  She became their link to the outside world.
Read Manfred's eye witness story of the Kristallnacht

 

News off the Kristallnacht in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov, 1938

 A small school with only three pupils was started in the Klepper home. Ottilie and the woman upstairs who lived upstairs were the teachers, with assistance from the Sisters from the convent behind their house.  The Sisters gave the assignments to Anna and came over at night to teach reading, writing and math.  They brought books for the children to read, textbooks and school supplies.  When the assignments were completed, Anna took them over to the convent to be marked.  This continued for a year, until 1940 when the Klepper’s exit papers finally came through and they were able to leave Germany. By the end of that year, Manfred could read and write German and had mastered the basics of math.

 

Kristallnacht--One Boy's Story

Late afternoon, Trier Germany,  November 9, 1938 . There was a bang on the door on the Klepper home.  Outside were 5-6 young men in their late teens and early twenties who  pushed Otille Klepper aside and barged in. Her husband wasn't home, she was alone with her small son.   The men were armed with large sticks and tire irons.  They broke the mirror of the hall tree, just inside the front door.  Frau Klepper grabbed her five year old son, Manfred and ran out the back door, down the stairs and into the cellar.  They were joined by the upstairs neighbors.  She locked the cellar door from the inside, and waited.

Kristallnacht, November 9 and 10, 1938 is sometimes called the beginning of the Halocaust.  On the night of November 9, gangs of young men broke into and destroyed the homes of Jewish families all over Germany. On November 10, Jewish Temples and businesses were destroyed. Kristallnacht means night of the broken glass in German.

Manfred,  now today known as Manny, heard the furniture being thrown around and glass breaking in their home for what seemed like hours.  The noise let up for a few minutes when the gang went up the stairs and destroyed the neighbor's home.  After about 40-45 minutes, the noise stopped.    Mrs Klepper and her neighbor unlocked the door and went upstairs.  When they entered the Klepper home, she said "Our place is a total disaster and so is our neighbors."    There was broken glass and dishes everywhere.  Since the Kleppers kept Kosher, they had three sets of dishes, not a single dish was left.  Their built-in dining room  buffet had glass doors, which were shattered, the drawers were pulled out and the silverware was dumped on the floor.  Not a single dish or glass was usable.  The furniture was broken, the beds were ripped apart, Glass shelves in the bedroom were torn down and the China and glass figurines were thrown on the floor and smashed to pieces.  The bedposts were broken. The place was uninhabitable.

There was a Catholic Convent and Orphanage, St Paulin, behind the Klepper home.  Shortly after the noise stopped, four nuns from the Convent knocked on the door, said that they had heard the noise, and wondered what happened.  After taking a look around they left and came back with four more nuns who brought brooms, shovels and buckets with them.    Manny's mother, her neighbor and the nuns began to clean up the mess.  It took them all night and part of the next day to clear out the debris from the two homes.  Manny and the neighbor children stayed in the cellar while the cleanup was taking place.  After the  two places were cleaned up, the nuns brought dishes and food for the families. 

The Porta Negra, an ancient Roman building in Trier

Manfred Klepper, Manny, as he is known, was born in Trier on November 18, 1931.  His parents lived in Mering, a small village outside of Trier, where they owned a general store. Most of his family was in the farming business, one side of the family raised cattle, the other side owned vineyards.  His grandparents lived in the city of Trier.  In 1937, Manny and his parents moved into their home in Trier.  Since the Nazi party and Hitler took control of Germany in 1933, life for the Jews became difficult.  There were boycotts of Jewish businesses and Jewish people were continually harassed.  In 1937, a large Nazi Rally was held in Trier.  The situation was getting more and more dangerous.   The Kleppers had relatives in the United States, so they decided to leave their home in Germany and come to America.  US foreign policy made it difficult for Jews to get permission to immigrate and it often took a long time to get the paper work together.  Manny's grandparents' and sister's papers came through first, and they left Germany in 1938.

Nazi Rally in Trier, 1937

  Manny Klepper is my brother-in-law.  He speaks about his Kristallnacht experiences  in his community.  His story continues in my next blog entry.