Abridged Excerpts from Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany by Nathan Stoltzfus W
Abridged Excerpts from Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany by Nathan Stoltzfus W. W. Norton, 1996, © Nathan Stoltzfus, 1996 Introduction__________________________________ Berlin, February 27, 1943 Hours before first light, a battalion of SS men, local Gestapo agents, and street policemen fanned out [1] across Berlin in a fleet of 300 trucks, to capture the city's last, unsuspecting Jews. Leading the charge was the Leibstandarte Hitler, an SS unit of select tall, blond soldiers whose small advances against the Red Army had briefly fanned hopes of German victory, in a time when the Wehrmacht was largely in retreat. [2] Some of the SS troops on Berlin's streets this morning wore the decorations of valor in war. But their mandate this Saturday was to make Berlin "free of Jews." Jews still working in armaments factories, as well as intermarried Jews, were the primary targets. In black uniforms and steel helmets, armed with bayoneted rifles and machine guns, the SS cast a grim image intended to put fear in the heart of anyone who might protest or complain about the arrest of these last, relatively well-connected Jews of Berlin. The Gestapo's code name for this massive arrest (which has often been called the Factory Action) was the "Final Roundup [3] of the Jews," and for thousands, this was the beginning of the end. Without warning or explanation, the SS and Gestapo fell upon the work benches of the "Jewish crews," driving them without onto the waiting furniture trucks. The victims, clad in thin work aprons, were not allowed the time to pick up their winter coats or their homemade breakfasts and lunches.
[Show full text]