Rachel Dror
Rachel Dror | |
---|---|
Born | Rachel Zipora Lewin January 19, 1921 Germany |
Occupation(s) | Policewoman Special needs teacher Holocaust witness Campaigner for Mutual Jewish-Christian tolerance |
Children | 2 |
Rachel Zipora Dror (
Life
Provenance and early years
Rachel Lewin was born in the
The Hitler difference
Rachel would later look back on an idyllic childhood, prematurely ended when the
Apprenticeship
In 1935 she embarked on an apprenticeship for work as a seamstress. In March 1936 she concluded that the intensification of
"Poland Action"
On 28 October 1938 a member of the group called Wolfgang Drechsler, whom one source describes as Rachel Lewin's boyfriend, was arrested and swiftly deported.
"Pogrom night"
Two weeks later came Pogrom Night (often identified in English language sources as "Kristallnacht"), during which, over in Königsberg, her parents' property was destroyed or plundered[2] in a national government-directed anti-Jewish pogrom. Rachel Lewin slept through the night untroubled in her aunt's house. The next morning, however, she witnessed Jews being beaten up and chased through the Hamburg streets by Nazi paramilitaries. Unsure what was going on, she pushed her way through the crowd gathering at the newsstand on which newspapers were piled up, showing photographs of the overnight campaign of arson, looting and bloodshed. The news vendor, whom till now had always seemed a friendly soul, spotted her, and giving a fair rendering of the Berlin dialect snarled, "So, little Jew, do you too want to see how your synagogues burned?"[a] The memory of that morning would never leave her. When she returned to her aunt's house, her aunt was able to tell her more about what had happened. Most of the teachers and some of the students at the Grindel Talmud Tora School at which Flora Rosenbaum taught had already been arrested. Desperately worried about her family, Rachel Lewin managed to contact her father who ordered her to come home. When she reached Königsberg she found her parents living with her younger brother, Abraham, in the small apartment to which they had been forced to move. Abraham had been so traumatised by the violence and destruction he had witnessed that he had acquired a sudden and severe speech impediment. Meanwhile, her father carried the recent scars of a serious head injury which, she learned, had been inflicted using the handle of an oven.[1]
Escape
It would be another seventeen years before she would find out what had happened to her parents. Avraham Lewin, her younger brother, was rescued and escaped in 1940 on the last Kindertransport. He survived for nearly ten years in England and then emigrated to become a founder member of the Kibbutz Lavi in northern Israel.[2][10] There was no Kindertransport for her parents, who had belatedly applied for permission to emigrate to Palestine. But for British officials, to whom that Hugo and Erna Lewin were classified as Germans, there could be no question of their application to emigrate to "British" Palestine being considered.[9]
Palestine
Her parents no longer had money: the ticket money necessary for the journey to Palestine had been sent over by her father's youngest sister,[11] who had been living in Palestine since 1913.[12] On her arrival in Haifa Rachel Lewin was therefore not completely alone, and for some time she lived with her Aunt Anna.[12] Early on during her time in Palestine/Israel she studied at an agriculture college.[13]
Israel
The state of Israel was proclaimed during 1948, and in the same year Rachel Lewin joined the Israeli police service.[8] According to her own later recollection she thereby became Israel's first policewoman.[12] The only available alternative would have been to join the Israeli army, but an uncle had recommended that she should rather join the police.[11] Her responsibilities included road safety.[14] Duties extended to traffic safety training in 25 schools.[14]
Rachel Lewin became Rachel Dror when she married in 1951. At the time when they met, her future husband was working as a transport engineer in the north of the country.[11] Sources are resolutely silent about his identity, but it is known that Rachel Dror's daughter was born in 1952.[14] Elsewhere she is described as the mother of two children.
Shortly after the birth of her daughter in 1952 Rachel Dror and her husband took a walk in downtown Haifa, intending to enjoy a night out. They were approached by a woman: "You're Hugo Lewin's daughter", she stated (correctly). The strange woman recognised Rachel from a photograph that Hugo Lewin had kept in his pocket, and insisted on showing as many people as he could, while being taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The woman was able to tell Rachel what had happened to her parents.[2] Hugo and Erna Lewin escaped to Italy in 1940, which at that time was politically allied to Germany. There they were able to hide in Italy between March 1940 and February 1944.[11] By 1944 Italy was no longer militarily engaged as a German ally, and the Germany army, having asserted military control over the country, was fighting a grim rear-guard action in the context of civil war and an Anglo-American offensive from the south. It was in this confused context that Hugo and Erna Lewin were found by a German soldier who placed them on a train back to Germany. Their journey ended at the Auschwitz death camp.[2][11] Here their train was met by the camp doctor Josef Mengele who identified and separated out those deemed fit for work from those whom he thought unfit. Erna Lewin was already clearly in poor health and she was sent with the unfit prisoners while Hugo was sent in the other direction with those destined for manual work. He, however, refused to be separated from his wife, with the result that both Hugo and Erna Lewin were murdered very soon after their arrival at the camp.[8]
A new kind of Germany
In 1957 Rachel Dror returned to Europe with her family on "health grounds".
Witness and engagement
Many of Rachel Dror's relatives were murdered and / or bereaved through the
Along with her presentations, she also involves herself in Christian-Jewish and Christian-Israeli projects[12] and is a frequent presence at the Stuttgart synagogue, giving presentation on contemporary Jewish life in Germany, and providing ad hoc guided tours.[20]
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lennart Bohne (2016-09-22). ""Nach Palästina!" Bemerkungen zum lebensgeschichtlichen Videointerview mit Rachel Dror". Hamburger Schlüsseldokumente zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte (in German). Retrieved 2019-07-18.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Carola Eissler (17 March 2014). "Eine 93-Jährige und ihre Botschaft an die Jugend". Auf einer Straße in Haifa erfuhr sie sieben Jahre nach Kriegsende, was mit ihren Eltern in Auschwitz geschehen war. Die 93-jährige Rachel Dror war vor einigen Tagen als Zeitzeugin zu Gast in der Uhlandschule. Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH (Südwest Presse), Göppingen. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f Dominik Both (compiler). "Rachel Dror". Biographische Notiz. Gesellschaft für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit Stuttgart e.V. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ^ "100. Geburtstag von Rachel Dror" (in German). Baden-Wüerttemberg.de. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
- ^ Michael Hermann Leiserowitz (compiler) (October 1893). "Erna Lewin (Rosenbaum)". geni.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ Natalie Kanter (17 January 2014). "Geschichte wider das Vergessen". Zeitzeugen-Gespräch. Stuttgarter Nachrichten Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ^ "Die Abschiebung polnischer Juden aus dem Deutschen Reich 1938/1939 und ihre Überlieferung". Gedenkbuch: Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945. Koblenz: Bundesarchiv. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ^ a b c Bernd Zeyer (13 December 2017). "Eine Zeitzeugin als Geschichtslehrerin". Der Jüdin Rachel Dror gelang es, den Holocaust zu überleben. Ihre Eltern wurden im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz ermordet. In der Rilke-Realschule hat die 96-Jährige von ihrem Leben während der NS-Zeit und danach berichtet. Stuttgarter Zeitung Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Mark Schenkel (3 May 2010). "Knapp entkommen und doch zurückgekehrt". Pattonville Rachel Dror sprach mit Schülern der Realschule Pattonville über ihre Erlebnisse zur Zeit des Holocausts. Stuttgarter Nachrichten Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ "Weitere versteckte Geschichtsbücher". Jews in East Prussia. Verein zur Geschichte und Kultur e.V. (Juden in Ostpreussen), Berlin. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g Antje Schmid (16 October 2008). "Ich sage immer, was ich denke". Rachel Dror war Israels erste Polizistin. Heute lebt sie in Stuttgart. Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland K.d.ö.R. (Jüdische Allgemeine), Berlin. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Nadja Golitschek (2 November 2014). "Synagogenführerin aus Leidenschaft". Trotz ihres hohen Alters macht die 1921 in Königsberg geborene Rahel Dror, für ihre Verdienste um die christlich-jüdische Zusammenarbeit mit der Otto-Hirsch-Medaille ausgezeichnet, solche Führungen nach wie vor mit Leidenschaft – und aus Verantwortung der jungen Generation gegenüber. Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg, Stuttgart. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Josef Staudinger (7 November 2008). "Die Erinnerung wachhalten". Zeitzeugin der Judenverfolgung berichtet aus ihrem Leben. Heilbronner Stimme GmbH & Co. KG. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ )
- ^ a b c Mathias Bartels. "Eine Frau, die weiss, was sie will" (PDF). Schloss-Schule Kirchberg. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ "Die Zeitzeugin". Jugendstiftung Baden-Württemberg, Sersheim. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ a b Esther Braunwarth, Coburg (19 November 2009). "Interview vom 5. Januar 2007 mit Rachel Dror, Leiterin des Erzieherausschusses der GcjZ Stuttgart" (PDF). Der christlich jüdische Dialog in Deutschland am Beispiel der Gesellschaftenfür christliche-jüdische Zusammenarbeit (GcjZ). Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen. pp. 342–344. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ "Traueranzeige Heinz Lauber" (PDF). Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ a b Hartmut Volk (22 March 2013). "92-jährige Rachel Dror berichtet in Kirchberg über jüdische Sitten und Gebräuche". Auf lebendige und anschauliche Weise berichtete die 92-jährige Rachel Dror, die als Jüdin vor den Nazis nach Palästina flüchtete, in der Kirchberger "fabrik" über "Jüdische Sitten und Gebräuche". Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH (Südwest Presse), Göppingen. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ Oliver Stenzel (6 November 2013). "Juden sind wie alle Menschen – es gibt viele verschiedene". Vor 75 Jahren brannte in der Reichspogromnacht auch die Stuttgarter Synagoge. Stolpersteine erinnern uns heute an die von den Nazis ermordeten Juden. Über die bereits 1945 neu gegründete jüdische Gemeinde wissen indes die wenigsten etwas. Wobei sich längst nicht alle Stuttgarter Juden über die Glaubensgemeinschaft definieren. Verein für ganzheitlichen Journalismus e. V. (Kontext: Wochenzeiting), Stuttgart. Retrieved 2 April 2020.