Hans Frankenthal
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Jew who was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
in occupied Poland in 1943. Having survived the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
along with his brother Emil, Frankenthal returned to his home in Germany where he experienced the common disbelief and denial of Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
war crimes.
Frankenthal eventually put his biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
to paper in the 1990s in his book Verweigerte Rückkehr which was published half a year before his death. The English edition was published in 2002 under the title The Unwelcome One: Returning Home from Auschwitz.
Childhood
Frankenthal was born into a family of prominent Jewish butchers in SchmallenbergSchmallenberg
Schmallenberg is a town in the district of Hochsauerland. Relating to its area of 188 square miles it is the largest town belonging to an administrative Kreis in the federal state of North Rhine/Westphalia, Germany....
, Province of Westphalia
Province of Westphalia
The Province of Westphalia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was a client state of the First French Empire from 1807 to 1813...
. In the Frankenthal home the Jewish religion was strictly followed mainly due to the Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
traditions of Frankenthal's mother, Adele Frankenthal. In the village of Schmallenberg there was a strong Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, mainly Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, presence.
After Jewish businesses began to be boycotted following the Nazi Party's seizure of power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
in 1933, the Frankenthal family was no longer able to properly provide themselves with basic necessities. Due to attempts to get around the new laws through extensive contacts in the German community, the Frankenthal family received several visits from the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
to investigate their ongoing commercial activities. The contacts themselves were also running a great risk in that the names of so-called "Traitors to the People and State" were published in the Nazi newspaper Rote Erde ("Red Earth"). To avoid being seen, the farmers preferred to trade at night; however, after the curfew for Jews was enacted, this was no longer possible.
Frankenthal's father, Max Frankenthal, believed that the Nazis would not harass his family to a large extent because he was a decorated soldier in the First World War. Max Frankenthal was awarded the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
Second Class for his service during the war, having reached the rank of sergeant, and was a member of the veterans' union after the war. He took part in the erection of the first war memorial for the fallen soldiers from Schmallenberg.
Discrimination prior to the Holocaust
In 1937 Max Frankenthal was arrested after allegations from German farmers in FriedeburgFriedeburg
Friedeburg is a municipality in the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 14 km southeast of Wittmund, and 20 km west of Wilhelmshaven....
that he had attempted to manipulate the weighing scale in order to haggle the price of stock down. He was only held for several hours because the owner of the scales spoke out in his defence. This was, however only the first of several groundless arrests that were used to intimidate the Jewish community of Schmallenberg. The charges ranged from claims of theft to Rassenschande
Rassenschande
Rassenschande or Blutschande was the Nazi term for sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans, which was punishable by law...
(crimes against race).
On 10 November 1938, the local synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
was burnt down and most of the Jews were arrested. All over the village Jewish homes were raided and vandalised. The Nazis dubbed the country-wide event "Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
". The women and children were released the same day, but the men remained in custody in a shelter for the homeless. The families of those still in custody were able to bring food to their loved ones until the inmates were transferred to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
jail in nearby Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
. The Jews remaining in Schmallenberg were then forced to sign over the title deeds of their property with the promise that it would bring their husbands and sons back. During the Kristallnacht, only one German in Schmallenberg is known to have protested. Dina Falke stood on the street and asked the SA troopers what the Jews had ever done to them until she was silenced by worried family members. Several citizens actively aided the SA in destroying Jewish property and raiding Jewish Homes. Robert Krämer allegedly helped the SA by providing straw to set the synagogue in flames.
On 28 November, the Jewish men were allowed to return home. They had been transferred from the jail in Dortmund to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
near Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Max Frankenthal had to sign his agreement of the selling of his land to the Arisierung program. This program involved the confiscation of Jewish-owned property for the fictitious Aryan master race
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
. In addition to the confiscation of their property, the Jewish men had to prove that they would leave the country within several weeks, or face the penalty of returning to the concentration camps, this time with their families. Max Frankenthal tried to begin plans for the family's emigration, but eventually was unable to come up with money, and was still convinced that the Nazis would not continue their harassment of his family.
At this point the Nazis began to make life for the Jews even harder. They implemented Arbeiteinsätze, in which the Jews were forced to work on projects such as digging ditches to hold water for fighting fires in the upcoming war. Max Frankenthal worked in a factory owned by a friend where he avoided exploitation until the factory was no longer able to hold forced labourers. He and his brother, Emil Frankenthal, were then sent to work for the city, where Emil died of a stroke. The German government ceased to recognise the citizenship of Jews and forced them to add the name Sara to all female names and Israel to all male names.
As the school in Schmallenberg was now closed to Jewish children, Frankenthal and his brother began attending classes at a workshop in Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
where they learnt hand skills, foreign languages and were educated in Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
. In May 1941 this workshop was closed by the Dortmund Gestapo and the students were forced to work for the state. Frankenthal and his brother began work for a roadworks company named Lahrmann. He later learnt that his father also worked in the same work party.
Deportation
On 28 February 1943, the construction site manager informed the workers that they would be required to report to the former Jewish school in Dortmund for the checking of their work papers. Upon their arrival they were placed under arrest and then held for several days before being loaded into cattle transport wagons and sent east.Frankenthal, and several others of those arrested, received an order from one of the officers who was in charge of the troopers to pack the Jews' luggage into several wagons. At a train station in Bielefeld
Bielefeld
Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...
, Frankenthal noticed that these wagons were no longer attached to the train. Because his father had already been detained in a concentration camp, Frankenthal asked what was going on. His father informed him that they would not require their luggage at their destination.
During the journey the inmates’ food and water rations were simply cancelled, and several of the older ones did not survive. After spending three days and three nights in the train, the arrested Jews arrived in the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
complex.
Internment
As the family arrived at the camp, Max Frankenthal told his two sons that he was sure that he would not survive the ordeal, and that should they get out, to go back to Schmallenberg. The Jews were then ordered to exit the train onto the ramp. The women on the left, the men on the right, and any women with children on the far left.In the confusion the two sons lost their parents, who they later learned were sent directly to the gas chambers
Gas Chambers
Gas Chambers is a fast, hollow and shallow point break type of wave. Being that it is a high performance wave it is well suited for the average to pro level surfer. Gas Chambers is located on the North Shore of Oahu about a 1/4 of a mile north of Ehukai Beach Park and 1/2 a mile west of Sunset...
. When asked by the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
, Frankenthal claimed to be 18, so that he would be put to work and not with the weak and sickly. He was then ordered to enter a group where he found his three uncles and a cousin. The cousin was about one year old, and when the SS discovered that the child was not with its mother, it was beaten to death. The Jews who had been selected for work were then loaded onto trucks and transported to their respective labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
s. Frankenthal was sent to Auschwitz III Monowitz.
As they arrived, the inmates were forced to strip naked and were sent to their barracks where their bodies were shaved all over. They then had their inmate numbers tattooed onto their arms. Frankenthal became 104920 and his brother 104921. The inmates were then sorted out according to skills. The brothers both claimed to be locksmiths, although they had only begun training at the workshop in Dortmund. They were then showered and issued with their striped uniforms.
The Blockältester, or inmate block leader, then greeted the new arrivals to inform them of their current situation: that they were in an extermination camp, and that any family members, whom they could not see in this block, had probably already been gassed.
Every morning the inmates were issued with what the SS called Coffee. This appeared to be mixed up from local plant material, but was one of the few sources of moisture to which the inmates had access. The water in the showers was contaminated, and those who drank from it would become feverish and in Auschwitz, that usually meant death.
The inmates in Frankenthal’s block were composed mainly of Jews with several political prisoners as well. The prisoners were forced to work under horrendous conditions for long hours. The inmates also worked alongside civilian workers from the Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
populations who instructed the inmates inside the camp, but not inside the electric fence
Electric fence
An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shocks to deter animals or people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from uncomfortable, to painful or even lethal...
.
Most of the prisoners in Monowitz worked for IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
in Liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
. During his internment at the camp, Frankenthal played a minor role in the largely unsuccessful resistance. He was also subject to dental experiments from SS doctors.
On 18 January 1945, the death march
Death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees. Those marching must walk over long distances for an extremely long period of time and are not supplied with food or water...
began for the prisoners of Auschwitz. On the second day of the march the group reached Gleiwitz (Gliwice)
Gliwice
Gliwice is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Gliwice is the west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
, where they were loaded onto open cattle wagons and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
. Upon arrival the SS soldiers accompanying the Auschwitz inmates discovered that Buchenwald was full, and could no longer take on any inmates. From Buchenwald they were then sent to Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....
, the new site for the V2
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
production since bombing raids on the Peenemünde
Peenemünde
The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the Army Weapons Office ....
facility threatened to end the project.
Here the inmates were forced to build V2 rockets in an underground factory. When the inmates began the deliberate sabotage of German rockets, prisoners were systematically hung from the ceiling over the workers as a warning. During an aerial bombardment of the camp on 3 April 1945, Frankenthal, his brother, and another inmate managed to escape. In the confusion they were separated from the third fugitive and continued on their own. After three days they were recaptured by a group of Volkssturm
Volkssturm
The Volkssturm was a German national militia of the last months of World War II. It was founded on Adolf Hitler's orders on October 18, 1944 and conscripted males between the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard.-Origins and...
(German militia). They were again put on transports and sent east. At some point Frankenthal lost consciousness and awoke two days after they were liberated by Russian troops.
Liberation
The train stopped at Theresienstadt concentration campTheresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
, where they were ordered into a new set of barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
shortly before the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
arrived and liberated the inmates. Despite the now available food, water and basic medical care, many of the freed prisoners died in the days after due to the lasting effects of malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and maltreatment and a typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
epidemic. Shortly after the liberation, Frankenthal found his aunt in Theresienstadt, who had survived a Ghetto because of her status as Halbjüdin (Half-Jew). He and his brother then organised their return to Schmallenberg through the Displaced Persons Program.
Return to Schmallenberg
Upon their return to Schmallenberg, the brothers found out that although several houses were destroyed during the war, their parents' house was not among them. The house was, however, inhabited by some relatives who has already made their way from a ghettoGhetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
back to Schmallenberg.