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Transcript of photocopy.

(Letter of the only (?) surviving member of the Jewish community in Potsdam deported to Riga to their former rabbi Dr. Schreiber.)

Johanna Rosenthal

Haessleholm, June 26, 1945

Haessleholm / Sweden

Dear Dr. Schreiber!

I was greatly pleased about the fast fulfillment of my request. On Saturday (Sunday?) at 12 noon I received your telegram. I had already asked to send a telegram for me from here. But already 4 hours later a telegram from my husband arrived. Now my joy was even greater, because I immediately got the address of the children. Praise God that everybody is in good health. Hopefully these lines reach you also in best health. Thank God, my condition improves daily. They are using now a new medicament to fight the bacteria, and one hopes that it works faster. Up to now you had to have negative swabs 6 times in a row. But nobody has made it here in the 7[?] weeks yet. But so far I'm not missing anything. The doctors as well as the nurse and anyway the whole population of Sweden are really devoted. Now, dear Doctor, I want to give You a short report about the recent time. When we received forms from the Potsdam Gestapo 2 days before our evacuation wherein to list all our possessions, it was especially emphasized that there was nothing to worry about. In the course of Thursday we, the individuals mentioned below, were asked to report to the Gestapo at 8 o’clock on Friday morning. There everybody got 2 officers assigned to return with them to our apartments. When we arrived there, we were told that we had to give up our apartments immediately, as we would be given a new residence in the East. We were allowed to pack the bare necessities, under supervision. We have never seen anything of that again. At 11 o'clock we were back at the Gestapo where they took all our money and papers away from us. Then they locked us up for 2 days. Sunday, January 11, we went in covered trucks to Berlin to be assigned to a transport. Here we had to go through another very thorough check, even food was taken away from us. Here we met the entire old people's home Grosse Hamburgerstr., also patients from hospitals who were fetched out of their beds by the Gestapo. On Tuesday, January 13, we were transported to Riga, 1200 people in an unheated overcrowded train. Food and drink were

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the first thing we were weaned off, so we traveled 3 days and 3 nights without a sip of something warm to drink or anything else. At minus 40°C we arrived on Friday, January 16, in the afternoon in Riga. We were received at the station with bludgeoning and screaming by the German and Latvian SS. Our last remaining luggage, e.g. rucksacks or bags, we had to leave behind. Those who were able to walk had to walk 4 hours to get to our new home. The sick etc. were transported in cars, but they never arrived in the ghetto.

We found the ghetto in a terribly desolate state. At the beginning of December, about 30 - 40,000 Latvian Jews had been shot there on the spot. Filled plates and pots were still on the tables, from which one could see how suddenly this attack had happened. Only 3800 Latvian men and 200 women were remaining, and they were separated from our ghetto by barbed wire. Our ghetto consisted of about 10,000 Jews. They came from all parts of Germany, e.g. Cologne, Duesseldorf, Kassel, Prague, Hanover, Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna. We were the first transport from Berlin. Two more followed in the next 14 days. These transports were even worse, because there were only cattle cars and especially because there were only old people. Some of these people already went mad on the way and died. They always kept some strong men to clean up the train. At our transport Feist junior, Gormanns junior and Gerd Wohl stayed back. We waited for them in the ghetto in vain. Feist senior, Gersmann A., Meierstein / Fahrland, Selma Mannheim, Fridchen Rubert and a Miss Grossmann from Geltow stayed behind with the sick. Despite all despair we had to create a home for ourselves. In the first 4 ½ months I lived together with the Apriaskys, the Salomons, Mrs. Urbach and Mrs. L. Gersmann. Sleeping on the floor, 2 slices of bread a day, thus the months passed. We were assigned to work. Shoveling snow at minus 40°C, the men had to go to the high forest to prepare new mass graves, etc. On the 5th of February ... o’clock in the morning, a large contingent of SS arrived. Everybody get out of the apartments! Roll call on the street. Sick and old people, and also some in their best years, were selected and taken away in covered cars and we never heard from them again. Of 4000 people 2500 remained. Only the groups Berlin and Vienna were affected by this action. At the end of March and beginning of April something similar again in the whole ghetto. Roll call before the commander. Again, there were many thousands

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less. Mrs. Urbach and Fraenze Grand were hit by this action. Relatives of Miss Grand, a Mr. Behrend and his wife from Berlin as well. 5 - 6 hour long roll calls without any reason at minus 35 - 38°C happened frequently. About mid-March Mr. Samter died of starvation and frostbite. On March 27, I was assigned to a permanent work detachment with the Wehrmacht, they called it Armeebekleidungsamt (army clothing office) 701 (abbreviated A.B.A. 701). Even though hunger and cold reigned and heavy work had to be done, I endured. Thus I was lucky all these years. After two weeks I already got the position of a foreman. I kept this position until the dissolution on September 27, 1944. About August 1942, Mr. Gormanns died, and Rose Cohn in September 1942. I forgot to report that the Dornbuschs took their own life 8 days after our arrival. Gradually we settled down in the ghetto. In order to preserve our lives, everything we found in the apartments was bartered for food. This was punishable by death, but it did not matter already in which way one had to die. Many had to pay by being shot or hanged. As a deterrent we were led past the gallows in the evening when we returned from work, but we continued to barter. In summer 1943 the order came, the ghetto must be dissolved. All Jews had to be placed in the K.Z.. A giant K.Z. was constructed in Riga called Kaiserwald. Here not only the SS was in command but also the most dangerous professional criminals had life and death of the Jews at their disposal. But there was, thank God, still some small-scale barracking in the city and the surrounding area. Our A.B.A. quartered us here on November 6, 1943. But of course it was subject to the Kaiserwald. On the 2nd of November, a few days before our barracking, there was again a gigantic action in the ghetto. 2,260 men, women and children were loaded into cattle wagons to be transported into the unknown. One spoke of Auschwitz. On this day countless children were snatched from their parents, and vice versa. About 4 weeks later there was another action and thus the ghetto was finally dissolved. On November 2, the Rubert siblings, Mrs. Gersmann, Mrs. Fabian and Mrs. Meierstein were present. Apriaskys, Mrs. Gersmann, Salomons, Lotte Henschel, Reg. Hirschburg, Margot Brauer, Stella Loewenberg, Inge Mannheim had already been sent to Kaiserwald in the course of time. Mrs. Schoetz, Kassmann and Feist were quartered in barracks together with me at the A.B.A.. We had been living together in the ghetto the last 1 ¼ years. But even now we still had no peace. Soon there was another transport to Kaiserwald.

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In March Mrs. K. went on a transport to another A.B.A. in Krottingen. The few children who could be rescued during the action in the ghetto were picked up by the SS on April 22. Destination unknown. On the evening of June 28: Everybody gets ready without luggage! An SS doctor from the Kaiserwald selects people. Sick and healthy! Destination unknown. Mrs. Schoetz was there. On July 7, all the women had their hair shaved off. 3 - 4 weeks later in the morning at 6 o'clock: Everything get up for the roll call. 500 people were selected to be taken away to Stutthof / Gdansk. No matter if in a nightgown or without shoes. Riga was gradually evacuated. On the 25th of September all of a sudden end of work, there was a roll call. 60 people (50 men and 10 young girls) remained here, everybody else went to Stutthof / Gdansk. At the last minute the permission came, 200 Jews are allowed to stay with the A.B.A.. I was already standing at the car when the camp leader said to me: Mrs. Rosenthal, disappear to the right. Thus I was saved. That evening, as with every action, families were torn apart. It was exemplary how well they understood the idea of always tearing families apart. Mrs. Feist was present at the penultimate Stutthof transport. So I was the only one from Potsdam left behind. Two days later, just on Yom Kippur, our unit A.B.A. moved its headquarters to Libau. We traveled there by boat. In the beginning we had to work day and night, but then it got troubled here, too. The Russians came closer and closer. There were air raids several times a day. Twice it missed me by a hair. I was standing approximately 1 meter away from the impact. On October 22nd, during the first disaster, one of our women lost her life. In this explosion I lost my hearing for 14 days. It’s not quite all right yet, but unfortunately there's nothing you can do about it here, because they fear that the bacteria will take hold in my ear. Exactly 2 months later there was the second impact and we had to mourn 13 dead, and 4 people were buried alive. Chance had it that I wasn’t standing next to my girlfriend and so I stayed alive and she was dead. Thus I should live. From Libau we were all to go to Stutthof / Gdansk. But there was no boat available for us, and besides our SS master sergeant had been fatally wounded during the air raid in December 22. On February 19, it happened that our unit wanted to go to Luebeck with us. On the way our commander got a radio message that we had to be dropped off in Hamburg. Here the Gestapo received us

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and put us in prison at Fuhlsbuettel jail. On April 11th the decision came, we move to Kiel to a labour camp. After the march of 90 km, 15 of us arrived to this hell more dead than alive. Meanwhile, 56 men had been sent to the K.Z. Bergen-Belsen near Hanover. Without recovering, we went to work every day. 2 hours there, 2 hours back, during the day very hard work with stone. In the morning, wake-up call at 4 o'clock, then roll call for hours until we went to work at 7 o'clock. Whether it was raining or not, it didn’t matter at the roll call or at work. At 6 o'clock we came back. There was food: red beetroot boiled in water or yellow turnip. In the morning 2 thin slices of bread. Hardly time for eating, and then muster at roll call. It never added up, so we had to stand for hours. There was no water, so we could not wash. If someone tried to get himself some water, there were blows with the truncheon. Straw bags didn’t exist either, we had to sleep on raw planks. We didn’t have underwear and clothes to change, so we saved time on dressing. We women had a blanket, the men had none. About 40 people were shot every day in this hell after they had been tortured. But thank God our stay there did not last long, because on May 1st our salvation came. A woman of 69 years, who had all exertions behind her, even the march Hamburg and Kiel, was shot 5 days before our liberation. I forgot to report at the beginning that about 2000 men were sent to an extermination camp near Riga. In this camp, it was called Salaspils, approximately 1000 people were killed. Causes of death were very hard work, vermin, no washing facilities and hunger of the greatest extent. Being hanged or shot was part of the main program. This camp existed for 8 months. Those who returned from there were half dead. Enough of that. --- Now, dear Doctor, to Potsdam. Unfortunately I can’t give you any other information than that I don’t know what happened to the people left behind. Until January 9, 1942, the wife of Sanitaetsrat (medical consultant) Naumann still lived in her apartment. The wife of Justizrat (judicial council) Josephsohn, Frau Wilk etc., they all had not yet been ordered to leave their apartment. The only one was Mr. Bernhard, Neue Koenigstrasse, who was sent to the retirement home Babelsberg. The retirement home had been visited some times by interested parties, but nothing had happened up to the day. We still lived quite undisturbed in Potsdam

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despite our yellow star badge. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it lasted for a long time. It was reported by people from later transports that old people were brought to Theresienstadt. Now the big question is: did they endure this? In December 1942 some young people from Berlin who were placed in the Riga area were sent to our ghetto for delousing. They had been evacuated in September. Of course I was interested in getting some information. But I only got the information that there was no retirement home anymore. So I must assume the same thing, which I unfortunately had in front of my eyes every day, happened there. Please forgive me if I don’t moderate my remarks, but unfortunately all of us have become dulled by the experiences of the last years, one might say heartless. Mr. James Gersmann was the one who had the best of it. In January 1942, the latter became seriously ill and was sent to St. Joseph Hospital. On January 11, when we were still in Levetzowstrasse, Mr. Gersmann died. Thus, with the dissolution of the Potsdam Jewish community, also the founder of it all deceased. For Mrs. Simonsohn it must have been terrible to lose all her brothers and sisters. Well, dear Doctor, please give my warmest greetings to Your wife and be warmly greeted by Your

Hanni Rosenthal

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Transcript of photocopy

List of those who were deported to Riga (January 1942)

Apriasky, I.

Kla.

Gersman, A.

, Li.

Salomon H.

Rita

Gormanns S(iegfried)

P(aula)

junior (Walter?)

Wohl Siegfried

Erna

Inge

Gerd

Rubert Martha

Grete

Fridchen

Feist Albert

junior

Betti

Dornbusch family

Mannheim Selma

Inge

Haase Juergen, however, stayed in Berlin because he was ill.

Meiersteinfamily (from) Fahrland

Meiersohn family but stayed in Berlin because of attempted suicide.

Child

Mendel’s sister

Samter Heinz

Fabian Rosa

Hirschburg Regine

Henschel Lotte

Brauer Margot

Loewenberg Stella au pair girl with the Rose family (in) Babelsberg

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2nd page of the List of those who were deported etc...

Kassmann Hilde

Schoetz Rosa

Cohn Rose

Urbach Cilli

Grand Fraenze

Grossmann (from) Geltow

Rosenthal Johanna