Oskar Prager

Oskar Prager was 9 and half years old on the day Kristallnacht happened living in Fuerth. We are fortunate to interview Oskar Prager through email. Oskar Prager gave us specific details on the day of Kristallnacht. We are touched by the responses telling the story of evil and how he and his parents faced it courageously. His response tells how the Nation was turned in to becoming evil by Nazi party. We want to thank him for sharing his experience and thoughts of wisdom and want to wish him best of health. His story was also published in Martin Gilberts Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction.

1. Could you tell us your name, where you were born?

My name is Oskar Prager, and I was born in 1929 in Fuerth, which is today a suburb of Nuremberg, Germany, in the State of Bavaria.

2. Were you or your family got affected by the Holocaust or Kirstallnacht?

We were not directly affected by the Holocaust itself since I together with my family were not in any concentration camp. However we were very much affected by the operation the Nazis called "Kristallnacht".

3. Why do you think Kristallnacht happened (From your viewpoint).

The operation Kristallnacht was, in my opinion, planned many months before it happened but the Nazis needed some excuse to put it into operation. A man called Von Rath was shot and killed by a Jewish man (it was never proved in my opinion that the assassin was in fact Jewish) and this was the trigger to start the pogrom. We, our family had never heard of that person.

4. Did you have to move away from where you lived to escape the Holocaust?
In answer to your query, we of course had to move from our home. We fled to England in 1939, just before the start of the War. At that time nobody even thought about a Holocaust. All people wanted to do, was to get away as far as possible from Nazis. Let me explain : The Nazis, i.e. Hitler, came to power through normal democratic elections, and many people believed that the following elections will reverse this situation and the Nazi party will be voted out of office. My father was one of those who believed this theory. It is true that Germans were fully behind the hatred of Jews in general, and they also believed that it was the Jews that caused Germany to lose the First World War, that they were responsible for the hyperinflation in the 1920s, and the resultant very large unemployment and poverty in Germany. Everyone needs a Scapegoat!

5. Can you explain how Germans treated you during this period?
Not every German was bad, but unfortunately they had to hide their good character in case any Nazi got to hear of this and had them prosecuted, even possibly killed. Don't forget, by this time Germany was a Police State, and nobody could trust his neighbor, or even his best friend. So we Jews had some rough times. We were no longer allowed to go to theatres, cinemas, concerts, etc. Not even swimming pools, or gymnastic halls. At times we were spat upon in the street, and I remember very well as I was walking in the street that boys were throwing stones at me.

6. How did you or your family respond to Hitlers rise to power? Did you suspect that Nazi party could harm Jewish society?
I cannot answer your question, since I was too young.

7. How did you or people around you respond to the death of Vom Rath? Did you think something bad was going to happen after his death?
Here again I cannot answer, as our family had never heard of Von Rath, and the matter that a Jew had done the deed, was never proved to be the case.

8. Where were you when the Kristallnacht occurred?

At the time of Kristallnacht I was 8-1/2 years old. It was in the night of 9th November 1938. I was asleep in bed and was suddenly awakened by lots of noise, shouting, "get up" "get dressed" and out in the street. For my 8th birthday I was given my first wrist-watch which was lying on my bedside table, and this brute of a man in brown uniform threw it on the floor and stamped on it till it was totally broken. I was devastated and he yelled at me if I don't get up immediately the same would happen to me as happened to my watch. Naturally I got up, dressed; saw that the rest of my family was also up, including my younger sister who was 4 years old at the time. Also my baby twin sisters who were 2 years old. We lived in a top-floor flat above the school were I was a pupil and my father the Director. We got to the street, it was about 3 a.m., the night was foggy and damp, but the air was full of smoke, and the smell of burning was very strong. To this day, when I smell burning of wood, it reminds me of that night. So there we were, my Parents, my sisters and I, being walked by this brute of a man in brown Uniform with a Swastika on his armband through the streets. No one had the slightest idea where we were going to. Until, finally we arrived at a large square, which at the time was also the terminal station of the tram. I saw many, many people there, lined up, in rows. And we stood, and we stood, and nobody was allowed to speak. I needed to go on the toilet but was not allowed to move. My mother whispered to my father and I could overhear "soon they are going to shoot us!" But the idea of this did not sink into my brain at that time. After a further time standing there, we were finally marched off this square, to a gymnastic hall, where we were again standing quietly. I noticed that my father had disappeared; I looked around but could not find him anywhere. My mother and sisters were next to me. It was about 6 in the morning when we were told we could go home. The day was just getting light and the streets were full of broken glass, which later in the day I was told were the broken pieces of glass from windows. Having got

home, I was told to go to bed and sleep, and only later in the day I saw that my father had also come home. But he was without his beard. He had a small black beard which had been shaved off. I was told that one of the Nazis told him to shave it off and after that they let him go home. During all this night I did not see my grandmother (my fathers mother) who lived with us. I did not see her walking with us in the street, nor in the Gym hall. Later I was told that the Nazi said to her to stay at home.

9. Did Nazis destroy your or your communitys homes or properties? Did you lose any close friends or family to Kristallnacht? Please explain all your experiences during Kristallnacht?
The Nazis certainly destroyed the community. That is to say, they burned or trashed the Synagogues (there were 7 or 8 at the time in Fuerth), they smashed Jewish shops, warehouses, broke all the windows of Jewish homes, and in many cases, threw the contents of homes into the street. Many men, and a man was called anyone over the age of 16, were taken to Concentration Camps, e.g. Dachau, Buchenwald, etc. where they were prisoners until sometime in 1939. Some were even killed there.

10.Did you have to live in a ghetto? If so please explain all your experiences.
We did not live in a Ghetto in Fuerth. But from that night onwards it was clear to everyone that there was no longer a future for Jews in Germany, and everyone wanted to get out as quickly as possible. However, the Gestapo did not give people a Passport or Exit Permit, unless they could produce a Visa from a country that would take them in. Because the economic depression which had hit the world at that time, most Western countries had closed their borders to immigrants. The only place that was open without really needing a Visa was Shanghai in China, which I believe, was at the time under partly English rule, much like Hon Kong. However, the journey was by rail, on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and took 10 days to get there. My father was ready to undertake the journey but my mother refused, saying where do I get food for the family, where do I do the washing for nappies for the twins, etc. Thus we had nowhere to go until we got a phone call from London - details see Anne's blog.

11.Did you ever go to a concentration camp? If so please tell which one and all your experiences in the camp. 12.Do you think Kristallnacht truly started the Holocaust and that it was the major turning point in the history of the Holocaust? 13.Was Hitler the only reason for the Holocaust or any other Germans initiated these acts of hatred? 14.What are your most vivid memories about the Holocaust?

15.Please tell any other experiences that you had during the Holocaust and how it affected you?
11-15. In my immediate family, luckily we were not involved in the Holocaust itself. In fact, we never heard of death camps, etc., until after the War was over. Quite obviously, on hindsight it appears that some Army people were aware of it, and possibly some of the Leaders of larger Jewish Communities in the Western World. I had read that Churchill was asked to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz, but had refused. No reason given and perhaps this were not all true. It was during the end of 1943 or early 1944, that we received a letter from Switzerland (it was heavily censored) by the British Censor, from my father's cousin there, telling us that my grandmother (my father's mother who had lived with us in Fuerth) had died in Theresienstadt in November 1943. He got this information from another relative who was there. It was only then that we realized that this was a Concentration Camp. Later we heard that most people there died of starvation. My mother had a sister and we had no idea what had happened to her, until after the war. We then found out she was taken to one of the camps in Poland where she was killed. I hope all this information will be of use to you in your studies. One should never forget these things, and above all, we must all beware of Dictatorship Governments. In the end they all cause distress and death. Look around today, you see many examples, e.g. North Korea, the Congo, Northern Sudan, some other African countries, Syria, Iran, Egypt, not to mention some South American countries. Regards. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Oskar Prager Petach Tikva Israel