Antisemitism
Antisemitism
Now let’s turn to Kitty Suschny, who told us what it was like when her world fell apart."And suddenly every shop in Vienna displayed Nazi flags. Suddenly, anti-Semitism was everywhere. No one waved to us anymore when we went out. We were treated as if we did not exist. But worse was going on: Jews were beaten in the streets. Shops were looted. Then a few months later, all the Jewish students were thrown out of the school. And I had to attend a Jewish school. I was 14 then. My friend Ilse and I wanted to move to Palestine, so one day we went to the Palestine Immigration Office - but realized it would cost too much. And neither of our families had money. As we walked back to Ilse’s house that day, feeling dejected, Ilse's mother was at the front door, yelling "Go to the Jewish Community Office right now! They are taking applications for a Kindertransport to England!’ I told her I didn’t have my papers with me. But Ilse's mother had already been to my mother's house and gotten the papers for me. So we all rushed across the Danube Canal and into the 1st District to the Jewish Community. Everything went quickly from there. Filling out the documents, a medical examination.We were going to England. I ran home to pack. On the 10th of December, 1938, my mother and Ilsa parents took us to the (?) train station. It was almost midnight when we got there. Little children were crying and subbing.I was on a train heading to England. My mother and I still think of this - went home that night alone. No husband. No son. Not even me."
As seen on
Centropa Jewish Vienna Tour