Further Thoughts on The Nazi Officer’s Wife

I’ve posted twice on this, here and here. This is either the last or second-last post, depending on what further thoughts I have.

I had never wondered, but should have, how Jews in Germany and Austria made out day to day under the Nazis before they were hauled away. One thing that comes across in about the first 60 pages is the day-to-day difficulties, and sometimes actual torments, that Jews had to deal with.

Here’s one story from the author:

I refused to let the political situation keep me from my studies. I had taken both state exams and passed with high grades. One last exam, and I would be a doctor of law, qualified to serve not just as a lawyer but also as a judge. I felt that if I earned my degree, if I was trained, qualified, certified, I would have a much easier time emigrating.

In April 1938 [DRH note: the Anschluss had happened the previous month] I went to the university to pick up my final exam papers and to receive the date for my doctoral exam. A young clerk there, actually someone I knew, said: “You will not be taking the examination, Edith. You are no longer welcome in our university.” She gave me my papers and the transcript of my grades. “Good-bye.”

For almost five years, I had studied law, constitutions, torts, psychology, economics, political theory, history, philosophy. I had written papers, attended lectures, analyzed legal cases, studied with a judge three times a week to prepare for my doctoral exam. And now they would not let me take it.

My legs buckled. I leaned on her desk for support.

“But…but…this last exam is all I need for my degree!”

She turned her back on me. I could feel her sense of triumph, her genuine satisfaction in destroying my life. It had a smell, I tell you–like sweat, like lust.

 

 

(0 COMMENTS)