Author Describes Jewish Life In 1930’s Germany

Irene Hofstein spent her adolescence like many other teenagers — going to school, hanging out with her friends and occasionally sneaking into the local movie theater.

However, her school was created to keep her from a prejudiced public school, some of her friends stopped talking to her and the movie theater’s owners didn’t restrict her because of her age, but because of her religion.

Hofstein grew up as a Jew in pre-war Berlin before fleeing to America in 1939, only six weeks before Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. She discussed her youth and reactions upon returning to Berlin with 20 students in the College of Arts and Sciences last night as part of Holocaust Education Week.

“I remember being 12 years old when Hitler became chancellor and watching him in a parade through Berlin,” Hofstein said. “All of a sudden, after that we were shut out — we couldn’t go to movies, swimming pools or any public places.”

However, because all of Germany’s foreign embassies were located in Berlin, Hitler kept persecution to a minimum there to avoid international recognition, Hofstein said.

After the window smashings, synagogue burnings and mass arrests of Kristalnacht in November 1938, Hofstein’s mother decided it was time to leave Berlin. Her father had already left for Holland.

“My father used to listen to Hitler from way back, and said that he believed him. That’s why he left,” Hofstein.

For Hofstein, though, leaving was not as simple.

“The problem was not getting out, it was getting in somewhere,” Hofstein said.

The American consulate made immigrating difficult for her family, Hofstein said. The consulate demanded her sponsors from America had to be relatives, and she needed other people to vouch she wouldn’t go on welfare upon arriving in America.

“The American consulate didn’t accept just my aunt and uncle to vouch for me, so my aunt got out the Boston phone book and called up every Schlesinger [Hofstein’s maiden name] to find someone to give an affidavit on my behalf,” Hofstein said. “She eventually got Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.’s father to do it.”

Although Hofstein, her mother and her grandmother all applied to come to the United States, Hofstein was the only one cleared to enter the country. Her uncle sneaked back into Germany to plead their case.

“He came in by going in a restaurant which had one half in Switzerland and the other half in Germany,” Hofstein said. “He begged them to put my mother and grandmother on the same number as me. They put my mother on because they thought I was too young to go alone, but they left my grandmother off. She died in Auschwitz.”

However, Hofstein’s grandmother still wrote letters to her in Boston until mail ceased to come from Germany, she said. Hofstein put the letters in her book, “Irene: Chronicles of a Survivor.”

“We could tell the letters were censored because each one had a different number in the corner,” Hofstein said. “But my grandmother would write around the censors.”

Hofstein said she has been back to Berlin several times, and she still holds affection for the city.

“When we go back now, we go to the opera, the theater, what we used to do when we were teenagers,” she said.

Audience members thought Hofstein brought an interesting viewpoint on the Holocaust.

“When we talk about survivors, we mainly talk about concentration camps,” said CAS senior Inna Zinger. “She was talking from a perspective outside that. Although it was horrible, people had to live through it.”