WE WERE LUCKY
An autobiography by Hilde Gerrard neé Weissenberg, born 1907 BRESLAU AND BERLINMy cousin Guenther, who was very musical and a bookseller, introduced me to literature and music. I read Balzac, Dostojewski, Dauthenday, Hesse, Materlink, etc. The evenings I spent in the concert halls, where Dorn and Behr conducted and many of the famous gave concerts. Guenther introduced me also to Gerhard, who turned the music sheets for the accompanying artists and I got free tickets. It was wonderful to hear Huberman, Erdman, Dusolina Giannini, Wuellner and many more famous at that time.
My friend Irene became a concert pianist, she had lessons, first at Hirsch-Kaufman and later on at Professor Josef Schwarz. Our circle of friends, who had similar interests, grew; it included Dr Paul Riesenfeld, the music critic, Dr Kurt Tintner, Erich Landerer a budding concert pianist, who with 15 years was very successful in his concerts, Ilse Ollendorf, Erna Liebrecht. Gerhard and I became close friends, but we were not sure if we were made for each other. In order to find out we parted and I went to Berlin but Gerhard followed soon. After we played that game several times between Breslau and Berlin we married in July 1929. Through the hundreds of letters we got to know each other very well and settled in Berlin-Tempelhof in a newly built flat. It was the top floor and had a large balcony from which we watched the aeroplanes and could tell the time by the different arrivals.
Gerhard accepted a job as bookseller in Berlin not far from the Kadewe in the Gutenberg Buchhandlung, and I became the secretary of a private hospital. We worked 4 years in our jobs until Gerhard got a letter soon after Christmas in January 1933 that his employment was going to be terminated for cultural and racial reasons.
We lived in a flat in Berlin-Tempelhef consisting of three rooms, balcony, bath and kitchen and we both worked in order to keep the household going. I had been told that I could not have children, and after a period of disappointment, we accepted the fact and began to enjoy life in a circle of close friends. Our greatest pleasure was to visit concerts and the theatre and it seemed that life was going to be a smooth running stream. However we now received a letter telling us that Jews were not wanted and that made us feel that the ground was giving way under our feet. That was the beginning of the Nazi influence. They wanted "Arians" and terminated the jobs of all Jews. If anybody had a parent or grandparent who was Jewish, they were considered as Jews. Herr von Bergen wrote the letter, he was one director of the firm and married to a Jewess. He divorced her, as he did not want to be "verjudet". At that time the dismissal was not immediate but the agreed time of one month was still kept. Where should we go? Enough has been said about the political circumstances and this is only my own story.
We wanted to go to America. In 1933 our parents did not want to emigrate, as they had their homes and livelihood in Germany. The transport facilities were not yet as good as they are today and America was therefore much further. We did not want to leave them alone and stayed nearer, also thinking that Mussolini and Hitler were not friends at that time and we were safe from Hitler's arm. With staying in Europe we could visit each other and be near them.
Therefore Italy and Milan were considered and Gerhard went to look around for any possibility of earning a living. Aliens were not allowed to accept a job but could work on their own account. We got an offer as a partner in a firm and we decided to invest our money.