Theodore Wertheimer historical testimony world war one survivor, holocaust survivor

 

I had five brothers the youngest finished junior college, which entitled him to be a junior officer in the German army. Father said don’t be afraid in six weeks. The war will be over will be finished. Everybody thought because Germany is so strong they can do it right away so September 1914 they called me Then on 31 July we had a lot of relatives who came from Paris with the last train who came from Switzerland and they went right away into the army a few days before the war it was a maneuver in Germany our section and my father and my one brother was. Einjahrig and another one was on duty I had two brothers in the same regiment, and they were in the maneuver in our neighborhood and my father said let’s go and look, and the major came to my father and shook his hand. You can be proud of your sons, my oldest brother was an officer. Everybody was so anxious that he was called and he was ashamed to walk around and not be called and you know what the Kaiser said I no longer know any parties. I only know German will have the second the emperor and the German Jews were patriotic. It was different than it is here isn’t it? It was a different Atmosphere. right away I went I had to go. They had to do it prior to the outbreak of the war. It was an automatic reporting at the time we were brought near Berlin. There was a new army put up. They put up companies, Italians, regiments, and then a whole army at the end of the year a whole army went to Russia 40th battalion army corpse. My number was fourth company of infantry regiment 261 we fought in east Prussia and we fought in Russia, Russia, and we made a full march in Russia and we saw Kovno. I got sick and was brought back to Germany for five weeks 200 men in the company when we stormed Kafno a very strong force hit them out of the company later on we came to France. There were a lot of casualties. Casualties were mostly by cold frostbite. Some people died getting wounded and couldn’t be helped. They froze to death. by 1916 they knew they couldn’t win in 1915 we were brought to Belgium first we were trained then we were brought to the front in France in North France near tours on February 1914 among the fellow soldiers, the feeling was no good anymore. They didn’t like it anymore and they were sorry the war is lost not openly. It was too dangerous to say it openly every day. We were on the place to be ready to be transported to the front and there was nothing happened, but one day we were transported to the train and loaded, and everybody thought we go to the front again, but the locomotive was on the other end towards Germany. That was the revolution in 1918 one brother was killed in Russia. The Russians had the Germans overpowered he got shot in the belly, but we lied to my mother. We changed the word from belly to leg. My mother got diabetic from that time on. my father and my uncle and a few brothers bought another a lot of land because the money was no good anymore. Inflation we had the money we earned in this time. It was very bad. We got the money and we had to hurry. Get something for.

In Germany in 1920s, the Democratic people‘s party There was one man he came to town and opened up a little business for repairing umbrellas. This was 1929 when I came to amend Dicken that was the time when you came it started and he was organizing everywhere in town the party the national Socialist party everything went smoothly to this party. I was a member of the family. You were the volunteer fire organization. The time came. I had to go out leave it you saw you can’t stay anymore because everything went to Hitler in every town, they founded this party my business I was a manager of the factory and they told me at this time I have to go out we have to leave the firm and the city Emmendingen The Hitler youth, they were very active you could not say anything you want how to get out that was the first thought we had to get out and you look for a reason not for a reason to go to somewhere and get an affidavit. That’s the first thing we had to do. They were afraid to talk to you anymore. You felt it they were against you for a little things. Our neighbor was the owner of a restaurant all of a sudden he couldn’t do anything anymore. He didn’t speak to us, and it was over. The same thing was with my father. There was a Catholic man he would have come to us again, but he couldn’t but on the day we went out he came in the night to visit us. You don’t believe it how they behaved all the inhabitants on the ninth day of November 1938 we were arrested in the morning. All men were brought in the jail then they arrested me and brought me in the jail all the men from amend Again in the evening we were lined up in front of the jail like soldiers we marched to town to town and everybody from both sides of the street were what you call yelling. We couldn’t understand a word but they were glad that we have to go so we marched to the station and at the station there were hundreds hundreds of people there was the mailman he was parading us on the bus when we were lined up on the station platform. I think there were very, very sad. Not many children around anymore. and I immigrated to America.