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They Are All Gestapo Now

© Debra L. Stang

Mary (name and some details changed to protect privacy) is an old woman now. Alzheimer's has fogged her mind, and milky cataracts hide her brown eyes.

During the days she is happy. She greets visitors in her charming German accent. She jokes with staff and other residents who live on the hall that has become her world. She has become fascinated with shiny Mardi Gras beads and wears as many as five sets at a time. No one is allowed to leave the hall without admiring her jewelry.

But those are the days. The nights are different. At night, she hides, sure that "they" are coming for her. She looks for old friends of years ago and becomes inconsolable when she can't find them. New friends become strangers to her. She thinks they are spies. "They are all Gestapo now," she moans.

Yes, Mary is an old woman now, but seventy years ago, she was a headstrong young Catholic woman with a forbidden love.

No, not another woman. A man. A Jew.

Mary was not ignorant about anti-Semitism. How could she be? She lived in the shadow of a dictator who blamed all of Germany's problems, from the economy, to disease, to national security, to the weakening of the family unit on Jews. She knew Jews were not welcome in many establishments and that some people bragged about avoiding Jewish-owned stores and Jewish professionals.

She had never much concerned herself with such talk, and she didn't let it bother her now. She was in love with a wonderful man. She wanted to marry him. He wanted to marry her. Period.

However, the 1935 Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race did not allow or recognize marriages between Jew and Aryan. Mary's parents counseled her to wait and see. Maybe the laws would change some day. But Mary and her lover had no patience to wait for reforms that might never come. They traveled to England to wed. Even then the German government refused to recognize the marriage, so Mary converted to Judaism.

After a whirlwind honeymoon, the couple returned to Germany with their heads held high. After overcoming so many obstacles, they were sure the worst was over.

Then on November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht or Crystal Night), violence instigated by the government erupted against Jewish-owned businesses and places of worship. Rioters burned over 7500 shops and 400 synagogues. More than ninety Jews were killed, and another 20,000 were sent to concentration camps. Mary and her husband escaped the terrors of Kristallnacht, but they could no longer pretend that the land they both called home was safe for them.