Didaktische Handreichung
STELLA BRUCKENSTEIN BENGEL
STELLA
geb. 1927-01-19 |
|
Diese Geschichte wurde im Projekt "Die Letzten Zeugen" erstellt.
"Jews must stand in the corner"
Stella Bruckenstein-Bengel, Melanie Ölbaum and Herta Griffel-Baitch are three Jewish women we had the opportunity to meet in Vienna to listen to their story about their life during the NS regime.
Stella was the first who started telling her story. A reporter who was doing research about the NS regime contacted her three years ago, because he wanted to write an article about survivors. She thought she had forgotten everything, but then she got to know Herta who could help her to remember details of her past in Vienna.Before the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, Stella and her parents were living happily in Vienna. Stella could go wherever she wanted and had even the chance to meet the Chancellors Engelbert Dollfuß and Kurt Schuschnigg. Her father was the owner of a small shop at the Ringstraße.
One day in March 1938, when she was 11 years old, she he went to the shop at the Ringstraße to see her father, but instead of him she only saw members of the SA and Hitler and the people who were greeting those with the “Hitlergruß”. Stella did not understand this ceremony, but she understood even less why Kurt Schuschnigg was caused to fall by the SS.
The next day at school she was not allowed to take part in the lesson, but was told to stand in the corner: “Jews must stand in the corner!” This repeated in the next days and some weeks later she changed school. Then it got worse there, too. The Jews had to use their own classroom and then they had to attend their own grammar school. It got worse and worse all the time.
In November 1938 her father brought her to school one day and went to work in his shop. He gave her a kiss and nobody could know that this was the last time she saw her father. After school she went home, but her parents were not at home any more. So she went to her father’s shop and was a witness when the police forced some men to go with them. She could find her mother later and got to know that her father was one of them. He was taken away because he was a Jew. She never saw him again. She returned home with her mother, but when she wanted to go into their flat the key was taken away by the police. So they moved to the neighbours. Two families were now living in a small flat. The police came back very soon and forced Stella’s mother to give them the key of the shop. Her mother was very angry, but then she gave the key to the police. Stella had to help them to clear out the shop. Then the police destroyed the interior. Stella and her mother were now helpless and did not know what to do any more. Then they decided to ask the Gestapo for help. But they did not get any help, but their passports were taken away.
Later they learned from the Jewish community that her father had been brought to the concentration camp in Dachau. They could not help him as they had no passports any more, but one day they got his ashes back.
Written by Julia Feil
