Heinz Bohm Testimony Analysis Page 1

Born in 1922, Heinz Bohm grew up in Duisburg, Germany during the rise of the Nazi Party. Raised in a middle-class Jewish home, Bohm was largely sheltered from anti-semitism until he reached high school. His account of the growing Nazi presence in Duisburg highlights the varied opinions of Aryan Germans towards Jews as well as the drastic, often forcible efforts of the Nazis to win the support or at least obedience of “ordinary” Germans.

Until 1933, Bohm’s family seemed to lead a fairly good life. His father owned a successful clothing and furniture company that was frequented by both Jews and non-Jews. While Bohm attended a Jewish elementary school, he says there was little difference between it and the “ordinary” school, and the two even shared the same playground. Even as Bohm grew older, he experienced little anti-semitism in school. Although he noticed the increasing presence of Nazi soldiers and propaganda, it seemed to him like the Nazis were not yet focused on racial persecution in the early 1930s. Instead, the presence of Nazi paramilitary groups was used to intimidate ordinary Germans into supporting the party in a larger effort to create unity and conformity. As seen in the accompanying photo, Nazis marched through the street, presenting themselves as a party in control of society–much in the same manner that they did during the Nuremberg Rallies.

By 1933, most Jews in Duisburg were prevented from attending school, though Bohm was allowed to continue because his father was a veteran of World War I. As with Jewish teacher Willy Cohn, Jews who had demonstrated a commitment to German nationalism were acknowledged, though it only conferred limited benefits. Even in Mein Kampf, Hitler praised the importance of both German nationalism and military service. Ultimately, though, this emphasis on patriotic service in the name of expansion did not apply to Germans who fell outside Hitler’s concept of the Aryan race. Nazis discouraged non-Jewish customers from frequenting his father’s store. The business was popular enough that the boycott largely failed, but the Nazis seized Bohm's father's business in 1935 and gave it to an Aryan treuhander. This theme of social isolation of Jews that came to force as the Nazis consolidated power comes up time and again in Bohm’s story, supporting the narrative that many ordinary Germans were slower to cast off Jews who were well-integrated into their communities, until the Nazis employed extreme measures.

Because many Jews were prevented from attending school after 1933, Heinz found himself surrounded by Aryans in his first year of high school. Still, he experienced little animosity from his peers. Most of his friends at the time were not Jewish but embraced his presence nonetheless. As time passed, more and more of his peers joined the Hitler Youth, and all students were forced to salute Hitler at the start of each day, though Bohm somehow still recalls his schooling experience as relatively pleasant. Problems began when students were forbidden from talking to him. Either due to the orders of Hitler Youth counselors or their parents, Bohm recounts his gradual exclusion from social activities, further enforced by new laws preventing Jewish students from going to the movies or public swimming pools beginning in 1935. Therefore, the social isolation of Jews not only applied to business owners and adults but also students. As the 1934 Nuremberg Rally suggests, the first years of the 1930s were characterized by garnering the support of the public in favor of the Nazi cause. While anti-semitism was an aspect of the Nazi platform, Hitler prioritized consolidating his power before promoting his racist ideology, as the first anti-semitic legislation was not introduced to the Reich until April of 1933 (Lecture 10, Bloch). This timeline fits Bohm’s recollection of his experience, as the few members of the Hitler Youth with whom he attended school in 1933 did not directly target him. As Hitler solidified his power, however, he turned to the systematic persecution of Jews, including children. The Nazis’ focus on racist indoctrination and top-down anti-semitism among children shows how this prejudice had to be taught. As we discussed in lecture, Hitler would identify as potential dissidents Aryans who did not let their children attend Hitler Youth outings, coercing many ordinary people into joining the Nazi cause and suggesting that anti-semitism was not always organic in parts of Germany. While persecution was obviously most focused on Jews, it also applied to Germans who hesitated to support the authoritarian regime. Willy Cohn pointed out in his account that “even Aryans had to be extremely careful about what they say lest they want to risk trouble” by the mid 1930s (Cohn, 186). One can see a clear difference in the Nazi’s approach to gaining public support from before and after Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1930, as scare tactics became far more violent, both against Jews and non-Jews to advance NSDAP policies after the party had largely consolidated power. 

While some of Bohm’s teachers were vocally anti-semitic, he remembers having very positive relationships with many; one even participated in an independent study of foreign languages with him. Although teachers were forced to join the Nazi Teacher’s Organization to keep their jobs, few discriminated against Bohm, once again highlighting both the broad scope of Hitler’s Gleichschaltung, or the totalitarian coordination that even reached German schools, as well as the dilemma that ordinary Germans faced in being forced to adopt anti-semitic tendencies on a personal level. (Lecture 9, Bloch).

The relationship between Bohm and his teachers is similar to the relationship between Willy Cohn and some of his Aryan students, who not only looked up to him but also tried to maintain contact with him after he was fired (Cohn, 11, 13). It was more difficult to embrace anti-semitism when one had a personal relationship with a Jew, which explains why the Nazis did everything in their power to isolate Jews from the rest of society. Propaganda also acted as a valuable tool in convincing Germans of the ills that Jews brought to society, and for economically-frustrated, nationalistic Aryan Germans, it was easy for them to buy into Hitler’s argument that Jews were one of the causes of Germany’s struggles. That said, to convince Germans who actually knew Jews to systematically exclude them from society required preventing Jews from interacting with ordinary Germans, while shaming Germans for interacting with Jews. One could also look at the creation of the People’s Community, which was created for “racially fit” Germans, as a way of bribing ordinary individuals to comply with Hitler's policies, as many Germans were given businesses that were confiscated from Jews, like that of Bohm’s father.

As discussed in lecture, 1938 was characterized by a violent push to cement popular anti-semitism. Bohm recalls that, despite increasing aggression that made it dangerous for him to go outside, he continued to attend school until the events of the Kristallnacht Pogrom. On November 8th, 1938, the day that Ernst vom Rath was killed in Paris, Bohm’s father was warned of a potential raid, and the newspapers were especially anti-semitic, referring to Jews as the cause of Germany’s societal ills, while simultaneously calling for revenge for Rath’s death. The flood of anti-semitic propaganda and the hidden coordination of the raids that we discussed in lecture reinforces the top-down orientation of these events as well as the increasingly overt nature of anti-Jewish persecution. The Nazis consistently pursued social control, and while spontaneous violence did contribute toward Kristallnacht and the ostracism of Jews, much of the movement was organized by leading Nazi officials.

Heinz and his father were arrested by the Gestapo on the morning of Kristallnacht, and Heinz was imprisoned while his father was sent to Dachau. Upon his release, the younger Bohm found his apartment destroyed, and the legs were cut off the family piano. While the Nazis attempted to portray themselves as trail blazers of class and culture, they actively suppressed the cultural sophistication of Jews. Heinz recounts that Jewish life had become untenable in Germany by this point, and he was sent via youth transport to Holland, where his younger brother was. While he maintained his passport, it had a large “J” stamped on it and his name had been changed to Israel. The labelling of individuals as Jews enforced the institutional nature of anti-semitism in Germany, as these labels ensured that everybody would recognize Heinz’s Judaism, and subsequently exclude him from society, no matter where he went. Additionally, the surge of anti-semitic propaganda and the systemic exclusion of Jews from every day life in the lead up to Kristallnacht highlights the completion of the transition toward blatant anti-semitism, which became normalized with Hitler's ascendence toward full control of Germany. Heinz ultimately fled to Australia after surviving the war in a labor camp, though his entire family was murdered at the Sobibor extermination camp in 1943.

While anti-semitism was certainly prevalent in Germany in the lead-up to the Nazi regime, Heinz Bohm’s recollection of life in Duisburg in the 1930s contradicts the argument that the Nazi rise to power was similar to lighting a match in a powder keg. Yes, many Germans were economically frustrated and quick to adopt Hitler’s exclusionary policies, but one cannot ignore the countless Germans who had to be coerced into accepting the racial state that the Nazis created. Although we must not absolve ordinary Germans who looked the other way in the face of atrocities, as supported by Bohm’s testimony, it is important to recognize that Aryan purification was not always embraced by the entirety of the German community.