Testimony by

Heinz Klein

Heinz Klein was deported to a concentration camp the day after the November pogroms and flew to Palestine immediately after his release.

Heinz Klein at the age of 89 (Vienna 2006)

„I fled to Palestine from Vienna on an illegal transport.“

My father’s practice, in which I had always worked, was Aryanized in May 1938. Thus my father lost his livelihood and I lost my job. On 10th November 1938, I was arrested and deported to Dachau [Germany]. After about six months they released me and I fled to Palestine from Vienna on an illegal transport.

My parents were turned out of their apartment in Graz and had to move to Vienna. My father worked at the Jewish community there and was responsible for Jewish emigration. He was in charge of the provincial department, and so he organized an illegal transport of circa 240-250 Jews from Graz, who fled to Palestine and actually also made it there.

“They could only take along a few small things.”

After my father realized that the situation was also getting dangerous for him and my mother, they escaped to Palestine on an illegal transport, too. That must have been in 1940. They could only take along a few small things, and many of these were lost in subsequent moves.

Big photo above:

The ship Parita, carrying 850 Jewish refugees, lands on a sandbank off the Tel Aviv coast. The British arrested the passengers and interned them at Atlit detention camp.

Photo taken in:

Palestine, August 21, 1939.

Photo:

USHMM/Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz

Interviewee:

Heinz Klein

Time of the interview:

2002

Interviewer:

Tanja Eckstein

November1938-Erlebnisse-Klein-Heinz-HeinzKlein005-cropped-250x250

Learn more about Heinz Klein?

You can find the complete biography of here on the website of Centropa.

Photographies of Heinz Klein and his family you can find here in the Centropa photo database.

Resources

Want to learn more about the November Pogroms?

The reports and films featured on this site are just a glimpse into the multi-faceted history of the November Pogroms in 1938. We’ve put together an extensive directory of resources to help you deepen your knowledge.

The image in the background shows a destroyed shoe store in Vienna on November 10, 1938
(Photo: Wiener Library/DöW F. Nr. 6392)

Further reports

Sophie Hirn

Sophie Hirn was nine years old when she experienced the November pogroms. She reports on how being excluded by the Nazis ultimately strengthened her relationship to Jewish tradition.

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Vienna

Wilhelm Steiner

Wilhelm Steiner was eighteen years old in November 1938 and had to watch how his family’s business was plundered. When he wanted to intervene, he was accused of insulting Hitler and arrested.

Weiterlesen »

Erwin Landau

After the pogroms nine-year-old Erwin Landau first tried to escape to France with his family – and finally landed in Shanghai.

Weiterlesen »
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