Testimony by

Julius Chaimowicz

Julius Chaimowicz, who was only six years old at the time of the November pogroms in 1938, reports how negligence proved to be a stroke of luck for his family.

Julius Chaimowicz and his twin brother Alfred in Vienna in 1937

„The goods were simply thrown out of the window.“

„In 1938 looting of Jewish stores was very common. Our apartment was on the fourth floor. We had bars in front of the window; either my father or my grandfather had put them up so that we [children] would be able to look out but not fall out of the windows. We saw the Jewish grocery store being looted. The goods were simply thrown out of the window.

Because my father was born in Slovakia, my parents had sewn a Czech emblem on their coats in 1938 to protect themselves. My father went to the Czech embassy and applied for Czech passports, as he had never applied for Austrian citizenship. He simply hadn’t taken care of it before, and that was our luck.

„They beat him and kicked him in the stomach.”

My father was a very charitable man and during the period when he was working as a salesman, at Christmas, he always gave poor families stockings as a gift because the new collection had already arrived by then. On his way to one such family, two young guys approached him and one of them pointed at my father and said, ‘That’s a Jew!’ They beat him and kicked him in the stomach.

When he came home, my mother said, ‘You have to get out of here.’ To which my father replied, ‘I won’t go without you!’ And so it was decided that we would all go. We were waiting for our passports, which took about one or two months. In the meantime my parents cleared the apartment and afterwards we travelled to Paris as tourists. Everyone was allowed to take along 20 marks.”

Big photo above:

Julius and Alfred Chaimowicz at the age of one year (Vienna, 1933)

Interviewee:

Edith Teller Brickell

Time of the interview:

2002

Interviewer:

Tanja Eckstein

November1938-Berichte-chaimowicz-julius-ATJCH008-300x375

Learn more about Julius Chaimowicz?

You can find the complete biography of Julius Chaimowicz here.
You can also find many more photos of Julius Chaimowicz and his family 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 testimonies

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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.

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Vienna

Gertrude Kritzer

In 1938, Gertrude Kritzer was fifteen years old. On the morning of November 10, her father, Adolf Roman Braun, was arrested, detained and tortured for ten days. Learn how Gertrude’s mother tried to prevent the arrest here.

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Vienna

Julius Chaimowicz

Julius Chaimowicz, who was only six years old at the time of the November pogroms in 1938, reports how negligence proved to be a stroke of luck for his family.

Weiterlesen »
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