The letters pressed provide an insight into the worst and conditions for the jewish in europe and the mindset of American Jewish and the American Government during this. Now. This is about 15 minutes. Good evening and welcome. I am suzy chafee member of the ajc. Im truly delighted that so many of you have calmed to hca to help launch exit berlin how one woman saved her family from nazi germany and to hear directly from Charlotte Bonelli the books author and rector of ajc archives. I read the book cover to cover in one seating and i can promise you you are in for a real treat. Exit berlin is based on more than 300 lucy hatch wrote her parents and other relatives left behind in germany after she came by herself to new york in 1938 about a week after kristallnacht and also letter she wrote to her american cousin arnold in albany who assisted in so many ways in the rescue. The letters are for unique insights into nazi germany and the holocaust from the perspective of one young German Jewish woman and also how an average American Jewish family responded to the holocaust to assist relatives who they may or may not have known trapped in europe. Charlotte will present provider presentation more details about the letters and the impact of the letters. I do want to remind us that in the age of smartphones, twitter and other rapid Communication Technologies that back in the 1930s when lucy set out to save her family detailed correspondence was the main communication tool. Now i would like to welcome a couple of guests in the audience. Stephen solomon and rocky bland who represented her for many years. It was roger who found the letters in her apartment where she lived alone for 61 years and it was rogers who called charlotte the author to tell her about the letters. You see there was a direct ajc connection. Bluesy for most of her life worked at ajc in this very building and gene tells me on the second floor below where we are now sitting. By chance she landed a job for four months after her arrival from germany in kenya and 10 you to work at ajc for the next 38 years until 1977. If you ajc staff including director david harris remember her well. David will say a few words and we will move to the main part of our Program Hearing directly from charlotte. There will be questions and than answers after charlotte speaks. Lastly i want to point out that cspan is here to film this berlin event exit berlin for its popular program. We will let you know what its scheduled to air in the coming weeks. Thank you. [applause] good evening and thank you suzie for introducing the program. I am a lucky person. I had the privilege to know luzie as susie mentioned. I joined ajc staff in 1979 which was two years after luzie retired but she never really retired. She kept coming back to the building on a regular basis. This was really her family in many ways and so i met her when i was a young staff member and i got to know her very well over the years. Of course what i didnt know and i think what none of us knew was this treasure trove of letters and the story that it held and that has now been revealed by my colleague Charlotte Bonelli who has done this extraordinary work and the result is the book that brings us all together today. So for me luzies story is really a story of several things its a story first of all of what each of us can do. If only we choose to do it. If one wants to think about heroes and heroines and set out to imagine what they are like our popular world suggest that they have to be of a certain type, daring and big and strong and brave and who knows what. Luzie had she been in this room would not have felt much physical space, not at all. At first glance she might not have been the image of the hero or the heroin. So in a sense luzies experience isnt just something for us to read and absorb and cry over and occasionally smile over. Its also a challenge. I believe its a challenge to each and every one of us to ask ourselves are we capable of such action . Quiet unheralded, unsung under very differ cold situation. When people depended on the mail and it was not always the most reliable thing in wartime mail across oceans and continents. So the second thing for me about luzie is when i got to know her she was very deeply involved in our pioneering german programming. That may at first glance might not up in the likeliest place for luzie to spend her life. After all just a few years before she had fled germany. She had spent years trying to get her family out of the clutches of the third reich and yet here she was a couple of decades later in the forefront devoting a great deal of to build new bridges of understanding and cooperation between germany, the jewish people through the vehicle of ajc. That to me as well as a very powerful story. A powerful story that suggests that as has been said by a famous philosopher it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. I believe that was indeed her outlook. Finally for me the luzie story is personal not just because i im doing cared about her and not just because i know and care about you Charlotte Bonelli in this remarkable effort you have made but also because on a very personal level i identify with the story. Had it not been for a man named maurice ruby and his wife ida who lived in mahony city pennsylvania and improbable destination for family that began their life in russia 14 members of my family would never have made it to the United States. Since those 14 people include my mother i dare say i would not be standing here but for luzie hatch. I cherish her memory, i honor her memory and i ask all of us to be inspired to our own actions in response to the actions that she took on behalf of her family. So thank you for being here with charlotte and a special thanks to you for bringing the story to life. [applause] thank you. Can you hear me . Just a few quick thank yous here but i would like to thank susie chafee for hosting this event tonight and i want to say one of the thing here. Before there was exit berlin there was just a dusty pile of letters and when i said you know theres a book here. This is something special. We have a book here some people were not quite so believing but not david harris. From the very beginning he was enthusiastic about this project and i really appreciated it. I would also like to thank our very able and spirited translator natasha who is here a friend of mine and outstanding english professor who told me these letters could be framed and a narrative. I was not initially so convinced that she persisted. A constant source of wise advice from the publishing industry. I would be remiss if i did not thank ken for his hard work in bringing exit berlin to the attention of the public. So we come to exit berlin. Exit berlin began with a phonecall i received one day from a very excited attorney. He had a donation for the Agency Archives a collection of world war ii era letters he had stumbled upon in the apartment of the late luzie hatch a jewish refugee from berlin. I have to admit i was not very interested. In the past people had come forthwith donations and they had never but this attorney was so excited about his discovery and it was clear to me that he was not about to give in so easily. And there was another factor. Although i never knew so one i knew she had spent a lifetime of ajc and i said to myself how can you not even look at the letters . So out of respect for her memory responded to the holocaust but little attention has been given to the Jewish American family. Indeed when reading arnolds correspondence it was the first time i ever stopped to really think and appreciate what it was like for a family to deal with this crisis. Arnold corresponded not only with his relatives but Bank Officials and aid societies u. S. Court officials. There was always a letter to write and there were always nagging questions. Had his relative received his letter . Had his relative received the money he had sent her had a nazi official pocketed it . Was he following u. S. Immigration law . At one point he was concerned that he filed so many affidavits that he wondered if perhaps if he has broken the law. As arnold deals with these questions he does so through the prism of the depression. In 1933 when his german born father had died he inherited fold and hatch knitting. When operating at full capacity the factory employed 1000. Yet in 1933 there were weeks when the doors open in the morning and only 150 people pass through to report to a job. Understandably he wants a plan. He wants to be cautious and know know that there will be work for his relatives to arrive. But for those living under the increasingly brutal hand of nazism the first issue of at hand was not their Economic Future but the simple and vital need to escape to be free to survive. When luzie first arrives in america hertog priority was to get affidavits for her father and stepmother. You can see holiness on the right and luzie is on the left her young brother ralph and her young brother who was imprisoned. These documents were basically the pledges signed by ace arnold saying if his family could not find work that he would accept responsibility. We lose luzie secures the documents and send them to germany quite quickly less than a month for arrival and her family does make it here although after a very difficult stay in shanghai the one that would prove nearly fatal for her young brother ralph. While her immediate family was her primary responsibility there were others as well. Everybody was crying for help she wrote. The situation in europe was terrible. In a limited time i half i would like to turn briefly to three of those individuals starting with lucys aunt martha from cologne germany. Her experience shows that arnold was separated from his relatives not merely by thousands of miles but by a chasm of different perspectives. In 1940 aunt martha sent word of her reasonable plan of escape. From her respected this is reasonable. Arnold will see this quite differently. With her 12yearold daughter she would take the train to berlin and then to moscow and the Transsiberian Railroad to the port. If you look at the map you get some sense of the distance they would be traveling. Once in there they would travel to japan and once in japan they would want to shanghai which was an open port city. She needed arnolds financial assistance. Here is his opinion. It is utterly impractical at this time to send to women to moscow and japan. The journey is hazardous and certain and the American Express company accepting the utterly impossible sum of 700 per person does not guarantee a thing. I cannot get into this. Things will just have to wait until this war is over. I appreciate that martha will be bitterly disappointed but there is nothing else i can be done for the time being. I did not start this war and i cannot finish it and i cannot change the conditions that result from it. Luzie has no choice but to follow arnolds instructions yet when you hear this letter you will see that she does so with the caveat. Just one piece of information here. Well hear the term helzer ryan and that is the German Jewish aid society. August 30, 1940 my dear aunt martha this letter encloses a very disappointing message for you unfortunately and im dreadfully sorry that i must write this note. Arnold is against a going on the long burdensome and expensive trip over russia and japan. I want to give you a personal advice now. I have information for you. I have found out that the journey through russia has so far often been sponsored by please contact them immediately to work this out for you. I strongly believe it might be easier to have arnold do something if one could tell him thats funding until japan is insured. Im very sorry. This is the only advice im able to give you at the moment. I think about you and i do everything in my power up my limits are all too restricted unfortunately. I will remain being commented and i will not forget all of you. Luzie. Luzie found herself sandwiched luzie found herself sandwiched between two profoundly conflicting forces her american cousins caution in the growing desperation of her relatives in germany. This is a delicate situation for single woman in her 20s trying to make her way in new york where she is overwhelmed by the energy the size and the diversity of the city. Interestingly she was surprised at her reaction. For luzie was no country girl. She came from berlin one of the worlds great cities yet luzie quickly learned that while there are many great cities in the world there is only one new york while she seldom revealed her inner thoughts she once commented my parents think that because im here i can do everything for them but they forget that i havent quite warmed up yet and cant even feed myself. The second correspondent i would like to speak about his cousin dora hecht for she introduces a chapter of the holocaust that has remained largely unknown outside of academic circles. Cousin dora was a single woman in her 60s. She lived in the famed resort town. Cousin dora is on the right there. Her sister marta is on the left. Marta was lucky enough to be a will to make it to palestine with her family. In late 1940 doras letters no longer come but had a return address by lot kaine perron ace france. I was so perplexed when i first saw this return address. I remember sitting in my office and looking at the envelope and saying what his camp bursts gerston how had this elderly sick woman landed there . On october 22, 1940 starting at 66 00 in the morning nazi officials began knocking on the doors of jewish homes not only there but other cities and towns in the region. Jewish residents were given between 15 minutes to one hour to pac their bags. Its important to note that at this time the nazi jewish policy was not extermination but rather it was immigration that would be implemented through terror and discrimination. Given that the world refused to cooperate shutting its doors its not surprising that the nazis cast their eyes on the southwestern corner of vichy france where camp theres is situated. You can see camp girders and read there. There were other camps as well. Gerdes had originally been built for refugees fleeing the spanish civil war. It is not fully occupy it and this leaves the nazis to conclude that here is a convenient dumping ground for at lease some of germanys jewish. You can see germany in blue on the next map. At the bottom is doors hometown. It is from the southwestern region of germany that 6500 ford jewish are deported to camp bears in vichy france. The nazis roster revealed that 116 were to be deported but as evangelical Angelica Shen build a recent College Point it out to me the actual number was 112. The morning of the deportation for individuals committed suicide. And what did it look like at this point . It was disproportionately elderly and female. 66 of the deportees were women and 58 were 60 or older. Walther destination was not a death camp death was always present as revealed in the diary of oscar wolf. Monday, december 2, 1940 today again we had 12 funerals. This is an unworthy existence. Tuesday december 3, 1940 today we had 14 funerals. Wednesday december 4, today we had 17 funerals. Let me just add that these images are the ones that we will follow. They were done by internees. It was ellsbeck cash earth. She was a nurse and managed to smuggle out 150 pieces of art from gura is. Driving the camps mortality rate for barracks that kept out neither the rain or the cold. Inadequate medical supplies and poor sanitation in large part the severe undernourishment of the internees. The daily ration was 1200 calories. At the end of 1941 it was reduced to 1000. Three months of yom kippur is how one survivor described his time there. Care packages from friends or relatives are greatly appreciated. In one letter door had throat i received from tara also an excellent big cake. You can imagine the happiness when a package like that is delivered to you and with what great appetite everything is relished. In this drawing you see how one loaf of red completely commands the attention of this group and the artists have really conveyed the great care with which every single slice will be cut. At the end of 1941 cousin dora sent a letter that had a bit of hope in it. The exodus has art he begun. The barracks are slowly emptying out. It is possible that we may move to a new camp which we are all very happy about. There are we will have bright rooms and a table and chair where we can take our meals. Dora was correct a great change was underway however she was wrong to believe that she would be part of the transfer. She stayed behind ad buy lot k. Berek nine and would pass away some months after she had penned her hopeful letter. While and martha showed us a different viewpoint of arnold and his relatives in dora hecht introduced us to yours luzies aunt brings us directly into the world of germanys graying jewish population. By 1941 twothirds of German Jewish would be past middleage. Luzies and paula was a widow. Her husband had fallen in world war i. And paulas on the right and on the left is her sister. This photo is obviously from much earlier time period in her life. Paulas three children had gone to palestine. In addition she had watched his relatives and neighbors one after another left her. As the dangers our everincreasing her support network is decreasing. Paul steinberg was trapped in a world that was getting smaller and smaller. While she expressed the hope of joining her children in palestine i think on the inside she must have realized that she was never going to see her children or grandchildren again. And the depression and fear that she experienced must have fueled her anger with luzie for not writing with greater frequency. Heck you will read excerpts from two of them paulas letters to her. May 10, 1939. Your letter arrived approximately one hour ago and you will receive an answer right away. You certainly dont deserve it because dear luzie you can believe me never in my life hasnt been as disappointed as i was that you couldnt write to me sooner than half a year later i couldnt and didnt want to believe that you could be so disloyal. It really hurt my in the end i have to accept it. There are nook sku says. A short card while in transit to make your aunt happy. And that is also why when your father sent my greetings from you and apologize on your half i wrote to him that i know longer attached great importance to your correspondence. It is also two months now since anna arrived in palestine so you can imagine my loneliness. Living in haifa for the time being. But now first to you dear luzie first of all i wish you a very very happy birthday and all the best. Above all stay healthy and continue to be courageous. And send us your engagement announcement. Then maybe you can have me come over because otherwise dear luzie we will surely never see each other again in this lifetime. With lots of love and a heartfelt earth day kiss from your aunt paula. Thank you. You can listen to additional recordings by hickey and also by other actors at exit berlin. Org. In addition to luzies correspondence with her family exit berlin has her exchanges with friends who escaped germany. I thought it was important to put these in the book because these letters were important to luzie. Once luzie left hac at the end of the workday she was an anonymous figure in this vast city. How wonderful it must have been to go home and find a letter from someone who cared about her. These are not letters about immigration quotas rather at least at times they brought good news. Weather was onto hirschfeld her friend who writes from toronto who sent this advertisement of his new giftware business for arnold who makes his way to england or the freed landers very dear friends who sent words from bolivia of their daughter ingrids wedding. It was probably in excess of these unknown in significant sums of money in the depression, and this was not a man lacking in generosity in any way, and i just want to share with you a piece of intimation that is not in the book because i only learned of it a few weeks ago, and it came from lisa and charles bachmann, arnold had his great granddaughter. When america enters the war and some workers are drafted, arnold concerns but he does not want the boys, as he calls them, fighting abroad and worrying about their families back home. At least for the first year he will continue to pay their wages and to take this one step further, he does not want any publicity for this. He had no interest in being a front page patriot. And but of lucy . The exit berlin exhibit currently on display at the Holocaust Center of Nassau County ends with this panel. An Enduring Partnership which is certainly what it was. She returns to volunteer for the newly launched Exchange Program where german participants come for an intensive look at American Jewish society and their american counterparts co abroad for a similarly interns look at germany. It was natural that lucid participate. First of all, she was a native german speakers, but there was another issue, the ease and comfort she had been with germans. The Agency Executive responsible for the program recalls, remember, this was the 80s. Not so many in the Jewish Community willing to meet with germans. At the time it was a challenge. We were not in hong so far removed. She agreed to the delegation and at times traveled with them, enabling them to a and a conversation but. , she became the face of involvement who read awhile in 92 the federal republic of germany recognized her work on building bridges between American Jews and germans, and she was awarded its order of merit. Toward the end of her life she created a foundation to provide Financial Aid to college students, and every year theres students that go to College Thanks to the cheap lucy hatch. In conclusion, when she had been recognized by the german government, this was an honor that she valued. She prized this, but what of those in new only the al lines of her life . She had been an administrative assistant, never married, nor heard children. For decades she lived in a simple queens apartment. Let me be frank. Many would conclude that this was an unremarkable life. But the discovery, the chance discovery of a collection of letters has shattered that stereotype. She and her remarkable life and has been enough to us with an extraordinary collection of letters the rich in history. Thank you. [applause] if you have any questions. Of course i read the book. Thank you. First got to know her in 1966. The boat sent me because i realize that i did not do enough to get to know her. If i had only asked and more we did work together. The question i have has to do with her brother. Some of the pictures came from her brother. Is her brother still alive and what about and . He is alive. He does not travel much. He was very helpful. And went to the howls from many times. He gave me if muffins and documents. He was full of stories. He had a wonderful personality. He again, if this time. Let me say one thing, one of the most wonderful things about writing this book was the Extraordinary People on that. Who have crossed paths with them if it had not been for this book i knew lucy, but i also read the book and the militia has begun to know her well. She was active in the new york chapter. We worked on the same floor. I have a question i asked it before. In reading the book i kept wondering why there was not any reference in in the influence of the factors he was working at the American Jewish committee. If there are any organizations that could have helped her in some way, at least giving her information. There is no indication she turned for help when information and only he could have half. She is hard to work on the white book. It is a detailed study of what is going on from 33 until 48. And she doesnt one time pass information. As far as how, she is looking for financial help, and is the main thing in the edge she is the only working here. She knew what was going on. In some ways of unsung she never left germany her. Toward the end when her family wants to come from shanghai she borrows money to help foot the bill who calling around getting a good sum of money. Arnold lehua reimburses her. The money did come from staffers in large part at the agency. [inaudible question] cahuenga [inaudible question] [inaudible question] i dont have the numbers. Dissing high was an open city. About 20,000, she said. Most jews who went there and look back on it with fond memories of the chinese and in the being in. It was an open city. Life was very difficult and terms of climate, sanitation, food. A brother contracted typhoid in a coma for two weeks, hospital. His parents are not allowed and. There was a lot of stress. [inaudible question] im not an expert. They were welcomed, and there was a community. Everyone who went there was grateful. [inaudible question] the United States immigration policy. [inaudible question] there is some mention of a quota. Theyre is a concern that it believes it was used up. For most of those years the german quota, as low as it was and as inadequate as it was, was not filled which is something a did not. They did mention that. There are so are restrictions on monday, how much can be sent abroad. On nine and the and reinforced the sense that it was not so easy. You can look back now. Here you have something that you think of as simple, and yet there are all these restrictions about how much you can send and when you can send it. From the it brought me into the war on the of the family. Anyone else . Bobblehead. [inaudible question] the American Jewish committee was following things closely. I am not conversant with all of the diplomatic activity. When that is really a whole other question. But majors service. The situation of jews in the 1930s and 40s was a far cry from what it is now. Yes, more could have and should have been done, but i firmly believe that this was a tidal wave of the American Jewish community at that time, they could not have prevented. I dont mean to engage in excess of apologetics. I have worked here. It is someone who simplistic to take the values and cannons and put them back. In the 1930s the American Jewish community was new, a community of nine grants. Anywhere near this of confidence communities whose resources are depleted by the depression fleurdelys, american antisemitism was at its most vigorous. One small incident that i think speaks volumes and explains, in 1932 there was the sokolov u. S. Bonus army, veterans of world war one. In 1932 they asked for a 2011 advance. The government said no. They camped out in washington and called what is referred to as a tent city, an early version of occupy washington had. President hoover gave the order to clean up. Veterans of the United States armed forces were demanding since he knows theres and had to suffer from american counter a tradition. Trust imagine what would happen if shoes had tried similar things. Not to say that everything was done. The quota legislation was promising the most popular bit. To start advocating against it would have been literally suicidal. I did know her. I came here in the early 1980s. When a great deal from her. She actually did a Tremendous Service for us. In many ways responsible for building the entire field operation. He retired in 67 but kept his office here. She worked with him on a daily basis and in many ways was his strong right hand. Exchange. He had enormous admiration for everything that he did. If anyone lived in better or obsessed, it would have been lucy, and she was not. [inaudible question] their primary focus was antisemitism demint domestically. They did not understand the situation in europe was much more dangerous than it was. Simple as that. [inaudible question] question. [inaudible question] you mean, the descendants and i have tracked down . I would say one person particularly stood up to me, not a correspondent, but i found a survivor. She is now 97. She, on the spur of the moment the archive called her and she allowed me into her home without indeed it was a rather difficult interview because it brought back a lot of difficult memories, but she did it and opened her home to me, and i have been back more than once and think of for not just as a source of information but a friend. She is a remarkable woman. [inaudible question] i think it she did. There is nothing that says joshi kent to her point of reconciliation. She obviously does reconcile with her homeland and maintained at the end of for life, she and a great love of germany. She always did. There was one person who remembers her. Leyna was one of the offers things she said to me. Shes her did not think he should forget the holocaust but did believe in building bridges and moving Forward Command one of the reasons it was so popular was she did not judge. She corresponded with many participants have. I dont know ashley considered returning to live. She visits her parents grandparents gravestones. [inaudible question] let me just reinforce that. When i interviewed her brother and subject cannot about why he did not leave earlier. And he just exploded and said that his parents had lived in germany, and grandparents. Is the hell wants to leave their homeland and panera have found that there would put people and ovens. Youre right. Obviously they did not think it was possible. We started with translations probably an aide years ago or so. [inaudible question] [inaudible question] i will tell you there is relation with judges from of the last week. But one of our Board Members called me and said she did read david c. Munro. My grandfather was to david fooled. We have some connection. Anyone else . Thank you for coming. Thank you very much. [applause] you are watching book tv, nonfiction authors and books every weekend on cspan2. It is book tv at book expo america, the annual trade show held in new york city. Over the next few hours will talk to authors of some to be published tits,