Fritz Levy

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Friedrich "Fritz" Levy (born on May 6, 1901 in Jever ; died on October 25, 1982 there ) was a cattle dealer in his hometown. Because of the persecution of Jews during the Nazi era , he emigrated to Shanghai . His biography became the subject of publications, a novel and a film after his death.

youth

Levy was born into a Jewish cattle dealer family. He left the Mariengymnasium after the Obersekunda and completed a few semesters at a veterinary school in Berlin, but had to break off the training because his father Julius Levy had died in a tragic accident. Levy took over his father's cattle trade and slaughterhouse, which was located in Jever on the corner plot of Schlosserstraße / Bismarckstraße. “It wasn't so wild with the Nazis at first,” writes Levy in his memoirs. "We Jews didn't notice anything about this until 1933."

Arrest and concentration camp

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Jevers

Levy attended the propaganda meetings of the Jever NSDAP . When he was pointed to the sign “Forbidden for Jews!” By hall files, he replied: “It says for Jews ... but I'm only a single Jew!” There were violent arguments in which the “blonde and blue-eyed Jew from Jever ”successfully defended himself with his strong fists. On June 16, 1938, shortly before seven o'clock in the morning, Levy was arrested by two police officers. They brought him to Wilhelmshaven . From here it went on a collective transport to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg. Surprisingly, however, he was released after six months. The magistrate Anton Cropp in Jever had campaigned for him.

On December 16, 1938, he returned to his hometown. “The city” - according to Levy - “had completely changed within six months.” During the night of the Reichspogrom from November 9th to 10th, as everywhere in Germany, the synagogue of the 149 members of the Jewish community was destroyed by arson attack by the Nazis . The majority of the Jewish fellow citizens had either been abducted or had been able to flee abroad. The Jewish shops were closed.

exile

Levy wanted to emigrate. At first he thought of Argentina . An immigration application that he submitted to the Argentine consulate in Bremen was refused. So he booked a place on the next best ship for 1200 Reichsmarks : It was the cargo steamer Oder that brought him to Shanghai in China.

At that time Shanghai was an autonomous city in which many European trading companies had their offices. A large Jewish community (Sephardi) had existed in Shanghai since the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century , more Jews had moved from Russia to form a second community. Many Jews from Germany found refuge here during the National Socialist era .

Levy found an apartment and work as a "Quicktransporter" in the European quarter of Shanghai. He drove out goods with a bicycle and a trailer. In the newspapers he read about the mass extermination in German concentration camps. "But you just couldn't believe something like that when you had lived in Germany for as long as I did," writes Levy in his memoirs.

After the war in Europe, the Americans came to Shanghai. They hired Levy as a driver for $ 50 a month. In 1949 he traveled to San Francisco / USA via Canberra / Australia . While still in Canberra, he applied through an American organization to have the assets confiscated by the Nazis returned. He initially planned to stay in the United States. "Homesickness," said Levy, "didn't let me calm down."

Return to Jever

Fritz Levy House in Jever, Bismarckstrasse 1a

In 1951 he returned to Jever via New York and Amsterdam. In his hands he only held a cardboard suitcase with the most important utensils for daily use. Only now did he learn that his mother and siblings, as well as all relatives , had been murdered in Auschwitz .

After difficulties he was able to get his property back to rebuild an existence. In the following years, too, he experienced the rejection of his “formerly dark brown” hometown. He developed into an eccentric. The condition of his house in no way corresponded to the civil standards of the small Frisian town. The gates of his property were smeared with swastikas. Some said: "Fritz Levy was forgotten to gas!" Others described him as "Jever's eyesore".

Levy reacted with aggression and depression . For weeks he barricaded himself in his house on Bismarckstrasse, then he went public again, wrote leaflets, presented to the town hall, brought charges and was charged. A first suicide attempt was made.

Member of the Jever City Council

Levy developed an intense relationship with the Jever youth. During the struggle for her own youth center, he left his house to her and was elected to the advisory board of the facility, which finally opened at the end of 1980, in recognition of the youth. Encouraged by this support, he ran in 1981 for the Jever City Council as a single applicant - and was chosen mainly by young voters. After his election it was he who had to open the constituent session of the city council as senior president.

The big press became aware of him. The Spiegel , the Stern and even the New York Times reported on "the last Jew from Jever". After the first spectacular appearances in the city council and in the committee meetings, however, it quickly became quiet again. His friends remember that the hustle and bustle around himself made him tired. He could no longer cope with life and died of suicide in 1982 . His grave is in the Jewish cemetery in Jever.

Appreciations

In 1994 Elke Baur created a memorial to the last Jew from Jever with her documentary Fritz Lives - Secret Offender and Viehlosoph - as did Peter Faecke with his novel Arrival of a Shy Man in Heaven .

literature

  • Peter Faecke : Arrival of a Shy in Heaven . Edition Köln, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-8311-0926-5 , ( The Kowalski Project 3 (recte: 4)).
  • Manfred Gebhards: Stories in the constellation of the lyre - homage to the 60s and 70s . Achilla Presse, Oldenburg et al. 1991, ISBN 3-928398-01-6 , chapter: At Fritz Levy, pp. 66-78.
  • Manfred Gebhards: rich son, persecuted and "staff director". In: Jeversches Wochenblatt of October 9, 2019, p. 12.
  • Eckhard Harjes: The house in the Schlosserstrasse - a story about Fritz Levy . Fuego Verlag, Bremen 2018, ISBN 978-3-86287-974-8 .
  • Jürgen Hinrichs: The last Jew from Jever. In: Jeversches Wochenblatt of January 19, 2019, p. 12.
  • Anna Sophie Inden: The Fritz Levy phenomenon. In: Ostfriesland Magazin , issue 11/2015, p. 36 ff.
  • Hartmut Peters (ed.): Exiled citizens, the Jews from Jever Documents and representations on the history of the Jews from Jever 1698-1984 . Jeverland antiquity and homeland association, Jever 1984, ( Jeverland antiquity and homeland association series 19; ZDB ID 1095895-2 ).
  • Hartmut Peters: Fritz Levy - Jever's last Jew. Biographical sketch of an extraordinarily difficult life . In: Friesische Heimat , supplement 495 of the Jeverschen Wochenblatt of December 17, 2015, p. 1 ff. ( Online publication , accessed on January 14, 2016), and supplement 496 of January 14, 2016, p. 1 ff. ( Online Publication , accessed January 14, 2016).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oral information from Mr. Hartmut Peters, Mariengymnasium Jever
  2. ↑ Werner Meiners, Hartmut Peters: Jever ( Memento from January 20, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) In: Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen Göttingen 2005
  3. ↑ zeit-online: Coming to terms with the past - Kauz or admonisher? , accessed September 20, 2016
  4. ↑ Personal details . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1981, pp. 288 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Levy, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levy, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cattle dealer
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Jever
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1982
Place of death Jever