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| Choosing to Remember from the Shoah to the Mountains | |||
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Name: Hilde Hoffman Birthdate: Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany Parents: Siblings: Brother Children: Two Grandchildren: Four
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Hilde remembers the first day of school when she received her cone
filled with candies and gifts as was traditional for all German
children. Her school days were a great time for her. She loved her
teachers, her studies and her classmates. One classmate in particular
became a dear friend - Lotte. Whether they were doing homework, playing
in the park, or preparing for childhood milestones, Hilde and Lotte were
inseparable throughout elementary school. Lotte was Lutheran and Hilde
was Jewish - which only added to their friendship. Hilde (with accordion) and the children whom she cared for in the orphanage after their parents were rounded up by the Nazis (ShP29) That all ended with the election of Adolf Hitler. First it was in small ways - Jewish students had to sit at the back of the class, Jews could not sit on park benches, Jews could not go to public places. Signs on park benches began to appear saying that no Jews were allowed to use them. With each new restriction, Hilde and Lotte adjusted their friendship. Several incidents stand out in particular for Hilde. The first was the last day at the zoo. Hilde's family loved animals and had been supporters of the Leipzig Zoo. Many days after school, she would visit the animals and made friends with several keepers and animals. In particular was a small lion cub who had been snubbed by his mother who refused to nurse him. Hilde would go each day to bottle-feed him. On the last day that Jewish children were allowed to visit the zoo, the keeper took a picture of Hilde with the lion cub in her lap. Then there was the call that Hilde's mother got from Lotte's aunts
after the restriction on Jewish travel was applied. Lotte's aunts asked
if Hilde could join them for a week-long trip to the Black Forest during
the summer holiday. The aunts assured Hilde's fearful parents that no
one would know that Hilde was not just another of their nieces. It was
the last of childhood freedom for . Lastly, there was Lotte's confirmation. For years they looked forward to attending each others' confirmations - Lotte's at her church and Hilde's at her temple. They talked of what they would wear and what the ceremony meant to them. But by the time that Lotte was to be confirmed, Jews were not allowed to gather in public places. Hilde recalls sneaking into the church where Lotte was to be confirmed just as the bell rang for everyone to be seated. She sneaked back out just as the service was over. A week later, a picture of Lotte in her white confirmation dress appeared in Hilde's mailbox. Attending school with Lotte had become a thing of the past. Hilde recalls that the last day of junior high school when the report cards were thrown at the Jewish students by the school custodian. Hilde took a job as a houseparent at a local orphanage. Throughout the 1920s and 30s whole communities of Jews in Eastern Europe were dislodged, especially some of the poorest. One such community from Poland had moved to Leipzig to escape. Mostly Yiddish speaking and poor, they lived in a neighborhood at the outskirts of town. One early morning, the Brown Shirts made a raid through the neighborhood and took away entire families. Parents who were able hid their children in nooks and crannies. Later that day, leaders of the Jewish community went through the area, knowing that there were probably children still hiding. Calling out in Yiddish, they encouraged the children to reveal themselves. Some twenty children emerged. The local Jewish community then had to decide what to do with them. Hilde was hired, along with several others, to care for them. It was not an easy task. She recalls what it was like to hear the children crying in the night for their parents. What were they to tell them? Between 1935 - 1937, Hilde's parents talked of what to do and where to go. All doors seemed closed. They had no relatives or friends in other places who might give them an affidavit to immigrate. Eventually, they found a program in Palestine that would take Hilde's brother. And they were able to find a program in England where Hilde could be a domestic. The hope was that the children would be able to locate sponsors for the parents once they were safely out of the country. It was not to be. Hilde recalls the last time she spoke to her mother. It was a frantic call on the night of Kristallnacht, November 10, 1938. Her mother was crying into the phone that they had taken her father away, and then the phone connection went dead. Hilde was in England throughout the war. She became a nurse and lived
with the realities of bombings and rationing as other English citizens
did. By chance, she became reacquainted with an American soldier, Fred
Hoffman, who had once lived in Leipzig and had been a childhood friend
of the family. He had been fortunate enough to have family in Asheville,
North Carolina (cousin Gus Lichtenfels) who had signed an affidavit for
his family to immigrate to the US. They were married in England in 1944
with co-workers chipping in their sugar rationing tickets for the
wedding cake. Following the war, Fred brought Hilde home to Asheville. By then, she had learned that while her brother was safe in Palestine, her father had died from a brain injury inflicted on Kristallnacht, and her mother had been taken to one of the death camps two years later. One of Hilde's first impressions of America was made on Pack Square where she found benches that read "For White's Only." It made her wonder just where she had moved to. Hilde and Fred raised two daughters in Asheville, with Fred working at the Olin Plant in Brevard (formerly Ecusta). Hilde was much loved by many children as a teacher at a number of pre - schools around town - most notably at the Jewish Community Center. Hilde now lives near her daughter in Atlanta, Georgia. |
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Hilde's
best friend Lotte at her confirmation (ShP31)
Hilde
and Lotte with Lotte's aunts on Holiday (ShP30)