Nazi Era
Due to his Jewish descent, Bernheim was subject to repressions during the Nazi era. In 1933 he was forbidden to lecture, and an appeal to Hitler to regain this permission was not successful. On 4 December 1935, with the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws, Berheim lost German citizenship. An appeal to Hitler to regain citizenship, which was backed by a number of scientists from the University of Greifswald was successful - Bernheim was assigned "temporary citizenship" on 12 January 1938, thus avoiding deportation in 1940. Yet, just weeks before his death, the deaf-mute fosterchild of the family, Hetti Meyer, was deported to Theresienstadt and killed. Hetti was raised from her birth by Bernheim and his wife Emma, a special education teacher. From 1939 onwards, Nazi scientists systematically besmirched Berheim's scientific work, which was only appreciated again in post-war Germany. Bernheim died on 3 March 1942 in Greifswald. His former colleagues managed to circumvent Nazi orders and get his urn buried in the town's graveyard on July 23, 1943, but an obituary was not permitted.
Read more about this topic: Ernst Bernheim
Famous quotes containing the words nazi and/or era:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)