Special Tributes
Elizabeth and Julius Hallheimer
Hallheimer, Elisabeth nee Ludwig and Hallheimer, Hermann Julius and Elisabeth Hallheimer nee
Ludwig (* 3-23-06) were among my Jewish parents’ closest friends in the 1930s
and well into the early 1940s in Wiesbaden, a resort town near the Rhein River
where a Jewish presence is recorded as of the early 1400s. Like my father,
Berthold Guthmann, Herr Julius Hallheimer was a veteran of World War I. He had
lost the use of his right arm in the Worl War One service for r Kaiser and
Fatherland 1914-18. Both men were active in Jewish veterans’ associations, the
Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, which my father helped found when he first
moved into this lovely city shortly after the end of World War One. Elisabeth and Julius Hallheimer were
married in the early 1920s and settled for a happy life together in my former
hometown and birthplace, Wiesbaden. Elisabeth was a handsome German Christian
lady, Julius had been born into a Jewish family, but neither of them were very
active in their respective religions, so Elisabeth’s possible conversion to
Judaism was never discussed. Julius worked as a traveling salesman and helped in
Frau Ludwig’s (his mother-in-law’s) dry cleaning store. In the late 1920s, with Frau
Ludwig’s encouragement and assistance, the young couple started a small
knitting mill behind the stately Marktkirche in the heart of town. The business
soon provided them with a comfortable lifestyle. Frau Ludwig sold many of her
son-in-law’s articles at her small store, including the enormously popular 'Berchtesgadener
Jäckchen' . Travelling salesmen of the Hallheimer knitting mill sold this
article all over Germany to large and small retailers nationwide. It is ironic
that one of the most successful articles of this firm’s production was this
Berchtesgadener Jäckchen , an article of clothing much favored by German girls
and women during the Third Reich years 1933-1945. It was a semi-official part of
the BdM (Hitler Youth) uniform. This snug fitting Mieder--style black jacket
with distinctive red and green stripes around the boat-neckline top and the row
of acorn-shaped Edelweiß1 adorned pewter buttons was worn by big and little
girls, by young and older women in and out of uniform and complimenting the then
popular völkisch dirndl dresses. The wearers thus enjoyed a notion of
‘pleasing’ the Führer and expressed national pride and solidarity.
Supposedly, the Edelweiss was Adolf Hitler's favorite flower. This jacket was
also part of the actively promoted, resurging folk art, folk costume,
underscoring German uniqueness, even in terms of Third Reich fashion. On November 11th 1938 at 3 AM, Julius
Hallheimer was arrested, along with most other German male Jews between 16 and
70 years of age. He was released the following day because of his World War One
veteran status as a 100% disabled veteran and his classification as a
mixed-marriage partner of a Christian wife2 . In mid-November 1938, the Hallheimer
knitting mill/factory was ‘aryanized’. It was taken over/stolen by one of
his former employees. This procedure of 'Enteignung'/confiscation without
compensation was supervised by the DAF (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) represented by
two local Nazi functionaries: Herr Wehnert with Herr Klein acting as the
official manager. Henceforth, it belonged to one of Hallheimer's former
employees. Hallheimer and his wife continued to live in their handsome apartment
on Rheinstrasse 98, high up among the carefully trimmed, old acacia trees,
together with their beloved cat. He had furtively brought a few knitting
machines to the apartment and was tinkering with new designs, even gave me some
instructions how to work the machines -- all with a notion of, perhaps, leaving
the country at some time soon and starting a new knitting operation in a
hoped-for-host country, be it Palestine, the United States or any other place
that MIGHT take on refugees. He tried to obtain an affidavit and a visum to
emigrate to the United States, but -like most of us- he was not successful.
Still, husband and wife tried to prepare themselves by dilligently studying
English, but mostly they were waiting for the other shoe to drop. As the husband
of a non-Jewish lady, as a seriously wounded veteran of the Great War who had
nobly declined the pension offered by the country for which he had fought, Herr
Hallheimer hoped against hope that he might be spared the worst victimization...
death. Elisabeth Hallheimer was always kind andf loving and tried to be
supportive. Soon the selective, individualized
arrests and killing began to decimate the Jews in Germany. It always began with
a Vorladung, an order to come to Gestapo or police headquarters for
‘investigation’ of some often undefined infraction of the myriad special
Jew-laws. The ‘investigative’ process involved torture and extensive abuse
by the arresting police or Gestapo official, depending upon the mood of the
agent at any given moment. Routinely this arrest preceded deportation to a
concentration camp, most often Dachau, Auschwitz, Oranienburg/Sachsenhausen or
Buchenwald. Within a few days, weeks or months the family then received a formal
notification of ‘death from natural causes’, usually accompanied by an offer
to purchase the ashes of the deceased for RM 150.--. I know of several such
cases where the 'ashes' of one dead Jew were sold repeatedly, to different next
of kin family members. Much to everyone’s regret, my family
began to see less and less of our friends Julius and Elisabeth Hallheimer. We
were a ‘fully Jewish’ family; we were much more exposed to all the
persecution measures than a ‘racially mixed’ couple like the Hallheimers,
and it was accepted and understandable that we all would try to keep some
distance. This was particularly isolating for the Hallheimer couple, as they now
had absolutely no friends left. In the privacy of their own apartment,
the Hallheimers agreed to a pact of joint suicide should the dreaded call from
the Gestapo arrive. Meanwhile, Herr Hallheimer was subject to frequent arrests,
followed by interrogations and, for the moment, subsequent release. He had to
work in the Gestapo building garden in summer, sweep the street at other times,
shovel snow in winter, frequently run errands for the various agents. Frau
Hallheimer was consigned to work as a slave laborer in various local factories.
She was a Christian, but married to a Jew and did not have children.
Consequently, the government agencies had the right to this Arbeitseinsatz , and
they drew on her services at the lowest going rate of compensation. During the various deportations of his
fellow Jews, May 24, 1942, June 10, 1942, September 1, 1942, Herr Hallheimer
volunteered his services and worked, as did all of us, as luggage carrier,
compassionate helper, caregiver. He was, temporarily, spared the Final Solution
measures and tried to provide comfort and support where he could. Contrary to
instructions, we all sneaked in food to the friends who were awaiting the
arrival of the deportation train, cooped up in the former synagogue which had
been emptied of seats, benches, and altar and served as the official collection
point for the three day waiting period. The local Gestapo Judenreferent, Jew
specialist Walter Bodewig had issued firm orders not to provide food for the
deportees during their waiting period. It was his view that they had been told
to ‘pack food for two or three days’. If their individual supplies were
inadequate while they were being held inside the synagogue, that was too bad3
and their own fault. Elisabeth Hallheimer sent large quantities of food with her
Jewish husband. She herself did not dare to absent herself from work and risk
arrest by bringing the food herself. On August 30,1942, Julius Hallheimer
went to fetch a Jewish friend’s luggage which had been left behind at the
man’s former residence. Gestapo agent Bodewig had specifically forbidden him
to do this, earlier, but Hallheimer obtained permission from another Gestapo
colleague behind Bodewig’s back. For this, he was severely reprimanded and
threatened by Bodewig4 for such an act of open insubordination, even
deviousness. And he was marked for ‘elimination’, now more than before. Unbeknownst to Herr Hallheimer, his
wife Elisabeth agreed to their joint suicide pact in case his arrest order
should come, because she wanted to please and comfort her mate, but she secretly
planned to go through the motions only. She hoped to survive and had secured an
antidote for the poison they would both swallow then. On March 24, 1943 Julius
Hallheimer received another summons to report to the Paulinenstrasse Gestapo
headquarters. Both Hallheimers, Julius and Elisabeth, knew what to do. Several
hours after the scheduled appearance at the Gestapo office, two criminal police
agents Kripos broke down the door to the Hallheimer apartment to inquire why he
had failed to report as ordered. They found the couple in their beds. Herr
Hallheimer was dead. Frau Hallheimer was rushed to the hospital where the
emergency room attendants pumped her stomach. She was rescued and survived. As a last act of protest, she buried
her husband’s ashes at the foot of the large World War One Jewish veterans’
memorial at the Wiesbaden main Jewish cemetery on Platter Straße. Whenever I
visit my former home town, I deposit flowers there in his and other Jewish
veteran friends’ memory and I say a prayer for his courageous and now deceased
wife Elisabeth. After the end of the War, Elisabeth Hallheimer married Dr
Vollbrandt, the doctor who had helped her survive her act of courage and
devotion to her first husband. Was this a suicide ? or was it murder ? * * * One of the favorite songs during
gatherings of all the German World War One veterans’ associations, Jewish and
Christian, was ‘Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden...’, written by Ludwig Uhland
(1787-1862) in 1809 during the Befreiungskämpfe years when Germany’s
liberation from Emperor Napoleon’s rule was the patriotic goal. As the
casualties of World War Two mounted, this song (which had honored earlier
patriotic battle casualties) was given equal status to the two Third Reich
German national anthems, the Horst Wessel Lied and Deutschland, Deutschland über
Alles, which -sadly- detracted from its earlier associations5. I have prepared
an English translation of the Uhland text in memory of Julius Hallheimer, a good
and courageous German patriot and friend and his devoted and courageous wife
Elisabeth:Ich hatt' einen Kameraden,Einen bess’ren findst du nit.Die Trommel
schlug zum Streite,Er ging an meiner Seite|: Im gleichen Schritt und Tritt. :|
Eine Kugel kam geflogen:Gilt sie mir oder gilt sie dir?Ihn hat es weggerissen,Er
liegt zu meinen Füßen|: Als wär's ein Stück von mir :| Will mir die Hand
noch reichen,Derweil ich eben lad'."Kann dir die Hand nit geben,Bleib du im
ew'gen Leben|: Mein guter Kamerad!" :| * * * I once had a comrade, You’ll ne’r
find a better one. The drum roll called us to fight, He was at my side,|:
Keeping step through good and bad. :| A bullet flew tow’rd us, Aimed for him
or aimed at me? It brought him down, He’s lying at my feet,|: As if a part of
me. :| His hand reached up for mine. But I re-load my gun." I can not take
your hand, In life eternal we’ll meet, my friend,|: Once more in step as
one." :| For further details see, also, HStAA (Hesse Main State
Archive) p.192 file ‘Walter Bodewig’, BW 49-44• • •© Charlotte
Opfermann 2000
© Copyright Judy Cohen, 2001. |