Jacob Wiener was born Koppel Gerd Zwienicki on March 25, 1917, in Bremen, Germany. His parents, Josef Zwienicki and Sarah Selma Stiefel owned a bicycle shop. Jacob was the oldest of four children: brothers Benno and Alfred and sister Liesel.
The Zwienickis lived in a predominantly non-Jewish neighborhood. Jacob attended public school and had both Jewish and non-Jewish friends. He and his friends gathered at his family’s bicycle store after class and frequently took bike trips together. Jacob’s family attended a local synagogue, and he went there for religious lessons. Judaism was very important to Jacob and prior to the Nazi era, he did not remember experiencing any overt antisemitism.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, Jacob at first noticed only gradual changes. His family’s store had fewer non-Jewish customers, his neighbors became less friendly, and many of his classmates joined the Hitler Youth. Jacob remembered how his non-Jewish friends slowly stopped talking to him and began to avoid him by walking on the opposite side of the street. By 1934, Jacob’s mother was writing to relatives in other countries, trying to find a way to emigrate from Germany.
In 1936, Jacob began studying at the Breuer Yeshiva in Frankfurt. One year later, he entered the Jewish Teachers Seminary in Würzburg in southern Germany. He was in the dormitory there on Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, (also referred to as the November Pogrom or the Night of Broken Glass). Rioters damaged the building, and in the morning, Nazi authorities forced the students through a jeering mob to the local police station. They were imprisoned for eight days. When they were released, Jacob returned to Bremen.
Jacob’s father fled his home during the pogrom, believing that the rioters would only harm Jewish men and not anticipating what might happen to his family in his absence. Members of the SA stormed into their home, and when they failed to find Josef, they shot and killed Selma and arrested Benno, sending him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Frankfurt. Benno was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen for six weeks.
After Kristallnacht, the Gestapo closely controlled the Jewish community of Bremen. Jacob was eventually able to get permission to start a school for Jewish children who had been barred from public schools.This school remained in operation until mid-1942, when the remaining Jewish population of Bremen was deported to concentration camps.
A cousin living in Canada was able to arrange affidavits and landing cards for the Zwienickis which allowed them to come to Canada as refugees. The Nazi regime allowed them to sell their house before they left, but only for enough money to buy tickets for their voyage. Jacob, his father, and three siblings left Germany on May 31, 1939.
Jacob eventually settled in the United States, where he pursued his rabbinical studies in Baltimore, Maryland. He became a rabbi and social worker. In 1948, he married Gertrude (Trudel) Farntrop, whom he met while at the teacher’s seminary in Würzburg. Trudel was sent to England on the Kindertransport (or Children’s Transport), the informal name given to a series of rescue efforts between 1938 and 1940 that brought thousands of refugee children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany and German-annexed territories. Jacob and Trudel had three children: David, Selma, and Judith. Selma was named after Jacob’s mother.
In 1997, Jacob received an unexpected letter and photograph from Gunther, one of his former non-Jewish playmates. The photo, taken in 1929, showed a group of neighborhood boys near where Jacob’s family lived in Bremen. Gunther’s parents owned a cleaning store next door to Jacob’s family’s bicycle shop, and Gunter and Jacob often played together as children. Gunther knew that Jacob’s mother had been murdered during Kristallnacht. In his letter, Gunther included the photograph because he wanted to show Jacob that they had been good friends. Jacob replied to Gunther’s letter, reminiscing about their time before the war and he asked him what Gunther did during the Nazi era. Gunther admitted that he was a guard at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp but assured Jacob that he had “never touched a Jew,” meaning he had not hurt any Jewish people during his time as a camp guard. When Jacob challenged Gunther’s assertions, Gunther did not write again.
Jacob died at age 93 on February 15, 2011.
Interested in writing for IranWire?
Share your stories.
comments