Oral History Interview with Gertrude Hallo
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Summary
Dr. Gertrude Hallo, nee Rubensohn, was a personal friend of Franz Rosenzweig. She talks about her and her husband’s association and personal relationship with Franz Rosenzweig, starting in 1910 through his final illness, when she learned to take dictation from Franz Rosenzweig who could only move part of one little finger. She explains why Franz Rosenzweig decided not to convert to Christianity but to devote his life to personal Jewish learning, and to improving Jewish education for children and adults. He strove to combine orthodox practice with liberal thought. She explains why one should focus on the man and his life, not on his philosophical system and his theological teachings.
Dr. Hallo talks about Rosenzweig’s life, work, major accomplishments, publications, and some of the well-known persons who studied with him. She describes how he was able to live and to teach after he was stricken with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Franz Rosenzweig kept up an enormous correspondence, continued to write, publish and to translate Hebrew books into German until his death on December 9, 1929.
Dr. Hallo uses the historical background in Germany, the Jewish youth movement, Zionism, and the beginning of the racist Teutonic movement to explain why young Jews had to fight for their Jewish identity in Germany in the 1920s. She briefly talks about the Freikorps, the Kapp Putsch, and the economic, social, and political situation in Germany leading up to the rise of Hitler.
She reflects on Jewish participation in German art and culture and her own early experiences of antisemitism. Her husband died shortly before Hitler came to power, and she talks about her memories of the time just before and after Hitler’s rise to power and the basis of Hitler’s charisma and success.
See also her 1978 interview.
Note: the Collateral Material fileavailable through the Gratz College Tuttleman Library includes:
English translation (done in Nov. 1985) by Dr. Hallo of an article by her husband Dr. Rudolf Hallo “The Pasalter” dedicated to Franz Rosenzweig.
original restrictions released upon her death by son Wm. W. Hallo, in additional unrestricted release 2002
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Holocaust Jewish, 1933-1945, Personal narratives Jewish, Male
Count Folke Bernadotte
Death march from Hamburg
Dorsten, Westfalen, Germany.
Forced labor -- Burgsteinfurt (Germany)
Forced labor -- Liebau (Latvia)
GrossReken, Westfalen, Germany.
Jewish Ghettos -- Latvia - Riga Ghetto
Prison in Hamburg
Red Cross
World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Germany to Latvia.
World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Latvia-- Liebau.
World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Germany-- Hassel.
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Judith’s grandmother’s memoir: journal written in German byEmma Benedict Beck (1876-1973), after her release from Theresienstadt during her later years in the U.S. Donated by granddaughter Judith Leifer.
Photocopy of handwritten memoir of Emma Beckfrom 1938-1945. First pages translated by Lotte Marcus into English. Donated by granddaughter Judith Leifer.
“Vordalung” original for Emma Beck from Theresienstadt, Original bank receipt from Theresienstadt, 17 June 1943. Donated by Judith Leifer, Annenberg Research Institute.
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