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Page 11

Page 11

Translation: Lothar Herrmann only paints rooms, which is why I don't have much idea how to draw cartoons. Nor am I a mighty poet, but I did it as well as I could.

Manfred was a forced laborer for a small company that restored and repainted bombed apartments. The owner, Lothar Herrmann, was described by Manfred as a gruff but warmhearted working-class man.

By summer 1942, many of Gad and Manfred’s friends had already been deported. Every day, it seemed, meant another goodbye. Manfred, classified as ‘full-Jewish’ under the Nazi regime, was in greater danger than Gad. Gad was classified as ‘half-Jewish’ because his mother had been Christian before converting to Judaism. ‘Half-Jews,’ including Gad, continued to work as forced laborers.

Nuremburg Laws

The Nuremburg Laws of 1935 defined Jews not by their religion or by how they wanted to identify themselves but by racial criteria. According to the Nazi categorization, a “Jew” had at least three Jewish grandparents. A person with two Jewish grandparents also was categorized as a Jew if he belonged to a Jewish congregation or was married to a Jew. A “Half-Jew” was defined as a person with one or two Jewish grandparents.