Lost in a Labyrinth of Red Tape

Fewer than half of all the German Jews, who were discriminated against, persecuted, and eventually murdered by the Nazis, were able to save themselves by fleeing abroad. Sadly, a large number, deeply rooted in German culture, were unwilling or unable to emigrate; after ""Kristallnacht"", the pogrom of 1938, the bureaucratic and financial obstacles to emigration became nearly insurmountable. This is the story of one family's desperate attempts to emigrate from Hitler's Germany. The Fruhaufs experienced endless bureaucratic chicanery and faced enormous difficulties with the German and foreign authorities and government agencies in their efforts to take advantage of matriarch Hilda Fruhauf's us citizenship. At the mercy of the greed of various agencies and shippers, they became more and more entangled in ""a labyrinth of red tape"". The Fruhaufs' daughter was forced into hiding in 1943, fleeing from the Nazis to Belgium, where she was given protection by the Resistance. Miraculously, she survived. The remaining members of her immediate family were unable to secure permission to emigrate, and were killed by the Nazis. This story, first published in Germany as part of S. Fischer Verlag's Lebensbilder (Portraits of Jewish Lives) series, is an account of a family fighting desperately for their lives and a testament to their courage and fortitude. Armin Schmid was born in Munich in 1926. His essays and articles have appeared in various journals and newspapers. Renate Schmid was born in Schweinfurt, Germany in 1925, and has worked in journalism and as an editor. The Schmids have collaborated on five works of non-fiction. Margot Bettauer Dembo is an editor with the American Museum of Natural History who has translated works by Robert Gernhardt, Herta M!ller, and Hans-Joachim Maaz. Wolfgang Benz is the Director of The Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism in Berlin. This book is intended for students and researchers in 20th-century German history and Holocaust studies.