Fleeing Fascism one Farfetched Footstep at a Time
It is November 10, 1938, and eight-year-old Wolf cannot ignore the relentless pounding of fists outside his front door. It sounds like an army, but when he opens the door of his apartment he finds just one Gestapo agent standing there, staring him down. “Heil Hitler,” the man bellows, right arm outstretched like a weapon. “Where is your father?”
With mock courage Wolf claims ignorance of his Papa’s whereabouts. Stammering, he says,” My f—father has b—been in an accident and has g—gone to the h—hospital.
He is lying of course. He has been practicing this line all morning, as per his parents’ instructions. Lying does not come easily to Wolf; he has been raised never to deceive authority figures. But just that morning his parents had received an urgent telephone call from Wolf’s uncle describing a dire situation outside. “They are rounding up all the Jewish men,” his uncle blurted out in panicked voice “and sending them to concentration camps. I was pulled from my apartment building last night. The only thing that saved me was my iron cross from the Great War. They are coming for you, too, Arthur. Any minute now. You must hide!” Since the call, Wolf’s parents have been wandering around the city, desperately trying to hide his father, Arthur, somewhere —anywhere—to save him from deportation. The problem is, they have no plan whatsoever. There is no place to hide.
Back in the apartment, the Gestapo agent has decided to ignore Wolf’s stuttering explanation. Perhaps he can see the mendacity on young Wolf’s face because he pushes through the front door and begins to ransack the apartment. Sweeping from room to room, his tan trench coat parachutes behind him as he walks, his black leather boots pounding in synchrony to the rhythm of Wolf’s heart. He scours the closets and scrutinizes every inch of the modest walk-up apartment, searching under the rugs for hidden trapdoors, and rapping his stick against the wooden floor in search of loose floorboards. Wolf holds his breath as the Gestapo agent studies his face for any hint of deception.
The location of this incident is Berlin. And the scene is not fictional, for this is my family’s unique story of Nazi persecution and their subsequent remarkable efforts to escape. It is the morning after Kristallnacht (the “night of broken glass”) and throughout the previous night, Berlin had been plunged into chaos in an orchestrated riot. Synagogues were ransacked and set ablaze, Jewish businesses vandalized and reduced to rubble, and Jewish men mercilessly dragged into the streets, subjected to humiliation, beatings, or death, as the police either participated or stood idly by. Tens of thousands of Jewish men pulled from their homes were corralled in the bitter cold, soon to be marched to concentration camps, their footsteps crunching on shards of shattered glass that now littered every street.
At eight years old, Wolf was already used to many forms of hardship. In just the prior four years of Hitler’s hold on power, he had been told he could not sit on a park bench, go to a concert, or dine in a restaurant. He had become used to signs everywhere that read “Jews forbidden” or “Jews not wanted.” He had been denied entrance to public school. He had watched the customers of his family’s store disappear after his parents were compelled to declare their store a Jewish business. He had seen them lose their German citizenship and felt the crushing pain as all his Christian friends suddenly stopped speaking to him. In his young life, he had experienced myriad forms of prejudice, deprivation and loss. But this was the first time he had been truly afraid.
After Kristallnacht, Wolf’s odyssey is just beginning. What will happen next? Will his father be picked up and deported? Will his family make it out of Germany intact before war breaks out? How will they do this when no one in the world wants immigrants, not even the US who is intentionally slowing down the visa process? How will they survive when their own government is stripping them of their assets, freezing their bank accounts, robbing them blind, and that is before they plan to kill them all?
"American Wolf: From Nazi Refugee to American Spy" is an electrifying true account brimming with last-minute rescues and life-and death struggles that defy the impossible. This gripping narrative is not just a tale of survival, but a profound coming of age story, delving into the complexities of family dynamics and the search for national identity. Wolf’s remarkable return to Germany as a US intelligence officer during the Cold War serves as another powerful testament to his indomitable spirit. Drawing from my father’s notes, I’ve woven a vivid narrative that encapsulates Wolf's childhood in Berlin, his harrowing escape from Nazi Germany, and the relentless challenges that defined his quest for freedom.
