A question about Nazi Germany

I'd say early 1930s, before the NSDAP came into power. After that, things got worse and worse for the Jews.

That's going to be hard. Persecutions started almost immediately when the NSDAP came to power in 1933.
The first boycotts were in April 1933, but there was an anti-Jewish atmosphere long before that. Unless they were friends in secret, I don't think the father who must have been a member of the NSDAP before Hitler became Chancellor would have approved of the friendship.
The first deportations began in 1941

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-GB/bronnenbank.asp?oid=3142

2008: Lapis Lazuli (historical fiction)
One minute of bad writing is better than one hour of good thinking - Harry Mulisch

Technically the concentration camps like Dachau were created to hold political prisoners and I believe by the time Hitler came to power, 1933, they were in place or being built.

Extermination and labor camps, primarily in Poland, were built following the Wannsee Conference and if I remember correctly that was 1941.

Measures against Jews were begun in earnest in 1935 with the Nuremberg Laws, which defined Jews by racial standards rather than societal ones (for example, a Lutheran minister with a Jewish father would be considered Jewish, even if he had no ties to the religion). I believe the category for Jewish was one Jewish grandparent. There were Mischlinge, mixed children, who were not always necessarily deported.

1938 was the year of Kristallnacht, when the government-sanctioned pogrom swept across the country (And Austria) and thousands of shop windows were broken, the stores looted, and many people taken to camps. If memory serves, those would have been more labor camps than extermination camps, and because the war hadn't begun they would be in Germany.

I did a concentration in Judaic studies with an even tighter concentration on the Holocaust in college, and I've read tons of stuff about the Holocaust, but I've been out of college for 8 years now and not 100% sure that all my dates are absolutely accurate.

A book I started reading recently is called Children With a Star by Deborah Dwork. It's from 1989, so not sure how easy it will be to find.

I also have this book:
http://www.a1books.com/cgi-bin/mktSearch?act=showDesc&ITEM_CODE=04650857...

but haven't read it yet. It might be helpful.

Also, while a lot of Jews were deported, a small number remained in hiding - just something to think about :)

Ilse Koehn's Mischling, Second Degree I have loved for decades. I think I first read it when I was 10 or something. It's a diary of a half-Jewish girl and gives an interesting perspective.

I have dozens of books on the topic, but mostly about young adults and many of them Polish. I'm at work right now so I can't just look at my shelf and remember what I have! :)

I think someone in another forum recommended the website of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and I also think that's a great place to check out.

Good luck! I'd love to know how it's going.

The Wansee Conference was 1942.

There is a lot of information if you google Holocaust Chronicle. It is a HUGE volume that is completely put up on a website. It is very helpful.

Don't forget that the Nazi propaganda targeted German children very heavily in their anti-Jewish brainwashing. In the 1930s, they taught children at schools how to tell a Jew by the way a person looks. The following is a quote from a 1930s German school textbook -- I quote it from memory, but I remember it very well (sorry, don't stone me to death, it's a quote!!) "You can always tell a Jew by his prominent nose, his greedy eyes and obnoxious appearance." So if your kids went to school and were exposed to such logic-defying speeches, I don't think they were likely to befriend Jewish kids. They probably checked every strange kid's nose before playing with him/her! :-)

ah, but that's assuming that you can tell a Jewish person from that criteria.

If you've ever seen the movie Europa Europa, about a Jewish boy who "passes" for non-Jewish after his family are killed is actually held up before his Hitler Youth race science class, his nose and ears measured, and pronounced a very fit specimen of Aryan - er, suitability.

So there's every chance that a non-Jew could befriend a Jew, at least based on looks :)

A Jewish Mother entered her baby in the Little Miss Aryan pageant, or something to that effect, and won.

I'm also Jewish and look quite Aryan. As an actor, I NEVER play Jews because of that stereotype and am always playing all-American WASPS or Eastern Europeans lol

Hey, I don't question that! :-))))

I just wanted to say that those German kids would be likely to be strongly prejudiced against all Jewish kids so that's something that might be worth taking into consideration.

You're right, cause they didn't only hear about these (as we know stupid) facts their schoolbooks were full of pictures.
But never forget it was dangerous!!

Maybe this book helps to research the backgrounds....
Friedrich

Alirion war nicht alleine, dass sagte ihr ihr Verstand, auch wenn sie es nicht fühlen konnte.

Alirion war nicht alleine, dass sagte ihr ihr Verstand, auch wenn sie es nicht fühlen konnte.

I wrote a play about the Holocaust that was produced about 2 years ago. We used propoganda images and slogans as part of the set, and finding the stuff out there was unbelievable.

I had to blow some of them up at Kinko's too, which was really embarrassing. I kept telling them it was for a play and they were like "It's okay!" lol

There are three or four issues you have raised, so I'll try to explain each of them.

Racial anti-Semitism was well in place before Hitler came to power in 1933. However, it was not generally a "cause of action" for most people. Jews were despised, and some of the real hardcore haters might have boycotted Jewish merchants, but that's about it. Once Hitler was named Chancellor, things immediately started to change.

School texts began to deal with the issue, so it became daily instruction at all schools (except the Jewish schools, such as Grosse Hamburger Strasse in Berlin). At some point early on, probably 1934, Jewish students were identified at the schools. They were characterized by one or two Jewish parents. At that point many "proper Nazis" started making certain their children did not associate with Jewish children. Your character would have to deal with that, especially if the parent was a Nazi officer.

Later, the Nürnberg laws came into play and Jews were gradually removed from society. Over time professions became off limits...doctors, then lawyers, then pharmacists (chemists) and so forth. The Wiki page dealing with the Nürnberg laws has a pretty decent explanation, and it's reasonably accurate. The laws also began to place individual limits on Jews. No radios, no telephones, no pets, a curfew, etc. This was all before the war started.

The "concentration camps" were originally used to imprison political enemies and Jews. Sachenhausen was an early camp, although there were many others. These were NOT the death camps, although death at the camps was not uncommon.

If you want a good history of your situation, told from the Jewish point of view, find a copy of The Lost Children of Berlin, a program put together by the Shoah Visual History Foundation and Steven Spielberg. It has interviews with the children (who are obviously now older adults) and a great bit of footage from the times. You may not be placing your characters in Berlin, but it is probably the best visual story of what it was like.

If you need anything more, just send me an email...the addy is in my profile.

GP

GP
--------------
2006 NaNo winner - Berlin, Witnesses at the Crossroads of History, Book I
2007 NaNo winner - Berlin, Witnesses at the Crossroads of History, Book II

I am writing a story that takes place in Nazis Germany and have done a lot of research. This timeline from PBS has helped me the most. Feel free to email me if you have any questions of Nazi Germany or just want a fellow writer to talk to. Good luck!!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/timeprint.html

With all due respect, it looks like you are going to write another version of "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas"

Number of hours spent writing: 6
Number of characters killed: 5
All nighters: 1
Writer blocks: 2
Bars eaten: 34
Diet cokes consumed: 24