ANSCHLUSS 1938
Days of panic, of wild, everchanging rumors, ominous signs of what's to come, pervasive fear. We have a beautiful apartment on a major street where all the victorious Nazi parades pass by, where all the buildings fly swastika flags, where we feel totally exposed.

Three months before on New Year's Eve 1937, we celebrated with heavy hearts, we danced, drank champagne and even mustered some bitter humor. My boyfriend Ernie and I, too young for liquor, quickly get dizzy and sleepy. New Year's day we walk in the park and console each other. We indulge in talk of a future together away from here.

A few days later my father gets arrested in his business, men in civilian clothes simply take him away, no explanation given. My sisters and I search the city, police stations, city offices, for many days, but we don't find him or get any information. Someone who has political connections and also designs on my sister finds out where my father is being held and we fnally get to see him. He had had to sign away his business, all his property, apartment, assets, everythying, also the agreement to leave the country.

Soon there were beatings in the streets, arrests, harrassments like having Jewish people clean the walls and pavements of election graffiti with toothbrushes, and then Krystallnacht. We manage to overcome all obstacles and malicious bureaucracies to find visas for Trinidad, British West Indies, but the all-important exit permits prove to be a torturous cat-and-mouse game that almost makes us miss the deadlines. We make it by a hair and travel via Holland where we board the Oranje Nassau for Port of Spain.