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1937 |
June -- Kurt Klein, aged 17, arrives in America. He begins working towards
bringing his parents to the U.S. |
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1938 |
October 10 -- The Nazis take over Ludwig Klein's business. |
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1938 |
November 9 -- "Kristallnacht," The Night of Broken Glass. Alice and Ludwig Klein's home is badly damaged during the pogrom. Ludwig is arrested, but released after a few days because of his age. (He is over 60.) The U.S. consulate in Stuttgart is besieged by people trying to leave Germany. Consular officials give Ludwig and Alice a waiting number indicating that 22,344 cases are ahead of them. |
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1939 |
Winter and Spring -- Without adequate financial resources themselves, the Klein children work desperately hard to find someone willing to sign affidavits of support for their parents. Finally they find a relative to sign an affidavit, but before the visa can be approved, this benefactor dies. The Kleins have to start the process all over again. |
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1940 |
Winter -- By the end of 1939, the affidavits the Klein children have secured for their parents have expired. By June they manage to secure new affidavits from Lucille Walker, an American-born cousin of Ludwig Klein's. |
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1940 |
June 26 -- Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long outlines ways in which consulates can indefinitely postpone granting visas. "We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and to require additional evidence and to resort to various administrative devices which would postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of the visas." |
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1940 |
Fall -- After no word from his parents for several weeks, Kurt learns from Swiss relatives that his parents Alice and Ludwig have been deported at an hour's notice to unoccupied France. They are being housed in separate barracks in a detention camp called Gurs. In his first letter to his children, Ludwig Klein urges his sons and daughter to send food or money. |
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1940 |
November -- The Kleins hope that the paperwork for their visa
application will be forwarded from the consulate in Stuttgart to the one in
Marseilles, but they worry that they may have to begin the application process
all over again. |
 |
1941 |
The Kleins work furiously throughout the year to obtain the paperwork they need to emigrate to the U.S. To be granted an American visa, the Kleins have to have proof of passage to America in addition to the affidavits of support. Three times in 1941 they book their passage. Each time they are unable to secure their visas before the ship departs. |
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1941 |
April -- Ludwig Klein is transferred to the concentration camp Les
Milles, which is closer to Marseilles and makes it easier for him to work on
his visa application. |
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1941 |
June -- American Consul in Marseilles cabled to the State Department
that the Kleins' visa case is approved, but it's too late to reach the liner
that is sailing in July. |
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1941 |
July -- New visa procedures delay immigration further. The
"relative rule" forces applicants with relatives still in Germany, Italy or
Russian territory to pass extremely strict security checks to obtain a visa.
Also an elaborate system of interdepartmental government committees are
established in Washington to painstakingly screen each immigrant application.
The effect of the new rules is that immigration is cut to 25% of the
quota. |
 |
1941 |
October 28 -- The Klein's visa case is approved by State
Department. |
|
1941 |
November -- The Kleins are summoned to the consulate in Marseilles. They
are promised a visa by December 3rd. |
 |
1941 |
December 6 -- Ludwin and Alice Klein plan to travel to the U.S. on
December 26th from Lisbon. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a day after
this letter was written, sends them back to the beginning of the application
process. |
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1942 |
Early 1942 -- Communication between the Klein parents and their children
becomes more difficult. Many of the letters sent from France are never
received. |
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1942 |
September -- Kurt's letters to his parents are returned. The envelope is
stamped "Return to sender, moved, no forwarding address." |
 |
1942 |
November 4 -- The U.S. State Department authorizes its consul in Marseilles to issue Ludwig and Alice Klein with immigration visas. The good
news is too late for the Kleins; they were deported to Auschwitz ten weeks
earlier. |
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1942 |
November -- Kurt is drafted into the U.S. Army. |
|
1945 |
April -- Kurt is among the U.S. troops that liberate Volary, in
Czechoslovakia. The America soldiers find 120 young Jewish women in an old
factory where they have been abandoned by their SS guards. One of the women,
Gerda Weissmann, later becomes Kurt's wife. In 1957 she publishes an account of
her story titled "All But My Life." The book is now in its 43rd printing. |
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1946 |
March 26 -- The Tracing Service for Deported and Dispersed Jews informs
the Klein children that their parents were sent from France to Auschwitz on the
19th of August 1942 -- i.e., ten weeks before the State Department finally
approved their visa application |