Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

62

RolfLevy und Chrislina Cebullos-Levy

Rolf, center, with grandfather

same light switch my father used to turn on at night. Across the street was
the same warehouse where my family stored household and business sup-
plies. Next to the house was the building that housed my grandfather's
fencemaking business. Most prominent of all, however, was the attic win-
dow that housed the small space where my father hid from the Gestapo
when they came to search the house in 1937.

My family was one of several Jewish families in Schmieheim. My
mother's family, the Hofmanns, had been living intermittently in the town
since the Sixteenth Century. This was a fact we learned during our visit to
Schmieheim, when a town resident helped us trace our family tree in the
town's records. My father, who was born in Frankfurt, moved to
Schmieheim in 1933. At the time he arrived at Schmieheim, he already
was married to my mother and was the father of two sons - myself and my
brother, Helmuth. Eventually, my third brother, Lothar, was born in
Schmieheim.

I still cannot recall much about Jewish life in Schmieheim, other than
the festivities of the high holidays. On those occasions, relatives would
come from other towns in Germany. My mother would take out her best