On the train

In the course of our regular train trips with our mother to spend the Jewish holidays with our Kaufmann grandmother near Cologne, Ernst and I were mesmerized by the glorious appearance of the conductor with his golden braid and buttons—here was what we both wanted to be—that, or firemen.

He came towards us, looked down upon us with the air of nonchalant authority of someone who knows his place in the world, smiled and proceeded to check our national identity cards; we were awed. To his surprise and horror, our cards were of a distinct color, of the vile color reserved for sub-humans, non-persons, Jews.

The conductor was taken aback by the fact that these blond, blue-eyed children did not fit the stereotypes illustrated in the Nazi rag "Der Stürmer." In his shock, he shouted, within earshot of all the passengers,"Rassenschande," implying that someone in our lineage was guilty of race-mixing, a capital offense.

Our mother, proud to be one of the "Chosen People," recounted this occurrence in order to illustrate the stupidity and arbitrariness of the powers-that-be.

The concept of "Rassenschande"—racial miscegenation—as a capital offense, was a concept developed by German colonizers in the African German colony of Namibia, at the end of the 19th Century.