Manfred Frank

Manfred Frank, the youngest child of Irma and Carl Frank, was born in November 1936 and lived in Weseke, Germany, a small town close to the Dutch border. His father was a World War I veteran who worked as a cattle dealer.

Even before Manfred’s birth, Germany passed restrictive laws against its Jewish citizens, barring them from most professions and severely restricting their businesses. Manfred’s father began smuggling Jewish refugees over the border into Holland.

On the night of November 9-10, 1938, countrywide acts of terror and destruction, known as Kristallnacht , “Night of Broken Glass,” were directed against Germany’s Jews. Manfred’s father was imprisoned and his oldest sister was expelled from school. Unable to leave the country, the entire family was trapped.

A few months after Mr. Frank was released from prison, the family received notice that they were to be deported to “the East.” The family was sent to Riga, Latvia, and forced to live in a sealed-off ghetto. The previous 30,000 Jewish residents of the ghetto had been murdered by the Nazis to make room for the thousands of German Jews now being sent there.

Conditions in the ghetto were horrendous. There was little food and water, and most sanitary facilities had been shut down by the Germans. Thousands died from starvation, disease, and exposure.

Manfred lived in one room with his mother, father, older sisters, and four aunts. His father was shot while at work for stealing food for his starving family.

On November 2, 1942, the ghetto was emptied. The Nazis seized Manfred and his family, along with most of the other residents of the ghetto, and gassed them in sealed transport vans.

Jewish life in Germany dates back to the days of the Roman Europe. As with the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages, the rights of Jews in Germany were greatly limited due to the influence of the church. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the situation changed and Jews found greater acceptance in German society. Most German Jews quickly assimilated into the environment around them. Many became prominent musicians, writers, teachers, scientists, politicians and businessmen. Antisemitism, though still a factor in German society, was not as prevalent as in Eastern Europe. As a result, German Jews were fiercely patriotic and fully identified with their country’s hopes and dreams.