Congregation Ohav Sholom

Peter Brody - Exodus From Berlin

And the Lord said unto Moses: Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. And lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground. Exodus XIV, 15-16.

Adorning the wall in Peter Brody's den in Merrick, are numerous photographs. Three of them are family photos, snapped at the wedding of each of his three daughters. Neatly arranged in various corners of the den, are children's toys, waiting to welcome the grandchildren on their next visit to grandma and opa (grandpa). Baruch HaShem, from his three daughters, Peter and his wife Marsha enjoy seven grandchildren, and Peter sports the contented smile of a proud grandfather.

But, were it not for the careful planning and persistence of Peter's parents to leave Berlin in 1938, and for a fateful decision the elder Mr. Brody made one September evening that same year on the German side of the Germany-Holland border, Peter's "dynasty," as he calls it, might never have gotten off the ground. This emotion, was palpable when I interviewed Peter for this article this past January. Peter and his parents were dangerously close to being trapped in World War II Germany. His story is worth telling.

There are always those Jews who due to their superior "sense of smell" are able to read the handwriting on the wall and leave a place of impending doom, before it's clear to all, which by then is inevitably too late for everyone else. Peter is quick to admit that for his father Leo, leaving Germany behind wasn't too difficult. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Leo Brody was originally from Russia, not Germany and settled in Berlin only after being taken prisoner by the Germans in the First World War. His parents were no longer alive, having died years earlier in a typhus epidemic. Leo Brody had already uprooted himself once before and he decided to do it again, when he saw his dental practice beginning to decline, following the enactment of The Nuremberg Laws in 1935 and other anti-Semitic legislation, prohibiting German gentiles from being treated by Jewish doctors and dentists. The rise of state sponsored anti-Semitism in Germany was undeniable by 1936.

Peter, who was only five when the family left Germany, has some vivid memories of that period, some tinged with pre-war and anti-semitic undertones, like watching from his living room window, as a fleet of zeppelins flew overhead, or his parents hanging a set of red and another set of black shades to prevent light from being seen from the outside, in case of an air raid. Peter still recalls going downstairs with his housekeeper to the street from the Brody's apartment, after an air raid drill, and seeing a red Jewish star painted on his father's shingle, which hung outside their apartment building.

Mr. Brody saw his livelihood disappearing before his eyes and the safety of his family threatened. So he mapped out and executed a well planned exit strategy from Germany. Already in 1936, he went to the United States on a visit for about two months, to scout work opportunities and the general situation. He came back more convinced than ever that the move to America provided the most promising future for his family. He had siblings already living in America, which made the U.S. a natural choice.

It wasn't a simple process. Passports had to be in place for mother, father and young Peter. Permits had to be obtained from the Gestapo confirming that the Brodys were free of all debts . Lastly, they had to obtain visas to immigrate to the U.S. Due to a strict quota system in the U.S., this was the most difficult of all the required papers and took several years to obtain. Since Peter's father was a Russian national, he applied for his visa under the quota allotted to Russian citizens. This process took somewhat less time than the wait for German nationals wishing to immigrate to the U.S. He received his visa and green card in August of 1938 (see photos of Leo Brody's permit, passport and visa). He wasted no time and purchased three tickets for an ocean liner sailing from Le Havre France on October 1, 1938.

The plan was to take a train from Berlin to Amsterdam, spend a few days with Peter's maternal grandfather (who had remarried and had moved to Amsterdam), try to convince him and his wife to leave Europe and join them later in America and finally to board another train for Paris. After a day in Paris, they would travel to Le Havre to board the ship to America. Although Peter does not view this as an escape from Germany, he more than likely would have viewed it as such, had the Brodys still been in Germany only five weeks later, during Krystalnacht (November 9, 1938). But Peter's father perhaps through a sixth sense or just plain good fortune did not wait.

The train from Berlin reached the Germany-Holland border after 11:00 P.M. At the border, the train stopped and all the passengers were ordered off the train. Apparently, the border between the two countries was about to close at midnight. So the passengers were not going to be allowed through. Border closings of this type were not an uncommon occurrence. They could last anywhere from a few hours to days. It was anyone's guess how long the border would be closed. The border closing could conceivably cause the Brodys to literally miss the boat.

Peter still remembers the sight of the passengers sitting on their suitcases on the train platform after being ordered off the train. Whether Peter's father was viewing in his mind's eye a future family catastrophe is doubtful. He knew that he had three tickets to sail to America several days later and that he must get his family to the other side of the border.

Toward this end, Mr. Brody performed a fateful act that Peter, only five years old at the time, remembers to this very day. He decided to start screaming angrily at the border guards that he and his family were Russian nationals and not Germans and therefore had better be allowed to cross the border. This was at a time when the Russian-German non-aggression pact, signed by Hitler and Stalin, was in effect. Evidently, Mr. Brody was forceful or convincing enough. He ended up causing such a ruckus that the Germans were glad to rid themselves of him, his wife and Peter by loading them on a milk train headed for Amsterdam. They had crossed the Red Sea.

What a sigh of relief the Brodys must have breathed as they crossed the border into Holland. After arriving in Paris from Amsterdam, Peter remembers his parents commenting that Paris did not look as well lit and bright as usual (a possible portent of things to come). Peter was seasick for much of the voyage to America, although he still remembers the Yom Kippur service being held on the ship, especially the Torah being lifted.

Peter still gets teary-eyed today when he recalls the sight of the Statue of Liberty greeting him and his parents at the entrance to New York Harbor. After landing in New York, the Brodys lived with Peter's aunt in the Bronx (his dad's sister). By the end of 1938, the family moved to Crown Heights. Much of the Brodys' social life would center around organizations of German Jewish immigrants in similar circumstances. In fact, it was at an annual Purim ball, sponsored by one of these organizations, that Peter met his future wife Marsha.

Peter went on to receive his B.A. and degree in dentistry from N.Y.U. and practiced for about 40 years. I asked Peter if his parents ever verbalized to him how miraculous it was that they had so narrowly escaped the horrors of the Holocaust. (Peter's grandfather in Holland, who refused to take the family's advice and leave Holland for America, ended up being sent to Theresienstadt. After being ransomed by Swiss relatives, he died while walking from Theresienstadt to the Swiss border). Although they didn't verbalize such feelings, at least not to Peter, Peter says that a more likely response from his parents would have been a hand on the forehead and a shake of the head saying: "could you imagine..." as the senior Brody would read and hear about the horrible events unfolding in Europe.

I leave it up to people wiser than I am to explain why the Brodys survived, why the elder Brody decided that throwing a fit of rage was his best chance and why it succeeded. Suffice to say... there is a den with three wedding photos and toys in it waiting to welcome grandchildren.

"And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left." -Exodus XIV, 22

September 2001

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Michael Rosenbloom is a member of Congregation Ohav Sholom. He can be reached at spidermr@aol.com.

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