Paper Airplanes

s ne la ,

p ya ir a A i, M r m a& pe h, A lin Pa Sara ta, Atine a s K h ri C

In memory of those who died‌

Preface Aaron and Noah have been friends since they can first remember.

The year is 1936 and signs of the Holocaust are beginning to surface in Germany. The Nuremberg laws and other anti-Semitic legislations pose a threat to lives of the two Jewish boys. Noah’s father, a renowned scientist and asset to the American government, is given the coveted refuge many other Jews were denied, including Aaron’s family. Within two weeks of his request, he is ready to move his family to New York. The two boys promise to keep in touch. This is a heart-wrenching story of friendship as portrayed through numerous letters written by two boys growing up during the horrors of World War II.

January 31, 1936 Dear Aaron, We just got to our new apartment. It’s so cool I have my own room and everything! We’re living in a big city called New York City. America is very different than Germany. There’s different money, different road signs, different license plates, and they drive on the wrong side of the road! And just wait till you taste this drink called Coca Cola! It looks kind of brown and yucky and explodes out of the bottle but it’s completely delicious. I even got to visit the tallest building in the world, the Empire State building. I’ve learned a lot more English here than I did in Froehling Schneider's class. People here aren’t as mean to me as they were in Germany, but some moms won’t let their kids play with me. Mommy says it’s their loss. I miss you so much. I think you would really like it here.

I’ll tell my dad everyday that he should tell the President to let you move.

Write back soon.

Sincerely, Noah P.S. This is my address. Write me here.

The Empire State building stood as the world's tallest building from 1931 until 1970

Lower East Side of NYC in 1941: An area that now has a large Jewish population.

The early 1930’s were a period of recovery and growth in the United States after the Great Depression. After already going through World War I, no one wanted to be a part of any more conflicts. People in the U.S. were worried about bringing in Jewish people and giving them homes in America, because it could anger the Germans and send the wrong message of war. Noah’s family was different because his father was an important scientist that could help the Americans create bombs and other weapons to help with the war against Germany.

Other German Jews, however, were not allowed into the U.S... The official amount of refugees let in from 1933 to 1944 was about 26,000 a year, but in reality, the U.S. only let under half of those people in (Allison).

N ovem ber 30, 1937

D ear Noah, Your new apartm ent looks very nice! Sorry I took so long to respon d. A lot has been goin g on . Yesterday I overheard m y parents talking. You know how m y father is a doctor? W ell, he w as com plaining about som e new law s. H e’s apparently only allow ed to treat Jew ish people and can’t w ork past certain hours. H e said they m ight close his practice dow n too. I feel like everything is falling apart. There are all these new rules I have to follow too. You know that park that w e’d alw ays m eet up at? I’m not allow ed to play there anym ore! I see all the kids w ithout stars there, I don’t know w hy I can ’t join in... O h! I forgot to talk about that! M e, and all the kids at the at our tem ple, have to w ear stars on our clothes. It’s the little Star of D avid. I’ve asked m y m om and d ad w hy w e have to w ear them , but they haven’t been givin g an y clear an sw ers. I’m a bit frustrated. The other kids at school m ake fun of m e for w earing the star, but I really like it. It m akes m e proud… Still, thin gs have been w eird since you left. I really m iss you and w ish you’d com e back. But I have good new s! I m ight be able to see you soon.

M y parents said that they bought tickets for a boat to Cuba.

I’ll m ail you w hen I get there!

Your friend, Aaron

All Jews were made to wear the Star of David, setting them apart from other people.

The sign on a Jewish-owned store, put up by Nazi soldiers reads: "Germans! Defend yourselves! Do not buy from Jews."

The new rules that Aaron is talking about were called the Nuremberg Laws. These laws not only stated that Jewish people could not be citizens, or a part of Germany, but also said that they could not have the same rights as people of other religions. For example, doctors were not allowed to perform on anyone but Jews, like Aaron’s father.

They could not go to certain parks, like the one that Aaron and Noah always used to go to. The laws did not even allow Jews to marry other Germans. To make it easier for officers to enforce these laws, Jews were forced to wear a Star of David on their clothes, to be identified (Hathaway).

February 15, 1939 Hi Aaron!

I shared your last letter with Mommy and Daddy. My dad got really mad about it. Our new neighbors were over at the time and they went into this big discussion about German politics blah blah blah. They think what’s happening is terrible and are determined to join some Jewish organization to persuade and pressure the government to take action. Our neighbors are also members of some refugee board. Daddy says they might be able to help your family. They also started talking about this thing… I can’t remember what it’s called. The Hollowcast? I’m not really sure… But I guess it’s important. What do people in Germany think? Hey! I also thought I was supposed to see you soon! You said you were going to arrive in Cuba two weeks ago, where are you? I heard my parents say something about a ship with refugees being sent back to Germany, I hope it wasn’t yours. Dad has been working a lot (he got a government job) but he can’t talk about it at home so I’m not sure what he’s working on. Mom says it’s bad that the U.S. isn’t letting in so many other people. I wish they would, then you could’ve come with us to America. Please write soon, I sent this to your house.

Sincerely, Noah

In 1938, Germany took over Austria. During Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass, hundreds of Jews were killed and synagogues were destroyed. Now previous American feelings for ignoring the Jewish people had begun to change slightly. President Roosevelt held the Evian Conference in 1938 to try and convince other countries to help take in refugees. The U.S. made excuses, saying that they had already filled their immigration quotas. Other countries made excuses too, but Australia frankly said, “we have no real racial problem and we are not desirous of importing one” (Wright essay).

They basically meant that it should not be their problem, because it may cause the Germans to go against them. In the U.S., some people had this view, while others just wanted to cut down on immigration.

American Jews and immigrants, like Noah’s family completely disagreed and wanted their friends to be able to leave Europe. No matter what opinion they had, most people in the U.S. believed that the German government was not being fair (Wright).

August 13, 1939

D ear Noah, W e w ere supposed to go to Cuba on a ship called the SS St. Louis but w hen w e arrived the Port Authority said that the Visa that m y dad had spent pretty m uch all of our saved up m oney on w as invalid. They w ouldn’t let anyone one disem bark, then the captain tried to take us to the U .S.A. but they w ouldn’t let us dock there either. I’m a little scared because m om and dad are acting very stressed and they have long conversations all I could catch w as som ething about how hiding is our only hope now and they talk ed about a Christian fam ily w ho w e w ere very close friends w ith (you rem em ber the Kastn ers right?).

W hat m akes

everything w orse is how happy w e w ere just a few short w eeks ago. After being abused by so m any people in Germ any, w e had alm ost forgotten w hat respect felt like un til w e stepped foot on the St. Louis. H ere w e w ere treated w ith deferen ce and people didn’t seem to care that w e w ere Jew ish. (O f course it helped that alm ost everyone on the ship w as Jew ish like us and trying to escape Nazism ). It felt unreal and the hope of a new life aw ay from Germ any m ade everyone that m uch happier. M any people talked about friends and fam ily they hoped to see (I talked about you to a couple people).

W ell it’s all over now . W e couldn’t find any European country to dock at either as w e returned, plus dad said w e had no assurance that H itler w ouldn’t invade them soon.

I’m not sure w hen I w ill see you again but I hope it’s soon, I

can barely rem em ber w hat a norm al life feels like and I m iss the safety of our childhood (D ear god it seem s so far aw ay now !). I w ant you to know that I w as and alw ays w ill be.

Your friend, Aaron

P.S. M om just told m e w hat I had begun to suspect, w e are goin g to go in to hidin g in the Kastn ers’ attic so send your letters to their address now but I have to tell you I’m not sure it w ill be safe for m e to reply to you. And N oah, it’s not “H ollow cast,” its H olocaust

The boat that Aaron was on, the SS St. Louis was the subject of a controversial scandal that highlighted the attitude of most countries toward Jewish refugees from Europe. SS St Louis sailed from Germany to Cuba in May 1939 carrying 930 refugees. In Havana they were not allowed to land and when they turned to the United States their pleas were met similarly and they were forced to turn around. Eventually, about 30% of the Jewish refugees on board died in concentration camps because they were refused much needed asylum by both Cuba and the United States of America (Wright).

This is the SS St Louis and the path it took on its historic thwarted mission to deliver 930 Jewish refugees to safety.

Jews being caught by Nazi soldiers and taken to concentration camps

March 22, 1943 Dear Aaron, Sorry, it’s been a long time since I last wrote to you. I saw an article about the Holocaust in The New York Times, but it was only on page 6… this kind of thing should be headline news, people need to know! The things Hitler is doing in Europe are horrifying, and America could be doing so much more if people would just act. I’m starting to wonder how much the American people have actually been alerted to.

Not everyone is at a loss though. Just this month Rabbi Stephen Wise organized a rally of thousands in Madison Square Gardens and they used the slogan “Stop Hitler Now.” Rabbi Wise also asked important people in the government for further action to aid the Jews in Europe. Hopefully help is coming your way, and I really hope you’re all holding up okay. I’m looking forward to when this whole mess is over and done with.

Your friend, Noah

After the New York Times reported mass killings in Chelmno, Poland, in 1942 on page 6 and the hiding of stories like this became common, The Reigner Report informed the US council in Geneva of the persecution, transportation, and mass murders that were happening.

Sumner Welles (the undersecretary at the State Department in the USA) received the report in early August but he withheld the information from America. Sidney Silverman of British Parliament eventually informed Rabbi Stephen Wise the president of WJC. Welles asked that it remain unpublished. Reigner continued to send reports of the horrible things the Nazis were doing, and came up with a plan to save 70000 Jews by moving them to safer countries.

Unfortunately, this plan never happened because no money was ever set-aside for it from the US until 6 months later when news of more Jews being killed in Poland reached President Roosevelt. After receiving this news in 1944 the War Refugee Board was set up, sending Reigners plan into action. However, before the WRB could be created, Roosevelt tried to help the Jews through the Catholic Church to create a safe zone for Jews, however, was met with his own argument that the best way to help was win the war, and the plan was rejected to prevent a Nazi attack on the Church. The House of Representatives did however plan to rescue European Jews, and the Senate accepted the same plan. This plan proposed setting up temporary refugee housing in Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Once the US joined the war they were extremely helpful in saving Jews. The US Army units discovered concentration camps before any of the other Western allies. The United States continued to find and liberate these concentration camps, and showed German citizens the horrors of their government.

At the beginning of the Holocaust, concentration camps were portrayed as areas where Jewish people could live peacefully.

Concentration camp prisoners

May 8, 1947 Dear Aaron, It’s been two years since the war has ended and almost ten since the last time I wrote to you. I have come to accept the fact that I will never see you again. I can’t say that these past years have been easy without you. I used to look for you everywhere, hoping that I’d find you or maybe even a sign that you were watching over me from a better place, but I think I am finally at ease with your passing. I now understand many aspects of the war that I simply couldn’t at the age of 10. For one, when I first moved here I didn’t know how opposed Americans were to our immigration. Even though they knew of the persecution of Jews in Germany, they feared our political beliefs and even believed that immigration would increase crime and prostitution rates. The fact that Wagner-Rogers Bill (to help Jewish children emigrate to the U.S.) was defeated in Congress also says a lot about the U.S’s position during the war (“The Holocaust”). This has shown me how cruel the world really is. But regardless of this, the U.S. has become my home now. I will never take advantage of the freedom and opportunity that it allows me.

At 21 years old, I have decided to become a special services detective to root out the Nazis and do my best in preventing genocides in the future.

With the effect that the war has had on my life, this job only feels right. I want to be able to give back and I want you to know that when people ask me about the war, I will look them in the eye and tell them the reality of

it. People need to know about this time that will forever go down in history. Your death and the deaths of the millions of Jews during the Holocaust will never be forgotten.

Love, Noah

Austria, May 1945 (after Hitler’s death): An American soldier helps prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

The war finally ends in Europe on May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered