“I still remember the day they took him. I watched as the Gestapo dragged him away. Nobody did anything. They all stood there, paralyzed by fear, hoping they were not next.” For my project, I decided to interview my grandmother, Marion Heidi Buechner Fratzscher. Marion was born on June 21st, 1938, the second daughter of Hedwig “Heidi” and Paul Buechner, in Berlin, Germany. Her father worked at the Dresdner Bank building in downtown Zehlendorf. The four-story tall building reflected the Nazi’s dream of a “Thousand Years Reich” and used limestone instead of the modern concrete and steel girders. Marion explains, “The Nazi’s believed that, by using limestone, they were mirroring Roman and Greek building structures and would therefore also last for a thousand years.” Her mother, on the other hand, stayed home and cared for Marion and her sister, Christa.
Marion grew up in Zehlendorf, a fairly wealthy borough in the southwest …show more content…
When asked about her worst memory of the war, Marion sat very still, unable to speak at first. After collecting her thoughts, she shared the story of her father with me. “It was November 3rd, 1943. That was the day they took him away.” Following Hitler’s order in late 1941 to kill all Jews in Europe, some Germans began to take action, including Paul Buechner. In early 1942, he began to plan with his Jewish colleague. He worked with others friends to create documents showing the family’s departure from Germany to Sweden. In June 1942, after four months of careful preparation, Paul, in the middle of the night, smuggled his colleague and his family into the attic of the Buechner house. There, he hid the colleague, his wife, and his two children for a year and a half. Paul would carefully sneak food and supplies upstairs, making sure that his wife and children were unaware of his actions; if he were to be caught, Paul did not want to risk the lives of his wife and
Marion grew up in Zehlendorf, a fairly wealthy borough in the southwest …show more content…
When asked about her worst memory of the war, Marion sat very still, unable to speak at first. After collecting her thoughts, she shared the story of her father with me. “It was November 3rd, 1943. That was the day they took him away.” Following Hitler’s order in late 1941 to kill all Jews in Europe, some Germans began to take action, including Paul Buechner. In early 1942, he began to plan with his Jewish colleague. He worked with others friends to create documents showing the family’s departure from Germany to Sweden. In June 1942, after four months of careful preparation, Paul, in the middle of the night, smuggled his colleague and his family into the attic of the Buechner house. There, he hid the colleague, his wife, and his two children for a year and a half. Paul would carefully sneak food and supplies upstairs, making sure that his wife and children were unaware of his actions; if he were to be caught, Paul did not want to risk the lives of his wife and