Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

A Father's Story

65

we embarked upon a steamship called "Cuba", which was docked at Le
Havre. Düring World War I, this ship served as a military transport vessel.
On this day, it was transporting Jewish emigrants to South America. It was
not until a few years ago that I became aware that the - then President of
Colombia, Eduardo Santos, had granted permission to a limited number of
Jewish families to enter Colombia. When I was older, I learned that, short-
ly before our departure from Schmieheim, my parents had traveled to the
Colombian consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, to obtain the entry permits for
Colombia. I am not certain why my parents chose Colombia, but I believe
that other South American countries, such as Argentina, had reached their
quota for Jewish immigrants.

Our trip aboard the steamship lasted for more than three weeks. It al-
ways amazes me that there are only two things I can remember about my
family's voyage to Colombia. The first is that, despite my fragile heart
condition, I was one of few people aboard the steamship that did not be-
come seasick during the trip. I befriended a young Polish, Jewish boy, who
also was named Rolf. We seemed to be the only two people who were un-
affected by the seasickness-epidemic, and we had the run of the boat to
ourselves for the entire three weeks. My other memory is of our first stop,
which took place in the Canary Islands. Several gypsies boarded the ship
there. When these new passengers boarded, the crew placed all of their
luggage on one side of the ship. Until these passengers disembarked some
days later, the ship seemed to be traveling tilted to one side. I was afraid
that we were going to capsize, but the ship returned to its normal State once
these passengers disembarked with their luggage.

In September of 1938, my family and I arrived at Puerto Colombia in
the northern coast of the country. All I remember about my arrival to Puerto
Colombia is that we had to disembark the ship and walk along a seem-
ingly endless and narrow pier to get to land. Having never learned how to
swim, I clutched my mother's hand tightly, afraid that I would fall in the
water and drown.

My family and I stayed in Puerto Colombia only one or two nights, and
then we traveled to a larger city, Barranquilla, Colombia, where we stayed
for one week. In retrospect, I do not know how my parents were able to
communicate or find their way around the port cities of Puerto Colombia
and Barranquilla. At the time, foreigners, particularly non-Spanish Speakers
, would seldom visit Colombia, much less the port towns where we had
arrived. Needless to say, German Jews were a rarity throughout the country
. The one preparation I now can remember my mother having made for
our trip was the purchase of a Spanish-German dictionary in Germany. The
"dictionary" was actually a large box that stored a collection of smaller
volumes, one for each letter of the aiphabet. For weeks before our departure
from Schmieheim, my mother would teach my brothers and me words