Holocaust survivor: "The threat situation has changed"
Ivar Buterfas-Frankenthal is one of the few Holocaust survivors who can still talk about their suffering. The 90-year-old is a guest on Markus Lanz. He reports that he is currently worried about the growing threat situation.
He was born in January 1933, two weeks before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and proclaimed his thousand-year Reich. The thousand-year Reich came to an end twelve years later. Ivar Buterfas-Frankenthal survived oppression and reprisals. He has held more than 1,500 events in which he tells schoolchildren in particular about his life during the Third Reich, a time that is increasingly being forgotten.
"Knowledge about the inner workings of the Third Reich is almost zero," says Buterfas-Frankenthal, describing his experiences from the events on the ZDF talk show Markus Lanz. "It's not because the teachers don't know anything, it's simply because there isn't enough time. Teachers are absent, lessons are canceled, then there's an epidemic in between." The 90-year-old demands that we should actually start teaching pupils about the Holocaust and the Third Reich as early as the fifth grade.
The hatred of the Nazis
Buterfas' parents are artists. They are known beyond Germany's borders as step acrobatic artists. But after the Nazis came to power, they were no longer allowed to perform because their father was Jewish. Initially, the family was supported by Buterfas' paternal grandparents. They were millionaires, but were later expropriated by the Nazis and had to leave Germany.
Buterfas' father was one of the first Nazi concentration camp prisoners. He was a communist and was sent to the Esterwege concentration camp as early as 1934. There he was one of the Moor Soldiers who became famous through a song. He was later transferred to the Sachsenhausen main camp, which he was only allowed to leave after the end of the Second World War, physically healthy but mentally broken. He divorces his wife.
Buterfas hardly knew his father. He describes his mother as a "beautiful woman and a lady who is so brave - something like that comes into the world every thousand years. She created a monument deep in our hearts". She was a giant, he says later. The family initially lived in an apartment in Hamburg-Horn. Buterfas also went to school there. And there he experienced Nazi anti-Semitism first-hand.
A school roll call: flagpole, swastika flag, girls on the right, boys on the left. The singing of the Horst Wessel song. And the principal ordering little Ivar to step forward. Then Buterfas quotes the principal: "Listen, you little Jew lout: you leave our schoolyard immediately. You get out of here and never show your face again. You will no longer pollute our Aryan air with your Jewish pestilence. See to it that you gain some land."
"I screamed like a banshee"
Buterfas takes flight. He doesn't know what a Jew is. He just wants to go home. But he is chased by a group of Hitler Youth who beat up the six-year-old and try to set him on fire. "I screamed like a banshee," he remembers. A group of adults prevented the worst.
Buterfas, his seven siblings and his mother had to move into a Jewish house. "Totally rotten, no water, no electricity, an outhouse," is how he describes it today. To escape the reprisals in Hamburg, the family set off on foot towards Poland. They were on the road for several months.
But the peaceful time in the Tucheler Heide in West Prussia does not last long. The family is discovered and the half-Jewish children are threatened with deportation. They return to Hamburg, where Buterfas experiences the Allied firestorm. On the night of July 28, 1943, 700 British fighter planes attack the Hanseatic city, 300,000 bombs turn Hamburg into a cauldron with temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees.
Miraculously, the Buterfas family survived. For the next few years, they hid in cellars, living off burglaries in the villas of Nazi celebrities, which Ivar and his brother Rolf committed. "We found canned goods and textiles. The Nazis lived like gods in France," he says. "And my brother Rolf also found a few hand grenades." He wanted to use them to blow himself and the family up in case they were caught by the Gestapo. "And a few of these bills along with them," Buterfas explains.
"We have to clear things up"
After the Second World War, he worked in the port and was part of the Schietgang, which cleaned ships. He then moved to North Rhine-Westphalia and worked in a mine, later at weekly markets. His wife, to whom he has been married for 68 years, helps him to find himself. He founds his own company and becomes a boxing promoter. And he began to tell his story. He has been doing this since 1991.
Something has changed since the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel, says Buterfas-Frankenthal. "The threat situation has changed. That's terrible." He can no longer perform without police protection. But he doesn't regret his work for a moment. "We have to educate people," he says. "That's very important. Because without education, we have no chance of changing anything at all."
Ivar Buterfas-Frankenthal's experiences during the Third Reich, characterized by anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, have led him to advocate for teaching about these topics in schools early, as he believes knowledge is dwindling due to time constraints and lack of focus. In a striking incident, he was targeted with anti-Semitic remarks and violence as a six-year-old in school, a situation that he managed to escape but still vividly recalls.
The increased threat perception in light of the Israel war and the actions of organizations like Hamas has necessitated additional security measures for Buterfas-Frankenthal when he shares his experiences, yet he remains resolute in his mission to educate and advocate for change. The enduring influence of National Socialism and its ideology, as evidenced by these events, underscores the importance of ongoing education and reflection.
Source: www.ntv.de
