THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, August 10, 1984- 15

"It was lunchtime when I arrived
there. It was a big hall, but only one
customs officer was on duty. 'Open up
your valise,' he ordered and I im-
mediately complied. The Nazis would
only let me take along ten marks,
which was then around $4, so I had
taken all the other money I had,
which wasn't much, and bought a few
things.
"One was a Leica camera with
all the lenses. At that time, a Leica
was the best camera money could
buy. And I also bought a beautiful

For Dr. Feuer, coming to
America was like
having to start life over
again.

Dr. Arthur Feuer: helping the survivors of the Holocaust.

really felt that my life was in danger.
But then came 1936.
"I belonged to a pacifist organ-
ization and I remember a young man
about my age who• was also a
member. This young man's father
had died recently and then one day
my friend disappeared. Nobody knew
what happened or where he was. A
week later, his mother got a notice
from the post office to pick up a little
package. She went there and even
had to pay the postage for it. When
she got home, she opened the package
and there were her son's ashes. There
was a letter which said that her son
had died in an automobile accident. It
said his Abody was so badly mangled

,

that they had to cremate him. But
you know what? This guy never knew
how to drive a car!
"Why he never even knew any-
body who had a car. No, they — the
Nazis,.— killed him. And I also found
out they had the membership list of
this organization. So I said to my par-
ents, 'now is the time for me to leave.'
"I left Berlin in 1936 on the day
when the Summer Olympics started
— Aug. 1. It was a little easier to get
out then. I remember it very well.
Berlin really pulled out all the stops.
The policemen were all dressed in
white, even their headgear. They
were all wearing patent leather."
Hitler was so eager to make a

good impression upon everybody dur-
ing the Games that he even eased up
on the Jews. Anti-Semitism was
downplayed, at least officially, and
copies of Der Sturmer were removed
from newsstands. But things did not
go that easy for young Arthur Feuer.
"When I left Germany," says Dr.
Feuer, "I had to leave upon a German
ship. Not because the Nazis told me
to, but the other ships, were all
booked and I couldn't get a ticket. I
had to go to the port of Bremerhaven,
and on the day before I could depart, I
was required to present myself at the
customs office. My luggage was al-
ready there and I had to examine it in
the presence of a customs officer.

pigskin briefcase. It was very beauti-
ful and ordinarily I would not have
bought it, but I had to utilize the
money which I had. Inside the brief-
case were all of my papers except for
my passport and my ticket which
were in my coat pocket.
"When the officer saw the Leica
he said, 'oh no, this has to be confis-
cated,' and he took the camera and
the attachments out of my valise. So I
said to him, 'I want a receipt.'
"You want a receipt, Jew-boy?'
he snarled. 'Well you can have the
receipt with my fist right into your
teeth.'
"So I figured what am I going to
do? Nothing. I'm going to America.
I'm going to start a new life. To hell
with it.
"But then the customs officer
grabbed my briefcase and started
walking away with it. 'Wait just a
minute,' I said. 'Please, give me back
my papers. They are of no value to
you.' It was just as if I didn't even
exist. He just kept on walking."
For Dr. Feuer, coming to Ameri-
can at 25 was like having to start life
over again. When he left Germany,
he had already studied medicine at
the University of Berlin. Feuer's first
concern, however, was to get his fam-
ily and his fiancee, Regina, out of
Germany. Ten months after his arri-
val in New York, Dr. Feuer was able
to obtain an affidavit from a relative
of his wive-to-be which enabled the
State Department to issue Regina a
visa. They were married in New York
after waiting two unsuccessful
months during which Feuer tried to
get his parents into America: And
what about his wife's family? "Well,
we don't know what really happened
to them," says. Dr. Feuer. "Her
mother and brother were lost. Her
father had gone to Poland so you can
imagine what happened there.. But
there was another sister and we were
ableto get her to the United States.
My wife's mother did not want to

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