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The day after the Reichskristallnacht Dr. Lothar Eisner and Ludwig Meyerstein were arrested and detained in the concentration camp Buchenwald.
Since March 1937 Dr. Lothar Eisner had been leading the Stuttgart branches of various Zionist organizations and got a salary of 150 RM. He had been secretary of the Palestine Office, that organized and financed the expatriation of Jews and prepared them for their new homeland by providing language courses and mechanical and agricultural trainings. Moreover, he was head of the Stuttgart branch of Keren Hajessod, an organization that collected money for the Zionist movement, and Kerem Kajemeth Legisrael, an organization that acted as trustee and acquired real estate in Palestine.
Here you can find the certificate of the Palestine Office.
Obviously, like many Jews in these days, he was forced to move home frequently. In the two years 1938 and 1939 he had at least four addresses (Friedrichstr. 54, Leonhardtr. 1, 4. floor; Schlossstr. 66A, 4. floor; Kronenstr. 39, 1. floor).
At the day of Reichskristallnacht Dr. Eisner was on a business trip in Frankfurt and stayed in a Jewish hotel. On the morning after Reichskristallnacht like all Jewish guests of the hotel he was arrested and the night after with more 337 other detainees brought to the concentration camp Buchenwald. The train left at midnight and arrived in Buchenwald at 6 o'clock in the morning.
Read here the description of the arrest, the time in Buchenwald and the release.
Ludwig Meyerstein was first arrested in Halle and on November 11 brought to Buchenwand together with 74 other Jews.
The days following the Reichskristallnacht approximately 30,000 Jews were arrested, 10,000 were brought to Buchenwald. The detainees were treated exceptionally bad in order for them to covenant to leave Germany as soon as possible. If they did so they were released.
First they had to run through a lane named "Caracho". The SS-men stand at the side and were beating on the detainees. They also set their dogs on the detainees.
Arrived in the camp there were any dwellings because the Reichskristallnacht was not planned and therefore the concentration camp was not prepared. The detainees had to stand or upright sit at the parade ground. In the meantime, other detainees had to build up dwellings.
There were only two open latrines with wood trusses to each side. Sometimes detainees were slotted into the latrine when they used the toilets. In the first days the detainees were not allowed to go to the toilets at all.
The dwellings even didn't have ground. The surrounding soon became mud because of all that urin. There was not enough food and because the water-pipes were still under construction there was to less water, not more than 1/4 l per day, to less for private hygiene. On November 13 food was served which cause a stomach flu and the hygiene conditions became even worth. People who could stand that and ran to the toiletts were flogged. On November 14 the first detainees committed suicide by running into the electro fence.
The commanding officers became afraid of pestilences and mass ralleys. So they relocated 1,000 detainees to the normal camp which was separated from the special camp for the "Aktionsjuden" by an electric fence. In this part of the camp the conditions were much better. The huts had better facilities, for example there were heated day-rooms. The toilets worked and the detainees could wash their hands and face three times a day. They got straw mattresses and covers. And they got concentration camp uniforms which were clean. So after 4 days they came out of their cloth smutched by their excremental. Food and water were provided more regularly.
In Buchenwald it should become clear to the detainees that they wouldn't have a chance to survive if they stayed in Germany.
Ludwig Meyerstein was released on December 12, Dr. Lothar Eisner on December 20. Dr. Eisner had to go to Frankfurt to report to the Gestapo. They took his discharge papers of Buchenwald off. Then he returned to Stuttgart where he had to report every day to a police station. Supposedly Ludwig Meyerstein had to do the same.
Here you can find the record cards from Buchenwald.
Information to the KZ Buchenwald in November/December 1938 : see Stein, Harry: Das Sonderlager im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald nach den Progromen 1938, in: Kingreen, Monica: Nach der Kristallnacht, Jüdisches Leben und antijüdische Politik in Frankfurt am Main 1938-1945, Frankfurt/ New York 1999, S. 19-54
