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1. 1 2017-05-01T18:30:00-04:00 media/F-1-1.JPG Ordinary People 35 image_header 2020-06-30T16:28:04-04:00 Despite the centuries of antisemitism in Europe before the Nazi rise to power, many German Jews considered themselves Germans first... Jews second. Patriotism was particularly important, especially to those Jews who had fought proudly for the Kaiser in the First World War.
   
   Jews prospered for generations as professionals and workers of every sort, from physicians and opticians, to peddlers, and they lived lives very much like those of their non-Jewish neighbors. More importantly, they did so in harmony, even while anti-Jewish sentiment remained just below the surface in Germany and throughout Europe.
   
   While Jews were not generally associated with large banking concerns or industrial companies, there were exceptions.  AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) was founded by Emil Rathenau and his son, and became one of the largest manufacturers of electrical equipment in Europe; working closely with Thomas Edison on electrical equipment and introducing the telephone to Berlin in the late 19th century.
   
   
   
   
   Listen to a fragment of Helen Fagin's testimony about her family and the Jewish community in Radomsko, Poland:
   
   
   
   In this clip, Helen Fagin talks about her education in Radomsko, Poland: 
   
   
   
   
   Listen to a fragment of Walter Loebenberg's testimony about his family and religious life in Waechtersbach, Germany: