Legal Persecution
The rise of the Nazis brought flawed theories of ‘racial superiority’ to the fore, and resulted in legislated persecution of Jews and those deemed ‘racially undesirable’. Discover how this legal persecution changed the course of Lothar Prager’s life, relationships and family.
The Prager family (1915)Sydney Jewish Museum
The Prager family
Lothar Prager was born in 1902 to Wilhelm and Wanda Prager in Rybnik, Germany (now Poland). He was the youngest of three siblings; his brother Rudolph (Rudi, pictured centre, with his arm around Lothar) was born 1897, and sister Marie (not pictured) born 1899.
In 1919, at the age of 16, Lothar joined the volunteer border patrol of the German army during the First Silesian Uprising with Poland. He served for three months in the Hasse, II Battalion Infantry Regiment, the lowest rank of the German Armed Forces, as a patrolman along the Silesian border.
After service, the Pragers moved to Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), where Lothar joined the family textile business.
M. Prager clothing factory, 1921-1937
Wilhelm and Lothar Prager expanded the existing family business in Breslau, where Wilhelm's nephew Moritz Prager owned a clothing factory. Moritz and Wilhelm are pictured in the top left window of their store.
A fashionable couple (c. 1934)Sydney Jewish Museum
A love story
Lothar met Grete Brix in 1925. He was working as a travelling salesman for the Prager family business when Grete became the garment model who accompanied him on each trip. The two became inseparable.
The fashionable couple are depicted here on holiday in Swinemünde, Germany (now Swinoujscie, Poland).
Travelling salesman (1925/1935)Sydney Jewish Museum
As a travelling salesman, Lothar and Grete drove two cars, one full of stock.
Lothar and Grete (early 1930s)Sydney Jewish Museum
Travelling frequently for work afforded easy holiday opportunities. Imagine the pair; working together, holidaying together, living together.
In 1935, following a loving relationship of 10 years, the couple decided to move in together before getting married. Together they renovated Lothar's unit to suit their new life and prospective family. In 1935 they were planning their future together.
In 1935, that future was denied.
In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed
These laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying persons of ‘German or related blood.’ Couples of mixed relationships were denounced, often paraded on the streets and humiliated. How did this become a question of race; of blood?
Hitler before the Reichstag (1938-02-20)Sydney Jewish Museum
The rise of the Nazis
The Nazis rose to power in a period defined by national humiliation, political instability and economic hardship following the First World War. They exploited this widespread discontent to stoke ultranationalist ideologies, existing prejudices and the desire to find a scapegoat.
Jews, who had suffered persecution and systemic prejudice for centuries, were easy targets. Jewish hatreds became centred on flawed theories of ‘racial superiority’. The Nazis propagated these theories to discriminate against Jews and others they deemed ‘racially undesirable’.
From 1933 the Nazis implemented a series of racist and antisemitic laws designed to create a racially 'pure' state. The laws sanctioned the pseudo-scientific definition of having 'German blood' as the condition for Reich citizenship and civil rights, to the exclusion of others.
Lothar Prager was Jewish. Grete Brix was not.
Farewell letter frontSydney Jewish Museum
On 13 December 1935, on the 10-year anniversary of the day they first met, Grete wrote a farewell letter to Lothar from her home in Leipzig; the final end to their relationship.
“My Dear Lothar, In spite of all our differences, I have the desire to direct these lines to you with the request never to think of me in the manner you usually did: either very well or very badly. Maybe you can decide on a ‘middle way’…
… I will always be very grateful for everything… I also already know that I will not encounter during this life another man who has been so exceptionally good to me as you have been. But only you could have found a happier fate for both of us…”
Farewell letter backSydney Jewish Museum
Grete never regretted meeting Lothar or their time together,
“Indeed, was 13 December 1925 a day of misfortune? That each of us has to decide. I am quite convinced, it was not a day of bad luck.”
After the farewell letter, Lothar and Grete never communicated or contacted each other again.
"Lothar’s life was completely turned upside down by the Nuremberg Laws." Rita Prager, Lothar's daughter-in-law.
Jews were soon expelled from civil service, prohibited from practicing as doctors, lawyers or professors, excluded from universities and schools, and forced to sell their businesses. They were barred from concert halls, parks, and other public places.
Final renewal (1937-11)Sydney Jewish Museum
Lothar lost his job...
This document represents the last renewal of Lothar’s business registration licence in 1937. By 1938, due to the Nuremberg laws, finding and retaining employment as a Jew had become increasingly untenable. Life for Jews in Germany was made ever more impossible.
Lothar immigrated to Uruguay in September 1938
As antisemitism worsened in the lead-up to the outbreak of war, Lothar moved from an affluent life in Breslau, a home with crystal chandeliers, to a life of struggle and hardship in Uruguay. He learned just enough Spanish to sell the blouses he began manufacturing.
Lothar's family remaining in Germany continued to suffer
Rudi Prager and Lothar's brother-in-law Erich Kohn (Marie’s husband) were arrested after Kristallnacht and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp for around one month. Upon their release they escaped Germany in 1939; Rudi to Chile and Marie and Erich to Amsterdam. Lothar, Rudi and Marie all desperately tried to help their parents, Wilhelm and Wanda, to join them. Their attempts were unsuccessful.
The last sign of life (1942-05)Sydney Jewish Museum
In May 1942, Wilhelm sent this message via the Red Cross to his son in Montevideo.
“We hope you are healthy. Most cordial birthday wishes. We just manage. We are now living in a small room of a 'Jews House'. Erich works out of town. Miezel is healthy. Cordial greetings. Parents”
This is the last correspondence Lothar received from his parents.
Wilhelm and Wanda Prager (1931/1938)Sydney Jewish Museum
Wilhelm and Wanda Prager were deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 where they perished around six months later; Wilhelm on 13 September 1942 and Wanda on 14 February 1943.
Marie and Erich Kohn were arrested in April 1943 in Amsterdam and deported to Vught- Herzogenbusch concentration camp. Six weeks later they were transferred to Westerbork transit camp and from there to Sobibor death camp. They were murdered on 28 May 1943 in Sobibor.
Lothar met and married Holocaust survivor Dina Weizer in Uruguay in 1948. Once Lothar passed away, his son Victor and daughter-in-law Rita immigrated to Australia in January 1993, where Rita’s parents, also Holocaust survivors, were living.
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Curator: Erin Ramsay
