Abraham Greenspan couldn’t hear the din created by German anti-Semitic riots nor can he speak about the atrocities, but he could see them and he blurted forth his experiences in sign language to reporters who gathered around him at the National Convention of the Deaf at the Hotel Pennsylvania yesterday.
Deaf since the age of two, Abraham spoke with the aid of an interpreter. He told reporters of the horrible oppression of Jews in Germany.
Shivering as he gesticulated, Greenspan, who is twenty-six years old, signified that he had been a fur operator in Berlin until forced out of employment after the accession of Hitler. Finally, when he found starvation facing him, he was obliged to come to the United States to find work.
“I lived in Berlin,” he declared in sign language, “with my parents. The Jews were treated horribly. There is no work, no social freedom, no free speech. There’s no one to associate with. Jews who are not natives must pay taxes twice a year, and if they fail, they often meet death. In Germany the situation is tragic because the troops have killed so many people, mostly Jews and Catholics.
“As for the deaf, they are disregarded. Schools for the Jewish and deaf are shut down. Thousands of deaf men and women are sterilized. They don’t want them to have children. Here it is amazing what interest they show in people who cannot hear.”
Greenspan, who arrived here on July 2, is now working as a fur operator and living with his uncle in the Bronx. He expressed himself as quite satisfied with the United States and unwilling to return to Germany.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
