Erna Goldmann

This is me at a meeting of the Zionist youth movement named “Blau-Weiß” [Blue-White].

This youth movement was just one of many Zionist groups back then; it was very well known at the time.

We didn’t go out to cafés, or to eat, we didn’t do that. We went hiking, we sang, and we talked a lot about Israel.

My life was never boring, because we were always together. We went to the Frankfurt City-Forest with our bikes and we went to camp together. I still have some photos from back then.

We met several times a week, even after Hitler had risen to power. In 1933 we went to a camp in Döringheim, which is located on the right bank of the Main, very close to Frankfurt.

We slept in tents or in youth hostels and cooked over open fire. We went swimming and hiking. For our summer camp, we went to Switzerland.

I loved these camps. I can’t remember how long we were out together, but I don’t think it was longer than a week at a time.