Exhibition "The Bird-Cage"

In Autumn 1942, Jewish men were detained in Laufen for the first time as ‘exchange Jews’, who the Nazis wanted to trade for ‘Reich Germans’ imprisoned abroad. Only men from Allied or neutral countries were eligible for exchange. The Nazis temporarily accepted forged or unclear documents at this time.

Of the c.50 Jewish men in the US section of the camp, some were US or Central / Latin American citizens, but around 26 European Jews had fraudulent Latin American citizenship papers, e.g. from Costa Rica or Paraguay. Jewish internees were roomed separately but were free to move around during the day. Many reported little discrimination, but the fear of deportation remained. Encrypted letters prove that knowledge of the murder of European Jews was also present in the camp.

Most of the Jews were liberated in May 1945. Some were released earlier through prisoner exchanges, and a few were deported or died before the end of the war.

Michael Still was 16 years old when he was deported from the Channel Islands with his parents in 1943. In June 1943, he was reunited with them in Biberach camp. All survived.

John Max Finkelstein was a Romanian Jew who had lived in Jersey since 1931. In 1943, he was deported to Laufen and Tittmoning. When the Nazis decided to murder Romanian Jews in October 1943, he was sent on to KZ Buchenwald, and later to Theresienstadt. He survived the war.

Peter Mahrer was a Czechoslovak Jew and lived in Prague. He was rounded up with other Jews in that city in June 1943. Peter’s brother was born in the United States and had birthright citizenship, so Peter was deported to Laufen and Tittmoning with his brother as a relative of a ‘real’ American. The brothers were eventually brought to the US through a prisoner exchange.

Max Brandel was a Jewish cartoonist from Lviv. He was arrested there but was already in possession of Costa Rican documents after his sister-in-law in America arranged them for him. As a ‘Costa Rican’, he was deemed to be a foreigner and sent to Laufen, where he was liberated in 1945.