Today it is hard to imagine the existential and psychological fear and distress experienced by individuals in Germany who, between 1933 and 1945, were declared as enemies and became victims by the Nazi dictatorship. Hitler's seizure of power must also have come as a shock for Arthur and Eugenie Samuel in Cadenberge. A short while back, they were popular and respected members of the community, and almost overnight the state-decreed hatred of Jews massively changed their everyday lives. The farming fraternity was forced to limit or completely break off business contacts with Arthur. And only a few still dared to publicly resist the increasingly aggressive hounding of the "Jews".
One result was that the Samuels' income from the cattle trade decreased.

Affidavit of Arthur Samuel from August 1947 (Source: Stored in the records of the Lower Saxony State Archives "Niedersächsischen Staatsarchivs", Stade)
(Quelle: Dokumentiert nach Unterlagen des »Niedersächsischen Staatsarchivs«, Stade)

We do not know when the couple grasped the brutality with which the Nazi regime planned the discrimination, persecution and extermination of the Jews. Censorship of the press, surveillance by the Gestapo and the profound manipulation of society by the propaganda industry made it very challenging to gain any realistic picture of developments in Germany in the 1930s. Communication with other members of the Jewish family was difficult and, if at all feasible, could only be accomplished by letter. Additionally, because of the small number of Jewish people in the region, any exchange of experiences and opinions with like-minded people would have been rather limited. Arthur Samuel was the only Cadenberge resident of the Jewish faith. However, it is understood that there were also Jewish people living in nearby Neuhaus or Otterndorf. But there could be no talk of an active Jewish community at that time. Records show that in 1933 there were still 43 Jews living in 12 families in the nearby larger city of Cuxhaven; but by 1941 there were no longer any Jewish residents there.

In Cadenberge’s neighboring community of Osten, the Jewish couple Julius and Louise Philippsohn were known to have lived for a considerable time after 1933. Evidently, during this period, the respected merchant family also planned to emigrate (or rather flee?) to Uruguay/South America. But to no avail. In November 1941, the couple were arrested together with their daughter, deported to Minsk in Belarus and apparently murdered there

License revocation and forced labor

Official documents reveal that in 1937 Arthur Samuel applied to the administrative authorities in Cuxhaven for a passport. Although it is uncertain whether concrete plans to leave the country were in place, it remains plausible given the circumstances. In the same year, the cattle dealer's license was revoked, effectively removing the couple’s income from their business. Official documents indicate that the Samuels were without any income from this time until the spring of 1939.

Documents linked to compensation applications after the war state that, from 1939 onwards, Arthur was consigned to forced labor in road construction at the Wehmeyer company in Cadenberge. From January 1944 to May 1945, his forced labor was continued at the Vagts sawmill in Wingst/Voigtding. According to a note from the Stade government authorities, his monthly income during this period was only around 100 Reichsmarks.

At the same time, his wife Eugenie was consigned to work in the fishing industry in Cuxhaven. There, at the relatively advanced age of 60, she was required to perform heavy physical labor together with so-called "foreign workers", especially from Poland and Russia. Eugenie, in a handwritten note, stated: "The superiors knew that I was the wife of a Jew."

Medical examination reports after 1945 explain in detail that both Eugenie and Arthur suffered permanent health damage due to the great physical strain they had to endure.

In Gestapo custody and with the Star of David

A special chapter in Arthur Samuel’s survival story is his detention in prison in November 1938. During the pogrom night of November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht), when the violent measures against Jews were further intensified, he was imprisoned in the police prison "Karlsburg" (Bremerhaven/Wesermünde) from November 10 to November 29, 1938. In 1950, Arthur wrote in a statement: "The deprivation of liberty at the time was based on protective custody by the Gestapo as a result of my racial affiliation." The circumstances surrounding his arrest and subsequent release after three weeks remain unclear. It can only be conjectured that luck played a role in Arthur being able to escape the fate of prolonged imprisonment, later deportation and subsequently probably murder.

(From 1940 onwards, it was primarily interned members of the Sinti and Roma communities who were deported from the notorious "Karlsburg" to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.)

In September 1941, an order was issued for the mandatory identification of Jews. The requirement to wear the yellow ‘Judenstern’ (Star of David) became a preparatory measure for the planned deportation of people of the Jewish faith to ghettos and concentration and extermination camps. This was the prelude to the Holocaust.
By order of the district of Hadeln in Otterndorf, Arthur Samuel was also forced to wear the yellow star which, according to his personal statement, he did from September 1941 to 5 May 1945. In an affidavit after the war, Arthur stated: "Due to the legal regulations, I wore the Judenstern. Nevertheless, it is very likely that no one saw the yellow star on me because on workdays I wore a work coat over my suit, to which the star was attached, and I refrained from going out on Sundays."

Arthur later reported that he and his wife encountered only occasional instances of discrimination in their daily lives.

After the war, the Samuels formally attributed responsibility to the Gestapo for a deportation from Osten and a second one from Basbeck. But it is surprising that there are no other attributions of guilt or naming of responsible local Nazi representatives in the documents. The above-mentioned affidavit of 1947 explicitly states: "Persecution of Jews by the party did not take place in the district of Hadeln." Apparently, Arthur did not want to denounce local Nazis.

Whether this general "exoneration" may have to be corrected in time or whether the supposedly "mild" judgment was influenced by Arthur’s desire to swiftly close this dark chapter and reintegrate himself and his spouse into the social life of Cadenberge remains an open question. What is certain is that immediately after its collapse, Arthur Samuel campaigned for the establishment of a committee for the victims of the Nazi regime in the region. In 1949, he was officially recognized as a "racially persecuted person under the National Socialist tyranny"; as was his wife, Eugenie.
Im Jahr 1949 wurde er als „rassisch Verfolgter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft“ anerkannt; ebenso seine Frau Eugenie.