An Annapolis man survived the Holocaust. On Remembrance Day, he is sharing his mother's artwork and his family's story.
Annapolis, Maryland — Paul Schatzberg watched rioters destroy synagogues. He saw Nazis confiscate his father’s business. And he felt the pain of stones hurled his way, all because he was a Jewish boy during the Holocaust.
“We could hear the guns on a calm day,” Paul told Patch in an exclusive interview, pointing to the war fronts in Western Europe.
The Nazis killed about 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, which was Germany’s state-sponsored genocide during World War II. Paul and his family outran Nazi rule and fled to the United States. Still scarred by the atrocities that he weathered in Europe, Paul was afraid to show his Jewish faith.
Now 93 years old, the longtime Annapolis resident is proud of his heritage. It’s that Jewish community that taught his late mother, Cecilia Schatzberg, how to paint.
Cecilia's artwork is on display at the Michael E. Busch Annapolis Library, at 1410 West St. Her gallery showcases the family’s life in the land of the free.
The exhibit coincides with this week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, also called Yom HaShoah. The reflection started Wednesday at sundown and will end Thursday at dusk. There’s also an International Holocaust Remembrance Day every January 27. This week’s observance, however, follows the Hebrew calendar and is an internal mourning day for the Jewish community.
Born in 1928, Paul was 9 years old when his native Austria surrendered to Germany. He remembers a parade held for Adolf Hitler when his soldiers rolled into town in March 1938.
Paul wanted to watch out of curiosity, but he was too scared. He stayed in a nearby park instead.
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Holocaust survivor Paul Schatzberg is displaying his late mother's artwork at the Michael E. Busch Annapolis Library. (Jacob Baumgart/Patch)
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A sustained roar welcomed the Nazi leader as he passed by. The noisy supporters were not violent at the moment, but that was about to change.
Paul always felt different at his predominantly Christian school in Vienna. He had seven Jewish classmates, compared with roughly 23 Catholic peers.
The Catholic students had weekly religion lessons. The school occasionally sent a representative from the synagogue, but the Jewish children were usually excused to play outside during the religious block.
Hitler’s takeover deepened that isolation and brought outright antisemitism to the forefront.
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The family had to flee their homeland when the Nazis arrived. Cecilia's passport is pictured above with its swastika and red J. (Courtesy of Paul Schatzberg)
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About a week after Germany annexed Austria, Paul’s teacher announced that the Jewish students had to switch schools. The Catholic classmates erupted in cheer, and the ashamed educator struggled to regain control of the kids.
“As I child, I was very much aware of antisemitism,” Paul said, noting that he would not wear a kippah on his head. “As a result, I would subdue my Jewishness.”
It was even worse at Paul’s new school. Christian boys sometimes waited outside to throw stones at him after dismissal. The assaulters spared Paul’s younger brother, Walter Schatzberg.
The violence reached a tipping point during the Night of Broken Glass on Nov. 9-10, 1938. Paul said the Nazis burned every Vienna synagogue but one during that coordinated rampage, which is also known as Kristallnacht or Crystal Night.
The only remaining synagogue was not burned because it was too close to neighboring houses, Paul said.
Paul returned to that surviving holy site in 1972. He was excited to find that the synagogue still had records of his parents getting married there in 1926. |
Cecilia Schatzberg (pictured above), learned to paint in Baltimore.
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Paul's father, Adolph Schatzberg, owned a successful shoe shop in the city’s fashion district. The store once sold footwear to American actress Paulette Goddard, an accomplishment that Paul is still proud of today.
A German law, however, forced Jewish Austrians to register their wealth with the Nazi government. That put the family business at risk, and the government then stole the store outright.
The Schatzbergs were left without income in a country where hostilities were boiling over. Their passports even had swastika symbols to mark the Nazi reign and red J’s to signify their Jewish faith. They had to flee before it got any worse.
“We couldn’t have stayed there and survived,” Paul said.
The family boarded a locomotive at Vienna West Train Station and rode to Antwerp, Belgium. They moved into a small apartment until Cecilia and Adolph found a permanent home.
Cecilia landed work doing alterations, assuring the family always had enough money for food.
The children went to school, where the classes were taught in Flemish. Paul had trouble learning in the foreign language, but pictures and context clues taught him enough to get by.
The family finally got approval to immigrate to the U.S., but there was one problem: Paul’s father was not allowed to join them immediately.
An American law capped the number of immigrants from certain countries. Austria had not reached its limit, so Paul, his brother and his mother were all clear.
Adolph was born in nearby Poland, which had already maxed out its immigration. He would have to wait two years to see his family again.
Paul, Walter and Cecilia traveled to London, where they boarded the RMS Lancastria* in December 1939.
The ship sailed a slow northern Atlantic route to avoid German forces. Crewmen practiced on the gun deck, but the ocean liner was no match for the Nazi submarines that could have been lurking below.
As the ship pulled into the harbor, Paul could not hide his excitement for a fresh start. It had been nearly two years since Hitler ruined his peaceful homeland.
Now, Paul was quite literally staring Lady Liberty in the face.
“I pushed my way through the adults to get to the railing so I could see the Statue of Liberty,” Paul said. “And she was there.”
A relative who was already in New York greeted the family and drove them to Baltimore, where they settled down.
Paul’s father was still in Antwerp. Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940, putting Adolph at risk once again.
Adolph was sent to Saint-Cyprien, an internment camp in southern France. Paul said his father eventually escaped the coastal prison by digging underneath the barbed wire.
Adolph moved in with some distant family members in France, but the country’s wartime rations meant the hosts didn’t have enough food for him.
Desperate for food and money, Adolph mailed his wife a letter asking for help. The note was written in pencil on a piece of toilet paper. Cecilia happily obliged and sent him $5, which is worth just over $100 today.
With Adolph struggling, it became clear that he had to find a way to the states. Paul said they worked with local officials to streamline his father’s approval.
Finally, the American government accepted Adolph, and he journeyed to the U.S. to reunite with his family in northwestern Baltimore.
Cecilia started to paint during her retirement. She took weekly classes at the Jewish Community Center near Pimlico Race Course.
Jacob Glushakow, an acclaimed Baltimore artist, taught Cecilia the fundamentals. The instructor was patient with his student, grooming her over several years.
Cecilia developed arthritis, but she didn’t notice the pain while painting. She later found joy reflecting on how she overcame the unique obstacles of each project.
The new artist crafted masterpieces that captured landscapes, stills and portraits. Her style fell at the intersection of realism and impressionism, combining crisp scenes with free-flowing brush strokes.
“She produced a number of wonderful paintings,” Paul said. “It’s a projection of her personality.”
Cecilia’s exhibit at the Annapolis library features 19 pieces that are not for sale. Paul organized the display, which opened earlier this month and will run until an undetermined date in late May.
The collection includes a re-creation of “Sunflowers,” a famous oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. Other highlights depict hungry children as well as “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Travel inspired Cecilia. She immortalized a family vacation to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park with a waterfall scene, and she later painted a deer from memory. A trip to Monterey, California, led to other paintings of solo trees perched atop dramatic cliffs.
Paul’s favorite work shows hunters and their dogs trudging through the snow after a winter trek. Their hanging heads and lagging legs reveal how grueling the hunt was. Paul appreciates his mother’s attention to detail.
“If a torpedo had hit us, we would have been finished,” Paul said.
The ship safely arrived about four weeks later for a layover in Nova Scotia, Canada. The journey quickly picked back up and continued on to New York City.
Cecilia started to paint during her retirement. She took weekly classes at the Jewish Community Center near Pimlico Race Course.
Jacob Glushakow, an acclaimed Baltimore artist, taught Cecilia the fundamentals. The instructor was patient with his student, grooming her over several years.
Cecilia developed arthritis, but she didn’t notice the pain while painting. She later found joy reflecting on how she overcame the unique obstacles of each project.
The new artist crafted masterpieces that captured landscapes, stills and portraits. Her style fell at the intersection of realism and impressionism, combining crisp scenes with free-flowing brush strokes.
A few pieces allude to Paul himself. One depicts him beneath soaring redwood trees. Another spotlights sunflowers that Paul planted.
Paul stays busy in his garden, making marmalade from three fig trees that are more than a decade old. As a lifelong chemist, whipping up this spread makes Paul feel as if he’s still in the lab.
Paul met his future wife, Tobalee Schatzberg, while studying chemistry at Western Maryland College. He graduated from the school, now named McDaniel College, in 1951.
The couple married in December 1952, and went to Duke University for their master’s programs. Paul completed more chemistry courses while Tobalee studied mathematics. Other learning experiences took Paul to Baltimore Hebrew University and St. John’s College, where he completed a bachelor’s in liberal education.
This scientific background sent Paul to the Army Chemical Corps in Arkansas when he was drafted during the Korean war.
Paul returned to Annapolis with Tobalee after the war. He became a part-time instructor at Anne Arundel Community College decades later, teaching classes on Israeli history and the aging brain.
These activities keep Paul motivated, which he thinks is the key to a long and healthy life.
“Remain physically and mentally active,” Paul said. “Keep doing stuff that you like.”
Paul and Tobalee, now 90, had three children. Sharon was born in 1955, Eric in 1956 and Janet in 1958. Sharon lived until her 60s, when Paul said she was killed by a drunken driver. Eric is 66, and Janet is 63. Sharon, Eric and Janet all had two kids.
Born in 1930, Walter is now 91 years old. He went on to become a German professor at Clark University in Massachusetts.
Adolph died in 1965, at age 72 after suffering from a brain bacterial infection. Cecilia lived to be 89, dying in 1985.
“She produced a number of wonderful paintings,” Paul said. “It’s a projection of her personality.”
Cecilia’s exhibit at the Annapolis library features 19 pieces that are not for sale. Paul organized the display, which opened earlier this month and will run until an undetermined date in late May.
The collection includes a re-creation of “Sunflowers,” a famous oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. Other highlights depict hungry children as well as “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Travel inspired Cecilia. She immortalized a family vacation to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park with a waterfall scene, and she later painted a deer from memory. A trip to Monterey, California, led to other paintings of solo trees perched atop dramatic cliffs.
Paul’s favorite work shows hunters and their dogs trudging through the snow after a winter trek. Their hanging heads and lagging legs reveal how grueling the hunt was. Paul appreciates his mother’s attention to detail.
*RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. She was sunk on 17 June 1940, during Operation Aerial. Having received an emergency order to evacuate British nationals and troops from France the ship was loaded well in excess of its capacity of 1,300 passengers. Modern estimates suggest that between 4,000 and 7,000 people died during the sinking — the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history 
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