Rudolf could see what was happening to him and his family around him. He was in a program to learn farming in order to immigrate to Palestine. This program was discontinued by Hitler.
My father then left Germany with a friend for Czechoslovakia. When there, he was supposed to register but he didn't have a passport. So they returned to Germany; they were caught at the border.
My father was arrested and imprisoned for approximately four months. The Gestapo gave his mother a choice of sending him to Shanghai, China or to a concentration camp.
The choice was Shanghai. His mother stayed in Germany, thinking it would not get so bad.
This was before Kristallnacht. After Kristallnacht, there probably would not have been a choice.
Other siblings tried to leave Germany after Kristallnacht, but were caught in Holland and sent to their deaths.
He left Germany in September, 1938 for Shanghai.