Hans Frankenthal (15 July 1926 – 22 December 1999) was a German Jew who was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland in 1943. Having survived the Holocaust along with his brother Emil, Frankenthal returned to his home in Germany where he experienced the common disbelief and denial of Nazi war crimes. Frankenthal eventually put his biography to paper in the 1990s in his book Verweigerte Rückkehr which was published half a year before his death. The English edition was published in 2002 under the title The Unwelcome One: Returning Home from Auschwitz. Childhood Frankenthal was born into a family of prominent Jewish butchers in Schmallenberg, Province of Westphalia. In the Frankenthal home the Jewish religion was strictly followed mainly due to the Orthodox Jewish traditions of Frankenthal's mother, Adele Frankenthal. In the village of Schmallenberg there was a strong Christian, mainly Roman Catholic, presence. After Jewish businesses began to be boycotted following the Nazi Party's seizure of power in 1933, the Frankenthal family was no longer able to properly provide themselves with basic necessities. Due to attempts to get around the new laws through extensive contacts in the German community, the Frankenthal family received several visits from the SA to investigate their ongoing commercial activities. The contacts themselves were also running a great risk in that the names of so-called "Traitors to the People and State" were published in the Nazi newspaper Rote Erde ("Red Earth"). To avoid being seen, the farmers preferred to trade at night; however, after the curfew for Jews was enacted, this was no longer possible. Frankenthal's father, Max Frankenthal, believed that the Nazis would not harass his family to a large extent because he was a decorated soldier in the First World War. Max Frankenthal was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class for his service during the war, having reached the rank of sergeant, and was a member of the veterans' union after the war. He took part in the erection of the first war memorial for the fallen soldiers from Schmallenberg. Discrimination prior to the Holocaust In 1937 Max Frankenthal was arrested after allegations from German farmers in Friedeburg that he had attempted to manipulate the weighing scale in order to haggle the price of stock down. He was only held for several hours because the owner of the scales spoke out in his defence. This was, however, only the first