When Did Michael Moritz's Maternal Grandfather Leave Germany?

Michael Moritz's maternal grandfather left Germany with his wife 72 hours before war broke out. Another 72 hours and they would have perished. His paternal grandfather stayed until it was too late, and he and his wife were shipped east and disappeared from history.

The paternal grandfather was a lower-level judge in Bavaria, in southern Germany. He fought in World War I, survived Verdun, received the Iron Cross, and believed in the security of the German state. In 1933 he lost his job as a civil servant. He was conservative and cautious, expected the storm to blow over, and counted on his pension to survive, which left him reluctant to leave until it was too late. Anyone leaving still had to find a country that would take them and pay big taxes to the Nazi government for an exit visa.

The maternal grandfather was a cattle trader in a rural village in northwestern Germany, work Jews were permitted to do. He was almost blind as a young man and completely blind when they met, and he died when Moritz was about 16. He had already made a comfortable living on his own. He was more streetwise and more entrepreneurial, with no state pension to wait on, and he and Moritz's grandmother got out by the skin of their teeth.