Eugen Mittwoch behalf of Mittwoch. Because of their colonial activities in Ethiopia, the Italians were extremely interested in Mittwoch's knowledge and research. Mittwoch was very active on behalf of the Ethiopian Jews (Falasha), and was also one of the first German Jews who could speak fluent Ivrit. Starting in 1933, Mittwoch used his "privileged" position in Germany (he continued to receive his salary as a German professor until the beginning of the war) on behalf of the Jewish community, he became head of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Berlin. However, in 1938, after Kristallnacht, also Mittwoch had to emigrate, and
German-American Day German-American Day German-American Day () is a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6 under . German-American Day, which celebrates German American heritage, commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German families from Krefeld, near the Rhine, landed in Philadelphia. These families subsequently founded Germantown, Pennsylvania, the first German settlement in the original thirteen American colonies, and organized the first petition in the English colonies to abolish slavery in 1688. Originally known under the rubric of "German Day", the holiday was celebrated for the first time in Philadelphia in 1883, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary