18 September 2008

Herr Höbrink and the reporters. The woman next to Herr Höbrink is from radio. I forgot to ask what station and remembered that she was going to broadcast at 5, but couldn't find the station.

This was the day we were most curious about; a press conference at 10:30 AM, a reception with the Bürgermeister at 11:30 and lunch after that. If we'd had any idea what this day would bring we would have stayed a few more days, but who knew back in February when we made our plans that Ulla would make such wonderful plans for us? We didn't even have contact with Ulla back in Feb.

At the press conference there were 3 reporters from newspapers and one from the radio. Michael Höbrink, the Landrat (equivalent to our county clerk position), was the host of this event. Lesley the translator, Ulla (who spear headed this week) and Almut plus Bernd, Pat, Chuck (who recorded all this on a cam corder) and myself sat around a huge circular table. Everyone who has read the articles they wrote knows I'm 73 and that it's been 69 years since I came back. My coming back WAS an event. Very few people return. The questions asked were why we came at this time, what are my feelings since I returned, did I recognize anything ... I think I explained those answers in earlier blogs, except for how it felt to return after all those years.

I was apprehensive about how we'd be received. All my life it has been instilled in me by Dad to never return! Why would I want to go back to a country that didn't want us? I did understand his feelings, but as a shielded child I felt our leaving was a blessing. As much as Dad was angry that he was forced to leave, he was so grateful to be in America. He was a very prosperous business man in Germany and had a menial factory job when he first came to Chicago, but never resented that job. In fact, he worked his way up at Apex Smelting, Company to a management position.

I'll tell you that we were received royally! I felt like a welcomed and honored guest upon my return to Brake. I'll mention specifics in future blogs, but the day at Ovelgönne was the first of many ways Germans showed me how sorry they were that we were ousted. And I was made very aware of the fact that the Holocaust is being taught and not swept under the rug.

I was impressed that 2 of the reporters (they wrote the longest articles) were so young. In fact, Mr. Bücher came to me afterwards and told me that he asked for this assignment because he had studied this era several times and couldn't believe that it happened in his country and he had wanted to talk to someone about that time, but he never heard of anyone that returned. I was the first for him.

The reporters seemed to speak English like I spoke German ... not enough to get it all. Lesley was great. I mentioned Opa's journal and that it "languished" in my file for many years. There was quite a discussion about how to translate the word languish, and afterwards we used it often. Guess you had to be there, but we found it humorous.

Next we walked to the Rauthaus, city hall, where Bürgermeister Roland Schiefke met us along with the city council. One council member had an old picture of Opa's house (the man I'm talking to) and another had a copy of another book (in the photo below, the man on the far right ... see the book?) that mentioned us. We were sorry that we couldn't spend more time chatting with the council members. They served champagne and chocolates. They sure knew how to please Pat and my chocolate appetite! And then there was the presentation!
Herr Schifke spoke English, welcomed us formally and then told about a 60th wedding anniversary celebration he just attended. When he mentioned that he was on his way to our reception, they said they remembered Weinberg's fondly as successful business men. He then presented me with a wonderful bouquet of flowers, a book about Brake and a signed, numbered lithograph of the Telegraph Building. He said that the new drawing was a tie between the old and new. The old had a huge sign on it that said "Jews are unlucky!", but this one does not! He wants us to remember the new, but let the old be a reminder that should not to be repeated. The entire time I realized, yet again, how unusual my return was and the meaning for the people I met.

Next we were the guest of the Wesermarsch Landskreis and Herr Landrat Höbrink at the Wilkens Hotel for a lunch. There we could relax and reflect on the activities while eating delicious food, beautifully presented and enjoy the Weser River activities passing by us.

And that wasn't the end of our day. Later in the afternoon we had plumcake and coffee, well naturally I had tea, with Herr Berger at the Weserlust. Conversation was stilted as he spoke no English and my German was lacking, but Cindy, the server, was a big help. I showed him some old photographs, but he could not identify any of the people. He did ask if he could keep the copies so perhaps I'll get some identification some day.

By then we were on sensory overload with all we'd experienced that day. We went back to the Hotel Ambiente and the phone rang. It was Helga from Göttingen to see how the press conference and this rest of the day went. These are amazing people and I sure felt like this was a huge welcome home.