9 November 2008

Last night I went to Temple B'rith Kodesh for a presentation called "Voices of Conscience & Memory: 70 Years After Kristallnacht". The hall was full and there were a variety of speakers. I was most impressed with the video documentation that has been recorded of the local survivors who are actively telling their story. Some were in the audience and, sadly, others have died. Mrs. Paul used to come to the school where I taught and had the students riveted as they listened attentively to her presentation, so I was glad to see that her story was also documented before her death.

And I was delighted to hear retired family court Judge Anthony Sciolino, who is now a Deacon of the Catholic Church, say what I have been telling people for years. Christians are followers of Christ who was a Jew. Christians use the old and new testaments of the bible. Judge Sciolino had a difficult time with his Pope's involvement, or lack of involvement, with the holocaust, so he is also one of the people saying "never again".

I wish I had memories of some of those events ... not because I want or need to experience it, but so I could add my voice to the telling of this horrific event so it never happens again. Well, I guess I am telling it in my own small way.

When I went to college I lived in the dorm and the roommate they assigned me was Myrna Seigel. The next time I came home, I told my family about her and also mentioned that she was Jewish. Dad smiled and said, "Of course." Then he explained about last names and why they put Weinberg and Seigel together. I had no idea about ethnic names. It was never important or an issue in our house. After all, we lived in America where most people are decendants of not native born people.

I never understood prejudice. Even all that Dad went through, he never understood it, either. I remember him telling about an incident at work. It seems that dealers would bring scrap metal to Apex and Dad was in a management position at that time, so he took the customers in the order that they came. Apparently there was a white man after a black one and he objected to the "preferential" treatment of the black man. Dad gave the white man a lecture about being an American and how lucky he was to live here. Dad would be so pleased that Barack Obama was elected for a lot of reasons.

I wish I could have been in Grant Park when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech. The crowd reminded me of V-J Day. We lived in Chicago at that time and heard on the radio about the joyous crowds all heading downtown. So we went, too. The bus took us as far as it could travel and then the driver said, "I can't go any farther!" So Mom took Bernd's hand and Dad had mine and we started to enter the crowd. We did not go far as the crowd was too animated and our parents were concerned for our safety so we went back. It was a very happy crowd then, too.

My plea is to please teach your children acceptance and kindness and positive coping skills. We are all different. Enjoy the differences.

Sachsenhausen

We arrived at the Stadthotel in Oranienburg which is a suburb of Berlin. The rooms were lovely and much bigger than our other German hotel rooms and the price was very reasonable. First we ate. I had tartare and, yes, it was delicious! The others had good food, but not as special as mine, although they looked like they wouldn't touch mine with a ten foot pole.

It was still early so we got the 3 day transportation pass and went into Berlin to take the upper decker bus and browse. But first we had to have our ticket validated. I saw a woman who was cleaning up and pointed to the "validate" part of the ticket and said, "How do we do this?" She indicated that she did not speak English so I said, "Auf Deutsch, bitte." And she did. In German she told me to go to the red box, stick the ticket in and it will be stamped with the date & time and then pull it out. Easy! And I understood every word. I wish I could recall the words to ask the questions. 2 people (Helga from Göttingen and Lesley the translator) told me that when I speak German I don't have an accent. Of course sentence structure and vocabulary need lots of work.

We had a pleasant evening in Berlin and a relaxing dinner. Bernd especially enjoyed the car dealerships ... very upscale. We liked what we saw of Berlin, a clean and vibrant city. Then back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

It was raining, an appropriate atmosphere for our plans for the day. Oranienburg is the town where Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is located. It's the camp where Dad was sent. Now it is a museum and memorial. The picture on the right is an diagram of the concentration camp and on the left is a memorial in stained glass.

There were several school groups going through with their guides. We rented tapes to educate us as we went through the facility. We sure got an education! This was an experimentation camp. Yes, many died here and some were executed, but most died because of the treatment they received.

We were told that the museum is 1/20th the original size of the camp. Bernd was wondering what the people of Oranienburg thought about the activities that were walking distance from their town. They must have known something. It certainly was a strange time and that's why I was so glad to see all the tour groups being educated.

These are 2 other memorials. The photo on the left is a photo of the synagoge that Opa supported in Oldenburg which we saw in an exhibit hall. The tall structure on the right with all symbols on the top is a reminder of all the people that died and represents the 18 countries they came from.

After a while I said to Chuck that I wasn't feeling up to par and he said it was probably the emotional impact on me. That's when I looked at my watch. Yes, it was very emotional, but we had been walking around for 5 hours without anything to eat or drink. We were drained. Bernd and Pat went through on there own and were patiently waiting for us. We went back to the hotel & I was going to put my feet up for 5 minutes before joining Pat & Bernd who wanted to go into Berlin. Luckily I realized that I was not up to Berlin and my 5 minute rest was considerably longer. Chuck and I enjoyed a quiet dinner at the hotel restaurant. When Pat & Bernd came back they brought some baked goodies and along with some wine it was a very good evening. Chuck didn't have a nap so he was asleep and missed the goodies.

Hamburg

We came to Hamburg to meet with Hannah, see the harbor where we left in 1939, visit the BallinStadt Emigration Museum and the Reeperbahn. When we made these arrangements none of us knew that Hannah would not be in school, but in Göttingen doing an internship. She is still maintaining her apartment there ... a 5th or 6th floor walk up that we opted not to visit. For me, getting down would be easy, but up? No way! Hannah was a fantastic guide!

The GPS told us we had arrived at the Fritz hotel, but we didn't see it. Turns out it is on the second floor above some shops and all that was visible was a small sign on the door. Chuck finally spied it on our third time past it while we were also looking for a parking spot. It was a crowded area and we finally saw a convenient parking spot and that's where the car stayed until we left for Berlin as public transportation was excellent. We looked doubtfully at the Fritz, but found it was wonderful! The hotel was very convenient to the S and U bahn stations and all the sites we wanted, had clean rooms with comfortable beds, the price was right and it was a good place to walk, but we had to remember to stay out of the bike lane.

Hannah met us and after an early dinner (more Weinerschniztle for Chuck) and with much conversation, we headed off to the Rauthaus area with all the upscale shops and Chuck looked up and there were 2 hot air balloons ... right over the city! We have NO idea where they take off from or land. (Chuck had his own balloon and still does some crewing) I even bought a piece of quilt fabric at a department store. Balloons for Chuck ... fabric for me. What could be better?

Well, our next stop, of course. Yup! You guessed it ... the Reeperbahn! You know I was looking forward to seeing where the ropes for the shipping industry were made because that's why Opa and Dad's business was so successful. And here you thought it was for the sex shops. Alas, we were all disappointed ... you who thought I was so sexy and me because I found no rope making. I could imagine the rope making as the street is long enough to make ropes long enough that would tie up ships. Captain Schmidt, from the Ships Museum in Brake, told us that story and we thought that when Opa would send for the ropes (I'm SURE he didn't go) there would have been bars and women nearby to entertain the men as they waited for the order to be filled.

And the red light district? Yes, it had sex shops, but mostly what we saw were tourists like us looking at each other. Perhaps we didn't go far enough or late enough, but we had walked plenty and seen as much as we wanted so it was off for some hot chocolate, coffee or ice cream and then bed.

Sunday started with a huge breakfast at "Oma's Apotheke" and we had dessert there at the end of the day. We like German eating places because they all expect you to linger over food or drink and the check is not presented until you are ready and ask for it. America thrives on turnover and getting the next group in your spot.

Our next stop was the Emigration Museum. At the start there were iMacs where you could access files ... it took us a while to find the English and then discovered it was Ancestor.com which we had at home. Nothing new. But the museum was informative. The narrations said over and over again that those who left at the time of WWII would NEVER return. I was made aware yet again how rare my visit was. But the other part was that everyone said they left Germany with only the belongings they could carry which was not true for us.

I know Dad was angry because he claimed that nobody seemed to be supporting our family before we left, but I have to think that somewhere along the way someone signed some papers that allowed us to ship all our belongings or perhaps some shipping connections saw to it that we received our things. I'm sure some money was passed to someone, but from all we have been able to research, our family was unusual to be able to send our belongings. I know the Weinberg's were well respected business men so that must have helped, even if the help was done covertly. We will probably never know.

The harbor was next and it is extremely big and still an active business and pleasure facility.

After exploring there we came back to the hotel and Hannah called Liesel. I didn't know if Liesel spoke English so Hannah talked with her and explained who she was and after a while Hannah handed the phone to me and said Liesel wanted to speak to me. Liesel spoke English! I was at a loss for words and so very delighted to hear her. She said she always wondered what became of our family and was glad to read the story. I have her email and hope to hear from her. Perhaps someday we will even have the opportunity to meet.

This HAS been an amazing trip with so many perks, but this was the icing! All these things that have happened! Hurray for the internet! It is very overwhelming.

20 September 2008

It's time to leave Brake and go to Hamburg where we will meet Hannah. But first, breakfast and packing the car.

When we got to breakfast Edith handed me a note where she had written some information. She got a call at 10:30 P.M., she was already in bed, from Liesel Roggenbuck. (Who?) It seems that Liesel lives in Koln (Cologne) and somehow saw the article about me. She was a neighbor that I played with as a child and was glad to hear about me because she always wondered what happened to our family. I was overwhelmed!

Then it was time for the luggage to be packed. Remember that message that came on in the car that I wrote about yesterday? When the "boys" were ready to load the car, it was listing a little. Seems we had a flat. Manfred took the tire to a repair shop and who knows what they did with it. I sure don't, but it got fixed with the spare until we returned to the shop for the REAL fix. When all was well I asked how much it cost and the man said, in German while walking away, something like I wouldn't charge you. I read about you in the paper and it was my pleasure to help.

Before we left the Ambiente Edith got another phone call and handed the phone to me. It was from the daughter of a 90+ year old woman who told her daughter to call me and tell me that she worked for Opa. She then asked me for my email address, which I started to give her. Then she asked me if I could write it down and leave it at the Ambiente for her to get later. I should have written her name down because my mind is a leaky sieve. I'm so sorry I haven't heard from her, yet.

Who knew we would have all these surprise contacts and acts of kindness? If we have the opportunity to visit again, I'm going to take out a full page ad for the first day I visit. What a fun and emotional visit this was. We were reassured because we saw that the Germans are taking ownership for the Holocaust. They DO talk about it. Funny, I haven't thought about it, but in 2000 when we went to The Passion Play, we visited Dachau and someone told our young guide that our family had to leave Germany. She tried to talk to me about it, but at that point I wasn't able to share. I wonder if that's what really started to open my heart about beginning to think about perhaps visiting Brake someday? I'm so glad I came for this most wonderful visit!

19 September 2008

This day was going to be a more relaxing day. After all, the press conference, reception and lunch were over. How much more could there be? HA! Little did we know!

Ulla had arranged a trip to Bremen with Herr von Wedel as our guide so we got up and had a leisurely breakfast ... until Manfred came strolling into the breakfast room with warm greetings and a very big smile. He then opened the newspaper and held up the article that Thomas Bücher had written. It was a nice big article on the front page of one of the sections with a large photo (the big picture with all of us is not in this online article)! Wow! We are celebraties! Well, on a small scale and perhaps only in our eyes, but very exciting to us. And then the fun began.

Our first trip that morning was not to the train station, but to the Nordwest Zeitung office in Brake. We dashed in and started to asked if we could buy some papers and were told no, we could take as many as we wished and, yes it was a nice article. They recognized us! Then as we were going back to our car there was a man in a hurry to get somewhere, but he kept turning to us and smiling, nodding and indicating that he knew who we were. We really were celebraties!

When we got on the train to Bremen we plowed (our reading of German is limited) through the article and decided that Herr Bücher did a great job. What we really wanted to do was hold up the paper for all on the train to see, but we decided to be a little more dignified.

We had a wonderful visit in Bremen with each of us grabbing onto the legs of the Bremen Town Musicians statue with both hands so our luck wouldn't run out. And pigs are very definitely the most prominent statues that we saw, with stores that sold painted pigs and store fronts displaying pigs. Bremen is a blend of old and new. Very nice.

When we got back to the Ambiente, we rested until it was time to leave for Oldenburg as Ulla invited us along with Almut and Leslie and their husbands for dinner. I had my coat on to leave and the phone rang. Claus Lühring was calling. He saw the article and remembered that he had a formal photo of his grandfather, his great uncle and my grandfather with some other men at a "Kegelklub" (bowling) outing. I was so impressed that he saw the article about us, dug out the picture, had it duplicated and brought it to us the next morning!

Ulla has a wonderful place with a lovely garden. I had a special treat because Lesley brought her album of quilts she made. And dinner was delicious and leisurely and it was good to meet the husbands.

After dinner we saw the other newspaper, Kreiszeitung Wesermarsch, and there we are again, but apparently they don't have the article online ... or I can't read enough German to find it. Lesley verbally translated the articles to us. We all laughed as, yet again, it was mentioned that the "73 year old Claire Welch returns after 69 years." I was honored by all the attention and it wasn't until a few days ago that I zeroed in on the fact that 9 November 2008 is the 70th year anniversary of Kristallnacht.

And Ulla is the best at timing. So, after a relaxing evening Ulla brought out her coup. Opa wrote in his journal that he was a town council member, but Ulla could not find any records of it and we were determined to find it, but after our trip to the Staat Archives without any luck, we resigned ourselves to not finding it. Bernd had given Ulla the journal in German with the dates in them and she made another request to the Staat Archives and they found it! She really is a wonderful researcher, but she waited until the end of the evening to tell us! Pat & I said we both would have shared that information right when we walked in the door. Here she is sharing the new found proof.

As we drove back to Brake a warning light went on in the car, which we couldn't translate very well ... something about tire pressure, but no tire looked like it needed attention and midnight is not the time to attend to that so we ignored it and drove safely on.

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.

Wed. 17 Sept. 2008

Our GPS did a fine job of directing us to the Staat Archives building in Oldenburg ... except for the construction, one way streets and round abouts, but we got there with time to spare. And we finally got to meet Almut Setje-Eilers, the co-author with Ulla, who had been on a bike/hike holiday.

This is a facility where scholars go to research anything within the area. Usually you present the specific topic to a librarian and the information is brought out to you. Ulla asked for specific references about Opa before we arrived and told them who she was bringing and why.

We were shown how the information is stored and found. Nice tour. Then Ulla explained ... again ... that it is because I came back to Germany that we were allowed this privilege. She had never seen the inner workings of this facility. I was amazed because she certainly has done much research here.

We were extremely impressed when Herr Brunken showed us some very old documents; the equivalent to our Declaration of Independence, but theirs dates back to 1211 (or 1112) ... very old, a document that Napoleon signed, one from Catherine the Great and another signed by Queen Victoria. I think this is the Declaration of Independence on the left.

Then we were ushered into a room and brought a stack of files for us to browse and if it was what we were interested in, they would make copies for us. Having the room was a big help because we could discuss what we needed to talk about and the big research room is very quiet. The folder on the left is what we were looking to find, but look at all the files they gave us to check out. They went to a lot of work for us. And the day wasn't over.

It was about 2 PM when we went for a leisurely lunch at an Italian place before we went to the new synagogue. Again, an eye opener for me. Opa was a financial supporter of the former synagogue in Oldenburg before it was burned down by the Nazi's in 1938. The new one was started in 1992 by Sara Schuman. She and her family were hidden all through the war and Sara and her parents were the only survivors. Frau Schuman is my age and has been determined to bring Judiaism back to Germany. There are about 300 members there now and when Bernd asked her how many are German, she answered, "Only me. The rest are from Russia." Wow. I understand why the German Jews did not come back, but was so moved by Frau Schuman's dedication! Frau Schuman had one stipulation and that is that all members learn German because it is a German Jewish facility. The Russians have obliged willingly.

At the time we visited they did not have a Rabbi, but I see they will have one shortly. The secretary was wonderful and I'm so sorry I didn't write down her name. She gave us a grand tour of the facility.
Frau Shuman, the secretary and Lesley, the translator.