“Repair the Future”, “Heile das Zerbrochene”. These were big, brave words for the title of a conference set for August 21, 2010 in Weimar., As the date drew near, this ideal seemed increasingly unrealistic and remote. Through preparing for the event, I became aware that many Germans carry the dark weight of their history on their shoulders, and if your surname happens to be that of one of Hitler’s henchmen, like Boger or Goering.... [more]
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The choir sang Verdi's Requiem. This work is very memorable for Marianka even thought it is a Catholic piece. It speaks of the final judgment and pleads for mercy for the innocent who have died. On the last performance, high-ranking SS representatives, including Adolf Eichman, were sitting in the front row...
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When I was fourteen or fifteen years old, we spoke about the Holocaust in school. One of my teachers told us that his grandfather had died in a concentration camp. I was very shocked, and talked about it with my mother at home. She said, "Your grandfather was also in Auschwitz, but as a perpetrator..."
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I feel honoured to be the daughter of a German and a Jew,
because their story is one of redemption. I hope that by telling it,
I may kindle a spark of healing in others. I’m proud of my German
heritage and although the horrors of the past should not be
forgotten, we need not carry them like chains forever...
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My father, who is a Jewish holocaust survivor, sent me his
translation of part of a prayer religious Jews around the world say
before going to bed: "I herewith forgive all those who have angered
or taunted me, all those who have sinned against my person, my
wealth, my possessions or my honor..."
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As I sat by my German grandfather's deathbed in a hospital in
Hamburg some years ago, he became very distraught and kept shouting
to me to take the picture of Hitler off the wall. I told him there
was no picture of Hitler there. "Oh yes there is, take it down,
they've hung it up in the church and I'm not going there again..."
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I can still remember the first time I walked past the black
swastika sprayed on the wall with spray paint, large and boldly. As
a ninth grader, I had just moved to the North Rhine Valley with my
parents from the USA and could not believe it. So all the rumours I
had heard were true — Germany really was full of Neo-Nazis...
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