Germany: Roots & Remembrance

The first step on any trans-Atlantic journey is the trip to the airport (this time via the M57 bus and E-train) and the chaos of checking in. Only when I reach the Delta Sky club do my nerves begin to settle.

We landed in Frankfurt around 8am and drove directly to Fulda, where I was scheduled to speak to students at 2pm. Fulda is a town of 70,000, founded in 744 (no typo) around an abbey. Before WW2, there were about 1,000 Jews out of 30,000 inhabitants. Today there are 300 Jews, almost all from Eastern Europe.

I have a link to Fulda. My distant cousin Heinrich Freund (born in the Freund family hometown of Kleinwallstadt) and his wife Therese Freund (born Stern) resided in Fulda for more than 20 years. The couple lived in the basement of the Jewish school, though his job is unknown.

Henrich and Therese moved to Frankfurt in 1939 because the synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht and the school building was “sold”. Both were deported from Frankfurt and murdered by the Nazis; he in Theresienstadt (age 74) and she in Treblinka (age 75). The town of Fulda remembers them and other Jews who lived here. There also are memorial plaques for this couple in Frankfurt, which we plan to see next week.

We were greeted in Fulda by Anja Listmann, a quiet powerhouse, the Commissioner for Jewish Life in Fulda.

In researching my family, I came across the memorial stone in Fulda for Heinrich Freund.

The City of Fulda’s website lists Anja as the person responsible. One phone call later, I had a ton of information and an invitation to speak to her students.

Awesome Anja is an example of what one person can accomplish. In her teens, Anja listened to her grandmother speak about the Jews who once were their neighbors. Disturbed and inspired, Anja (who’d had no inkling of this) dedicated her life to recovering Fulda’s Jewish past. She teaches students about the Holocaust and human rights, unearthed the local mikva, and has convinced the city to rebuild the synagogue in some form. She unearths documents in the city archives to create family trees and family histories.

Anja has about 20 students per year who volunteer to research the Jewish history of Fulda. They visit Auschwitz with her and do other projects. There is no school credit. The students are people of conscience and character.

After a short introduction I spoke about my Bavarian Freund family and Hessian Steinberger family that came from the nearby town of Alsfeld, just 40 minutes up the road. The students were engaged. After my talk, they made comments and asked questions.

The students created an exhibition in City Hall after their visit to Auschwitz. The pictures and poems are worthy of any museum.

This year the students have partnered with a high school in Petach Tikvah (near Tel Aviv) to learn from each other. Next year, the Fulda students will visit Israel; the following year the Israelis will come to Fulda.

The first known Jewish presence in Fulda was about 1300 years ago. Records from 1423 mention a synagogue. The Jewish population was recorded at 1,137 in 1925 and 1,038 in 1933.

In the 20th century, Fulda’s orthodox Jewish community thrived—until their non-Jewish neighbors betrayed them.

Thanks to Anja, the Jewish community’s long presence will be felt once again.

Her work is a paradigm of tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of repair of our broken world.

To read prior essays please click HERE.