Germany: Roots & Remembrance

The Transit Museum in München is a special place for us.

Last July, we spotted an intercity tram identical to the one my father rode daily from Nürnberg to a Jewish school in nearby Fürth, after the German government expelled Jews from public school. Museum staffer Christian told us that where we were standing was off limits. I told Christian my father’s story. Christian ran to get a key and warmly ushered us onto the tram.

Christian and I stayed in touch.

Today he welcomed us back.

This visit was even more wonderful. Dad joined us on FaceTime.

My father talked about changing trams at Plärrer—and there it was on the tram map!

The museum has amazing vehicles. We found Jeffrey’s next bicycle.

Christian’s friendship is a link in the chain that binds me to today’s Germany.

So is my friendship with Henrike. In 1932, my aunt Charlotte saved Henrike’s mother, Elizabeth, from drowning. (See essay #10 here.)

Connections like these enrich my life.

And they help repair the world.

Connections to history enrich and repair too. My years of research on family history led me to my friend Stefan—a volunteer who studies local Jewish history—and to Edel, a journalist who interviewed me today for the City of München’s Remembrance Organization.

My work and these connections, and Stefan’s tireless help, have led to the placement in München later this week of memorials to members of my family murdered by their neighbors and their government in the early 1940s.

Not remembrance itself, but the lessons it teaches, help repair the world.

To round out the day, our cousin Carol arrived from Amsterdam and we connected over dinner at an Italian restaurant. The Italians are the best chefs in Germany.

Carol brought postcards and a letter written by her grandmother, my great-aunt Karoline, more than eighty years ago.

I’ll say more about Karoline soon.

To read prior essays, click HERE.