Germany: Roots & Remembrance

Karoline Lehmann born Freund was blinded by glaucoma in mid-life. America didn’t accept blind immigrants for fear that they would be a financial burden. The Nazis deported her to Theresienstadt, where she died of starvation and sickness. She had no grave and no funeral. Her family had no place to mourn my Great-Aunt Karoline, until today.

The City of Nürnberg honored Karoline today, outside the apartment building where she lived.

Representing Nürnberg was Dr. Pascal Metzger, who spoke about the memorials for the Jews. Some neighbors attended. I brought 20 printed copies of a short memorial ceremony in German, Hebrew and English.

After the installation of the stumbling stone, the family lunched with friends from Nürnberg, Miltenberg, and Amsterdam.

It will take time to digest what I did on this trip: teaching students, visiting archives, connecting with friends, touring cemeteries, placing memorials in Munich and Nürnberg, writing essays. What was accomplished? What does it mean?

Tomorrow I fly home with Jeffrey to New York City.

I hope this trip was a step toward Tikkun Olam—repair of the world—by my family and my German friends and colleagues.

I’ll write next from Manhattan: Russell Shorto’s “Island at the Center of the World”.

To read prior essays, click HERE.