By invitation of the City of
Frankfurt am Main
Visiting Program for former Jewish Citizens and their
Descendents.
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It is a bit difficult to put into
words the amazing experience I had during this trip. A one word summary would
be: Wunderbar! In this writing, I am mostly writing for
myself and for my own memory of this time but will also include noteworthy
items for my many friends and family who are interested in this trip and its
details. There may be much more than you want to read. I am going to write with
bullets as there were so many disconnected happenings during the trip and if
possible, I will try to connect the dots at the end.
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I went with my
sister Nancy Ginsburg which even by itself would have been enough and that was
just one of the wonderful experiences. To be able to share such personal and
familial history with the person that I am the most closest to of my childhood
made all the difference in the world. We have so much in common and had fun
together and understand each other and our behaviors like sisters might. We
also had the good fortune to share this experience with a cousin, Rolf Sturm
from Switzerland and got to know him better and to have fun and share this time
together. Interesting to note in our family is that two sisters (Edith and
Heddi Gutenstein) married two brothers (Kurt and Ernst Vogel). Our grandparents
on my father’s side were Edith & Kurt and Rolf’s were Heddi & Ernst.
With Rolf we had many similarities because of these upbringings, though in
different cultures as we grew up in the USA and he and his sisters in
Switzerland. His mother Lotte, and our father Erwin, though cousins, were only
one week apart in age and grew up more as siblings in the years before leaving
Germany.
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| Erwin's street |
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| Kornerwiese #5 |
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Discovering our
roots was the focus that I connected to most. We saw Erwin’s house and
neighborhood and could picture him as a young boy playing in the street in
front of his house that had trees and greenery down the middle. We saw the house of our mother Gabrielle and her
neighborhood and could picture our grandmother and grandfather and their fine
lifestyle in Weisbaden. We had drinks at a lovely restaurant outside the grand
spa of Weisbaden and could imagine Granny walking the beautiful lawn in fine
clothes, ready for a ball or other event. These were the stories we heard over
and over from her – her dreams and thoughts were always on this former life.
Now, years later, I have much more understanding of why she was so bitter all
her life – she lost the thing that was very precious to her – her status. When
she came to the USA with little of her possessions and money she began a new
life, but not one of her choice. She treasured the few items that she brought
(some furniture, silver, jewelry) but never got over this loss of her identity.
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| with Dorothee in Wiesbaden |
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| Mommy's house |
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| Spa in Wiesbaden |
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| Jewelry store was on first floor |
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There were 22
descendants on this trip with several who brought their spouses, children or
cousins making a total of about 40 in the group. The breakdown of countries
was: USA (10 including me coming from Mexico), Israel (7), and one each for
Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Great Britain and Switzerland.
The book was "Der Struwwelpeter" or "Slovenly Peter" in English. This book was read to most of us by our parents or grandparents – a book that today would not be politically correct and is for sure, a bit scary, yet the memory was very strong in all of us. Next was a display for 4711, an Eau de Cologne that was used by everyone. We knew it from both of our grandmothers, but it seems that the fathers and grandfathers used it as well. Then we came upon the memory of shoe bags used for travel in suitcases – not the ones we all use – plastic bags, but fine fabric bags with drawstrings that would keep each shoe separate from the other.
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| shoe bags |
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| memories 4711 |
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Now to a bit of
the differences – this was a bit difficult for me, and also difficult to
explain. Yes, we are all Jewish – by birth and many by practice. I think of
Jewish as a religion, but it seems that others think of it as a race,
nationality and for sure, identity. I did not get a strong message from my
parents of any of these ideas as they were foremost Germans and we did not
practice religion in our family, nor did we have the Jewish culture on either
side of our family. So here I was with a large group ranging from those with
little or no practice to orthodox people whose identity was clearly Jewish –
and who know the laws and practices in areas that I do not. Nancy has a bit of
a different feeling and knowledge on this subject and I shall let her speak for
herself on this. I encountered, what I felt was a bit of intolerance to me – I hope
that I am wrong, but I do not think so. One person questioned my tattoo. Who
knew that this is against the Jewish laws – I did not. I have now done a little
research to find out that it is somewhat controversial, but nevertheless….it
never occurred to me. To be judged for this was a very uncomfortable feeling.
Secondly, I was questioned several times as to whether I would visit Israel and
made to feel that again, there was something wrong with me that I have not gone
yet, nor have plans to go. What I realized from these events was that I am clearly an “outsider” in a culture that I am supposedly a part of. It did help
me, however, to realize that my identity is not really Jewish, but more German.
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The trip was
VERY well organized by the city and thanks go to Constanza Wagner and Lea
Manger, two young German ladies that were with us day and night keeping us on
time and organized. It is not easy herding around such a large group of people.
We were provided with a very comprehensive program including the following
events:
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Tuesday – after
24 hours of travel for most of us, a get together to meet the 40 members of our
group and the various organizations that would be with us all week.
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| in the Palmengarden |
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Wednesday -
Welcome reception in the famous Palmengarten which is a beautiful big garden
and event venue in the center of Frankfurt along with a tour of the garden.
Later we went to the school called Philanthropin which is a Jewish school where
we talked with some students and visited the library and other rooms. In the evening we had a guided tour of the
Jewish Museum and an information meeting by the “Project Jewish Life in
Frankfurt” the people that would help us in whatever way we wanted to connect
us to the details of our family past – providing research and tours to places
of importance for us. The director of this project is Angelika Rieber – now a
new friend for sure.
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| with Angelika at Ginko restaurant |
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Thursday began
with a bus tour of the city followed by the Historic Museum and a visit to the
exhibition “East End – a glance at the Jewish quarter” and then a visit to the
“Hochbunker” – a bunker during the war. The evening had the opportunity for the
Opera – Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss – a 4 hour modern version of this
opera (in German with German subtitles). I am sorry to admit either my lack of culture,
or my fatigue from the long travel days but I had a nice nap for the first act
of over 1 hour and we left for the second two acts.
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| The Opera Houe |
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| Jew's alley |
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Friday we went
to the Fritz-Bauer Institute and the Educational Institution of Anne Frank
followed by a guided tour of the Old Jewish Cemetery, a Memorial garden and the
Museum of “Jew’s Alley”. Later in the day we went with Regina Wolfart, one of
the volunteers, to see the former home of our father.
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| with Regina and Gabrielle outside the Jewish cemetery |
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Saturday had
Shabbat services at the West End Synagogue but Nancy and I chose to have a day
walking and shopping around Frankfurt.
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Sunday we went
to Wiesbaden on an individual search for the traces of our mother’s history. We
found the house that she lived in with her parents and the building that had
the Jewelry store that they owned – a very elegant store in a very elegant
city. We visited here with Dorothee
Lottmann-Kaeseler who is another
volunteer and we connected with her through one of our relatives in NYC, Ann
Lewyn who had met her years ago.
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Monday was a big
day. In the morning we went to the MusterSchule, the school where our dad was a
student until he was told not to return in 1933. There is a wall with names of all of the children who were forced to leave, including Erwin's.
Nancy and I gave a talk at one
class – about 25 students, and Rolf talked to another. Many of our group spoke
at different schools. Later we went to the business Elsen + Hemer which was the
former business of the Vogel Brothers. and finally at night we attended the
formal reception and Kosher dinner in the Imperial Hall of the city of
Frankfurt.
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| The wall with Erwin Vogel's name - visible for all to see |
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Both our
parents and all our great grandparents and more were all from the same area of
Germany – most were from Frankfurt and some from Wiesbaden which is only 30
minutes by train from Frankfurt. Our parents met on a blind date in New York
City on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941. The date was set up by the two
jewelry families that knew each other in Germany before the war.
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The large group
of volunteers who helped us trace our family roots was amazing. Early on we
made the assumption that they were Jewish but came to find out that this was
not the case. We were lucky to have three people helping us: Regina, Dorothee
and Angelika.
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One of the most
amazing moments for me (and I think I can speak for Nancy here as well) was
when we walked up to the MusterShule, the school that my father attended from
1931-1933.
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| Erwin is with us! |
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| speaking to the History class |
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| the students of the History class |
There on the side of the building was the school name with the M
representing an owl. For those who know Nancy and I, you know that we are sure
that we have had various communications with our mother, grandmother and now
our father as the owl has represented him to us for decades. It was a
comforting feeling knowing that he was with us on this trip, and especially on
this day to talk with students at his school. The chance to speak with students
today about Erwin, our lives with German/Jewish parents in the USA and a
dialogue with them about prejudice today was encouraging for the future as
their school is made up of people from many countries and backgrounds and they
felt that all were equally accepted. It was also good to note that this subject
is right out in the open in this and the many other schools attended by our group.
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Another
important event – on the same last day was our visit with Elsen+Hemer. This
business was started by our great grandfather Heinrich and later run by both
Vogel brothers, Ernst and Kurt until 1933 when they were forced to leave.
Because there were branches in Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden, my grandfather
and family went to Belgium and later Rolf’s family went to Switzerland. Mr. Elsen
worked for the company at the time and so was moved into a position to take
over the company. Some money did change hands with our grandfathers so we are
not interested in money. We discovered, in 2013, that their website has
misinformation stating that the business was started in 1914 by their family.
We requested that they change this but had no response. So because we were all
together in Frankfurt, we decided to go to their place of business, along with
a reporter, Armin Flesch, to try and meet with them. We met with Michael Elsen
who is the grandson of the original Elsen for a short meeting. At the end, with
a handshake, he agreed to change their website to include the Vogel names and
with this, we felt a great success and honor to the Vogel brothers and their
father.
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| Today's logo of Elsen + Hemer |
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| with Michael Elsen |
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Germany does
not feel like a place that is hiding its past. Right in the center of town, all
along the beautiful Main River is an art installation of bands representing
those that were deported with their numbers. The fact that the city provides
this program is another example of this. The hope, of course, is that it never
happens again.
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| art installation on all trees along the river |
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| the beautiful river Main that our family loved |
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Lighthearded
and fun activities: I loved shopping with Nancy,
especially for jewelry which felt like a connection to our mother and
grandmothers. I bought a
watch & bracelet and Nancy bought a bracelet. As I said before, we have felt very
strong connections to our mother through various bracelets and anyone who wants
more details on this – ask either of us for our bracelet stories. We also
enjoyed shopping in the grocery store and seeing the different food items and
also the many vegan items. We felt successful learning
the metro and underground systems and figuring out directions to many places
without understanding the language. People were all very nice and helpful when
we asked questions. We enjoyed the breakfasts at the hotel and the chance to
get to know a few from our group. We were together for a few meals out and
walks about with a few of these new friends as well.
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| Rolf in the City Hall |
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The last night
we had a reception to honor our group and Rolf was chosen as the speaker to
represent us. The night before we spent several fun hours with him translating
his speech from German to English as it was the more common language among all of us. Because he was the speaker, he chose us to give the small token
gifts to Constanza, Lea and Angelika and we sat at the special guest table for
dinner (which I will add, included a special kosher vegan dish for Rolf and I).
Now, I shall go back to the questions
I asked myself before my trip and summarize a bit of my thoughts. I suppose
that some of these will change over time, but I have had this week to
talk about my trip and think about it. The italics represent my questions before
the trip.
What is my identity – will I feel my Jewish
identity or will I only feel my connections to the German identity? I think I can summarize and say that I feel
strong connections to my German roots and was happy to see a beautiful modern
city with seemingly open and kind people. I can embrace the “German” things
that are part of me – on time, orderly, neat and clean, disciplined, focused, and
somewhat rigid on some things that are important to me. I saw that many had
versions of these types of behavior. I do not, however, feel a Jewish identity.
I will not deny my Jewish roots and do not feel the need to hide it from myself
or others, but as I do not know much about the culture, or the religion and
found this out on numerous occasions, I see that in order to fit into that
culture, I would have to live in it and learn much. I just do not see this
happening in this life of mine. I actually feel more understanding of the
Mexican culture – though a far extreme from the German culture. I understand
why there are such difficulties in accommodating to these different cultures
when one’s identity is strong in another culture. I would like to go back to
remembering the big lesson learned from my father. When asked what was his
nationality or race on a form, or in person – his answer was “human”. So, I
hope to take this with me forever and instead of thinking about what is
different about all of us, I would like to remember what is the same – that we
are all human. This was one of the summary points I made at the MusterShule
with the students this week.
Another question I had was: How and why did they learn to hate? I do
not have an answer to how the Nazis learned to hate in the way that they did. We
discovered that there were many people who were not Nazis but who were also
just victims as they were not able to help Jews for if they did, they too would
have been deported. They were in fear and just doing the best for themselves
and their families. As I mentioned earlier, I did experience through
conversation several moments of discomfort related to differences of people and
realize that we still have the same problems in different parts of the world as there
was in Germany – people putting one group of people against another and willing
to kill, in the name of God. I guess the only thing I can do is to be a good
person and try my best, never to be intolerant, prejudiced or discriminatory.
Richard and I will continue to travel as for me,
it is one of the best ways to experience other cultures, people, ideas and see
our similarities rather than differences.
So my friends, if you have reached
this point, you know about this trip and how it has influenced my life. I am
grateful for your love and support in my life and for my travels and thank you for
reading this.
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| A toast to you! |
