Three Generations Visit Hamburg

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Diaspora Jews, German Jews, Hamburg, second generation, third generation

Glass stars: Judische Gemeinde in Hamburg

34 of us came together in Hamburg last week from Israel, the U.S., England, Brazil, and Germany. Ranging in age from 9 (my son Sam) to 86, our shared connection was that we belonged to Jewish families who fled or were deported from Hamburg during the Nazi years. As guests of the Senate of Hamburg, we were treated to a week of cultural and historical excursions and events. And we had time to explore what little traces were left of our families’ residency in this beautiful city that was home to more than 20,000 Jews in the 1920s. The oldest member of our group, who had been deported to Riga, is once again a resident of Hamburg, where he now spends his summers.

The visitor programs in cities across Germany have been part of  the nation’s continuing efforts towards reconciliation. Hamburg’s program dates back to the 1970s and helped my mother come to terms with her disrupted childhood when she participated quite some years ago. But most of the programs have come to an end as the first generation of survivors has passed away. Hamburg and Frankfurt continue to invite the descendants of former residents to visit the places that so many of us learned so little about as we were growing up.

going to lunch in Rathaus Hamburg

As my sister, Sam and I rode around in a Mercedes bus from one historical point of interest to another, I tried to connect this visit with my family’s decision to live in Germany today. I feel safe and welcome in Berlin and I respect Germany’s extensive efforts to confront its atrocious past. But I know that not all immigrants to Germany feel as comfortable here as I do. I worry less about the future of Jews in Germany than I do about the future of ethnic groups that have been the target of the latest Neo-Nazi activities. I worry that Holocaust remembrance and reconciliation efforts are too far removed from Germany’s current integration challenges.

As the descendants of Holocaust survivors make the choice to visit Germany, I hope they will have the opportunity to learn about the concerns of this era while delving into their family histories. The younger generations are uniquely situated to grasp the connections between past and present.

“Why is mommy crying?”

Tags

American Jews, German Jews, Hamburg, Holocaust

It was one of those “shit, we forgot to take pictures” kind of trips.  We’ve travelled so much and have taken so many photos since we’ve been living in Berlin, that we just got lazy.  We had gone on a “Hamburg in 27 hours” trip (not counting the travel time!), trying to show up the “36 hours” trips touted by the New York Times.  And we were dazzled by every moment we spent in the elegant, sparkling city of Hamburg despite the frigid temps that almost kept us off the banks of the Elbe.

The beauty of Hamburg was made more remarkable for me by the fact that my mother was born there in 1933.  Like so many German Jews, my mother has little desire to reconnect with her native country, avoids speaking German despite her near-perfect Hoch Deutsch (at her age!), and found the idea of our move to Berlin abhorrent. But Hamburg was her home for 5 years before she was forced to flee Germany with her parents in 1938. When I told her how much we enjoyed walking along the harbor, she relayed a vivid childhood memory that she had never before shared with me.  On the day her family fled Germany she sat at the harbor waiting to board the boat and asked her father “why is mommy crying?”

For the many of us who have always wondered and asked about, but could never fully grasp, the experience of our parents and grandparents during the Nazi era, this revelation hit me with a small but powerful punch.  Had we strolled right past the place where she had waited for the boat that would take her to New York and the safety of America? We were just tourists taken in by Hamburg’s clearly thriving port (the third largest in Europe) and the surrounding mixture of old warehouses and ultra modern urban development projects such as Hafen City. But at least now I can almost picture my mother as a 5 year old girl sitting at the harbor and waiting to begin her new life in America.

As I was writing this post Avery reminded me that he had actually brought his camera and taken just a few photos of the harbor and our ferry ride. Although there are many fancy boats to choose from along the harbor, we of course opted for the public ferry and it was lovely and oh so warm! I took a pleasant snooze while surrounded by the sounds of the locals sipping beer and chatting with friends on their Sunday afternoon outing.