Nineteen young Jewish leaders from across the U.S. recently embarked on a 10-day Germany Close Up (GCU) trip in cooperation with Classrooms Without Borders (CWB), in association with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Although visits to Berlin, Potsdam, Nuremberg, and Munich educated participants on Holocaust history and reconciliation efforts, the trip encompassed more than a remembrance of the past. It also exposed attendees to the multicultural landscape of the democratic country today, through meetings with political officials, leaders in the Jewish community, and young German professionals.
“We feel that it is very important for young adults to understand the new Germany, and that’s why we started this program,” said Zipora Gur, CWB founder and executive director. “We give young leaders the opportunity to see what’s happening in the Jewish community, interact with Germans, learn about their culture, visit their museums and see the arts, and understand the issues that they’re facing with immigration.”
Hailing from Pittsburgh, Ohio, New York, Washington, D.C., Kentucky, and Florida, the young leaders selected for the trip were led by Gur, and guided through Germany by young professionals from GCU, Johanna Blender and Theresa Bachmann. A couple from the CWB advisory board, Gail and Yashar Shirazi from D.C., accompanied the group. The travelers voyaged many miles to get to Germany, and covered a lot of ground once there, but also had ample opportunity to journey inward.
“From saying kaddish at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, to banging on the tables while singing at Shabbat dinner, all in the same week… I never realized how much I still had to learn,” said Haggai Ariel-Joel, a participant from Kentucky. Kate Davidson, also from Kentucky, agreed. “This was a life-changing trip.”
Subsidized by the European Recovery Program (the ERP, also known as the Marshall Plan) of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, GCU trips are designed to enrich transatlantic dialogue and provide young Jewish American leaders with an opportunity to experience modern Germany first-hand.
“Berlin is a city rebuilt and moving forward, despite looming anti-Semitism,” said Amy Cohen, an attendee from Pittsburgh. Matty Baratz from Clevelend added, “To admit their flaws and confront them is the only way Germany can move on.”
During the first week of the program, participants stayed in Berlin’s Mitte’s borough in former East Germany, an area rich in Jewish history just minutes away from Brandenburg Gate and the muralled remnants of the Berlin Wall. In Berlin, the young leaders visited several educational sites, including the German Historical Museum, and Bayerischer Platz memorial (composed of 80 lampposts with placards depicting successive Nazi legal discrimination against the Jews). One afternoon, the travelers each took their time winding their way through the tall, grey pillars of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, contemplating what the architecture symbolized.
At the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the travelers were stirred by an interactive display called Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves), in which they stepped on thousands of iron plates shaped liked haunted faces, evoking the memories of the lives trampled on during WWII. Another heart-wrenching part of the trip was saying prayers at the memorial at Track 17, a now over-grown train station where Jews were once deported to ghettos and concentration camps.
A highlight of the itinerary was meeting with a member of parliament and visiting representatives in the Federal Foreign Office. The young adults also learned about German society through a dinner with their German peers, and were briefed by the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (the ARSP administers GCU). German, Russian, and Israeli Jews in Germany spoke to the group about what it’s like to be Jewish in Germany, and participants also discussed anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism with researchers and policy advisors.
For many of the travelers, the most meaningful portion of the visit was spending Shabbat at the Fraenkelufer Synagogue, which was heavily damaged during WWII. After services, everyone enjoyed a community dinner in the remaining original part of the building where touching pictures of congregants reopening the synagogue just after the war adorned the walls.
“Leading the benching prayer as a female Jew in Berlin meant a lot to me,” said Emily Goldstein, an attendee from New York.
Outside of Berlin, the young leaders said the kaddish memorial prayer at Sachsenhausen, a former concentration camp in Oranienburg. Walking through the camp and viewing the remains of the gas chamber and crematorium was another intensely moving experience that they will always remember.
“Every step I took there was conscious. So many before me couldn’t choose where they wanted to go, or choose to leave,” realized Joshua Sayles from Pittsburgh.
At the picturesque Wannsee Villa, now a Holocaust memorial, the group learned about the final solution in the eerily beautiful place where the horrific, genocidal plans were drafted. Then the trip continued with tours of Potsdam, Munich, and Nuremberg. Many of the young leaders took turns standing on the very same platform on Zeppelin Field in the very same spot where Hitler led Nazi rallies with his infamous salute, and instead made peace signs for the camera. The field now contains a memorial, and is also used for concerts, sporting events, and camping.
The group also stopped at the Deutsches Stadion (German Stadium), which was commissioned by the Nazis, and were impressed that although it was never completed, the German people have elected to keep the unfinished structure as a reminder of the tragic past, using it mainly for civic storage.
“Empty spaces in any other city would be bulldozed over,” noted trip attendee Zachary Reizes from Cleveland. “The fact that Germany has the political willpower not to bulldoze those spaces means a lot to me,” he said.
Some of the travelers felt that it was surreal to sit in the same courthouse in the Palace of Justice, still in use today, where the infamous Nuremberg trials to prosecute the Nazi criminals were held. Past and present history were also intertwined in Munich, when the group met with the rabbi of the Ohel Jakob Synagogue, and discussed the responsibilities of living in the shadow of the Holocaust, and the tough issues of immigration and intermarriage facing the congregation today.
Many of the sad, intense experiences of the trip were followed by lighter moments at mealtime with traditional German food and drink, or international cuisine. The GCU/CWB experience connected the group, and new friendships were forged.
“I like being able to go from moving experiences to laughter,” said Isabelle Brourman, a participant from Pittsburgh.
For more information and the application for the Germany Close Up/Classrooms Without Borders trip, visit http://classroomswithoutborders.org/seminars/show.php?Germany-Close-Up-7. Next year’s trip will be held August 4 -14.
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About the author:
Jessica Kreger is a professional writer and published author from South Florida. She was thrilled to participate in the GCU/CWB trip. She is an active volunteer leader for the young professional networks of B’nai B’rith International and the American Jewish Committee. Jessica earned her M.A. in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and her B.A. in English from Penn State.