I am currently sitting in a park on the grass in Berlin. It is the last day of the Germany Close Up program. The sun is shining and I hear beautiful opera music coming from one direction. I feel apart of the fabric of Berlin for these ten minutes. I wonder what my grandmother and great grandparents would think if they could see me now… free to sit in a park in Germany… free to be Jewish sitting in a park in Germany. Free to pray in a synagogue on a Friday night. Free to walk down the street with no identification.
I wanted to come on Germany Close Up to feel connected to this place where my family lived and were ultimately exiled from. As the trip continued and we traveled to Munich, Nuremberg, and finally Berlin, I found that I was traveling alongside my ancestors.
Anti-semitism is so ingrained within German history- it doesn’t just start with the Holocaust.”- tour guide at the Documentation center in Munich.
There were multiple times on this trip where I found myself breaking down… my chest pounding, my head hurting, my knees weak. In those moments, at Dachau, at Track 17, I mourned and prayed that something like this would not happen again. Constantly we spoke about with our tour guides how Hitler rose to power. He wasn’t special. He was in the right place at the right time, saying antisemitic things that were popular. Ordinary citizens turned on their neighbors and friends and committed horrific acts. This cannot happen again. Not to the Jewish people and not to anyone.
On Saturday, we had a free day and I met these two Dutch 24 year olds on an art tour. After the tour, we spoke about life for about four hours in another beautiful park in Berlin. They told me that they had not really ever spoken with someone who was Jewish-they had never had the chance. Today in Germany there is a program literally called “meet a Jew” where German-Jews go into schools so the students can meet a Jewish person and ask questions about Judaism. This program seeks to have students realize that there aren’t so many differences between people of different religions.
Another meeting we had was with Jewish Professionals in the arts and education sector. There is another program funded by the German Government in schools where students work with teaching artists to learn about Jewish art as a way in to talking about religion. Germany is very concerned with making sure that students meet Jewish people so that stereotypes are not perpetrated. This really goes to show just how small the population of Jews is in Germany even today.
“This church was actually where a synagogue used to be before the pogrom in the 1300’s where they killed and exiled the Jews.” -tour guide in Nuremberg
I realized on this trip what a responsibility we have as Jewish people to tell people about the Jewish religion and history… to tell them about what happened to the Jews, not just in the 1930’s but also throughout history. Antisemitism did not begin in the 1930’s… it is ingrained into the beginning of time. We also have an incredibly important responsibility as Jewish people to speak up for mistreatment of a group of people when we see it because we know what it is like to be targeted. Never again is not just for Jewish people but is for everyone.
I’m still forming thoughts and feelings about this trip- it truly was a whirlwind. I am grateful to be able to retrace history at the tours and sites and to travel alongside such an open and kind group of people. This trip was for my ancestors and was just the beginning of my relationship to Germany.