Mission Day 4 –
Sunday—Berlin—The Longest Day
With
day 4 of the Mission, things really hit an emotional pitch from low to high on
the same day. (Think about what had come
before: Thursday opening concert at the
gorgeous Rykestrasse synagogue, Friday touring to the elegant Sans Souci Palace
and the historic Cecilienhof Palace (where the Potsdam Agreement took place)
followed by a magnificent Shabbat evening service in the glitzy Berlin
Konzerthaus, Shabbat morning beginning with joyful services at the Ritz Carlton
and the conclusion of Shabbat at the Jewish museum, where we DID face the dark
side of our German Jewish history, but still had great opportunity for musical
celebration).
(This
will be a long posting. . . but I thought it would be useful to keep it all
together, since it all happened in one day, and may serve as a sense of what
this trip was about in not-so-micro-cosm. . .)
Sunday
morning, our tour began with a visit to Grunewald, the suburban (well, maybe
intra-urban) station from which Berlin’s Jews were transported to the
Concentration Camps. A working station
today, it also has a set of remembrances of the horrible things that happened
in the past. This begins with a concrete
wall where six more-or-less human shapes are missing from the concrete. The steps lead to a platform where metal
plates record the numbers of Jews deported and their destinations. . . day by
day. . . whether it’s a “mere” 50 on November 8, 1943, or an almost
unimaginable 1160 on March 17 of the same year, 1000 on February 26. . . as well
as back on November 29, 1942. (By
November 1943, it was much harder to find Jews in Berlin or its environs.)
Berlin Grunewald Station
Concrete
remembrance at Grunewald Station
Metal plates – recording the numbers deported
The deportations took place on many days
Daily deportation numbers
Daily deportation numbers
Daily deportation numbers
From
there it was on to the site of the Wansee Conference, where the Nazis
determined, of half-a-day’s work, the implantation of the Final Solution of the
Jews. In this bucolic Berlin location,
the fate of hundreds of thousands. . . millions. . . of Jews and others was
decided.
The
display at this creepy place includes historical documentation of what led up
to the gormly events at Wannsee—including the PLANS for Kristallnacht (November
9, 1938): “Without delay, operations
against Jews, especially against their synagogues, will take place throughout
Germany. . . Where important archival material is located in synagogues, it is
to be taken into possession through immediate action. . . The arrest of 20 to
30,000 Jews in the Reich is to be prepared for.
Mainly wealthy Jews should be selected. . . “
Instructions for Kristallnacht
Instructions for Kristallnacht
From
the display at the Wannsee site:
Copy of the actual transcription of the Wannsee Conference on display
Translation of part of the document on display
Where the Jews were to be found (and deported from)
The Wannsee meeting was
originally scheduled for December 9, 1941, but was necessarily delayed because
of Pearl Harbor, and Hitler’s desire to declare war on the US that day at the
Reichstag. Re-scheduled for January 20,
1942, the entire affair took 90 minutes.
The participants included representatives of the SS, the Nazi party and
various Reich ministries. The
proceedings were secret and were supposed to remain so, but one of the
participants (possibly unintentionally) didn’t destroy the documents and they
were later found.
Mass murder on an
industrially-organized scale (think about that a bit, don’t just read the
sentence) began in October 1941 with the establishment of the Chelmo death camp
and plans for Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka death camps “in the General
Government.” From the spring of 1942,
the Economic and Administrative Main office of the SS become responsible for
the concentration camps and their numerous satellite camps. The concentration camps were under the
command of SS units SPECIALLY TRAINED for this purpose. SS guards kept watch over the sites, which
were surrounded by barbed wire, electric fences and watch towers. The SS FORCED PRISONERS to assume supervisory
functions and other tasks to secure the internal organization of the camps. More than 1.75 million Jews and 50,000 others
were killed between March 1942 and November 1943.
At Belzec, Sobibor and
Treblinka, hundreds of thousands were rapidly murdered at small sites by a
minimal number of staff. ALL arrivals
were led from the train to a separate part of the camp, without selections or
registrations. They had to undress. The women’s heads were shaved. A narrow passageway led to the gas chambers
(which were given the appearance of a washroom). WITHIN 20 MINUTES, they had suffered an
agonizing death by suffocation through inhaling exhaust fumes. THE CLOTHING AND LUGGAGE OF THE MURDERED WERE
PILED UP IN LARGE STOREROOMS BEFORE BEING TAKEN TO THE GERMAN REICH BY TRAIN
FOR RE-USE. Each camp was commanded and managed by NO MORE THAN AROUND 30 SS and
police officers. . . FEWER THAN 200 PRISONERS FROM THESE THREE CAMPS SURVIVED
THE WAR.
Maps of the Concentration Camps. . . mind-boggling
Maps of the Concentration Camps. . . mind-boggling
Take
a look at the maps of Concentration camps, death camps and satellite camps just
within Germany. Mind-boggling. Some put the figures as high as 20,000 camps.
Toward
the end of the Wannsee display were a series of vignettes from the lives of
well-known people. One was from Yehudah
Poliker, an Israeli singer-songwriter:
“One evening—I was five or six—my father wanted to eat some bread. He never cut bread, but instead tore off
large pieces and stuffed them in his mouth.
This was a habit he had from Auschwitz, the concentration camp. That evening he choked on the bread. He started to go blue in the face. My mother sent me to run for the doctor. I ran there thinking the whole time that he
would be dead when I came back. Since
then I have had a stutter.” This is one
little story, but gets at the heart of something that I think about often: Given what we know TODAY about Post Traumatic
Stress Syndrome, how is it possible that so many survived the Holocaust and led
meaningful lives, and raised children who were successful? Indeed, in another generation, we may
appreciate the hundreds of thousands who probably DIDN’T—whose experience was
so tragic that we lost track of their stories. . . and the horror of their
reality.
………………
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. . . .what you see first
After
visiting the Wannsee site, we went on to the site of Berlin’s Holocaust
Memorial: The Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe. Located within steps of
the Brandenburg Gate which is the symbol of reunification of east and west and
of the glory of German history, it was built after reunification (dedicated in
2005) —in what was once the no-man’s land between East and West Germany within
the divided city of Berlin. Its 2711
tombstone-like stones serve as a haunting reminder of the fate of Germany’s
Jewish community, even if the stones in their rows DO delight children of
various ages, who enjoy playing hide-and-seek among them.
Having
walked through the above-ground site the day that I arrived in Berlin on my own
(a week earlier), I was particularly interested in what lay below the street, a
display which turned out to be a pretty short but extremely powerful story of
the Holocaust. (I have found over the
years that it is sometimes most powerful to tell the story in a small
place. The larger the display, the
harder it is to understand, to comprehend in a lasting way—though of course we
should never be able to comprehend this horror.)
A
long corridor leads to 6 photographs (see my photos) of Jews of different ages
and origins. Each one has with it a name
and the person’s fate (for example “Simon Mandel was deported from Hungary to
Auschwitz in 1944 and murdered there. He
was 59 years old.”) The next dark room
includes columns listing the number of Jews who perished from various
countries. There is then a display of
stories of various families—with photos, letters and “outcomes.” (Again, I include a representation of this in
my photos.) This sort of thing is the
most effective in trying to remember the victims—personalizing the tragedy
rather than statistic-izing it.
the display that lies below the street
the display that lies below the street
the display that lies below the street
the display that lies below the street
the display that lies below the street
the display that lies below the street
There
is also important documentation of the Concentration Camps and Death Camps—as
well as (very important) eye-witness accounts shown on television screens by
survivors.
At
the end of this underground walk, one walks up a ramp into the middle of the
memorial.
It’s
a powerful place that I’m sure has affected hundreds of thousands (millions?)
of visitors and will stay with them forever.
This site and the Jewish Museum are among Berlin’s most visited
sites. That’s a good thing.
Colleague Debi Bletstein recites El Malei in memory of the 6 million
Jews
After
a drive past some of Berlin’s other noted landmarks—like the Reichstag and
other government buildings and the train station, we visited the Neue Synagogue
(the New Synagogue)—also known to some (like me) as the Oranienbrugerstrasse
Synagogue—once the home of Louis Lewandowski and his music that altered the
Jewish world. Before its destruction in
1938 and the 1950s, it had 3300 seats—each with a porcelain seat number.
Exterior of the Neue Synagogue
Exterior of the Neue Synagogue
Not
much left on the inside of that dome!
The ner tamid (eternal light), discovered in 1989. . . which somehow
survived the Kristallnacht destruction and later demolition!
some more of the great Neue Synagogue. Much was completely destroyed in
the 1950s.
What the front looked like—completely gone now
Portrait of Louis Lewandowski
It
says of Lewandowski that he lived from 1821 to 1894 and is “considered to be
the creator of modern synagogue music.”
(I wouldn’t argue.) “In 1833 he
came to Berlin from Wreschen in Posen province.
. . He was the first Jew to become a pupil at the Academy of Arts. . . The New Synagogue inspired Lewandowski to
create new compositions. . . published
in two works: in 1871 Kol Rinna uTefilla (Voice of Song and Prayer) and in 1876
and 1882 Toda w-Simra (Thanksgiving
and Song).
Regina Jonas, Germany’s first female rabbi—murdered at Auschwitz
The
displays there also note that Regina Jonas (1902-1944) was the first and only
female Rabbi in Germany—ordained in 1935.
She wasn’t completely recognized within her own community. But in time she was of course recognized
fully by the Nazis: On November 6, 1942,
she was deported to Theresienstadt with her mother. She was murdered at Auschwitz October 12,
1944.
…………………………..
Picture
if you will going from one dome—that of the Neue Synagogue—to another—the
Berliner Dom, one of the largest domed churches in Europe, the seat of the
Protestant Church.
Berliner Dom—the dome
That’s
the next stop on our Sunday experience, as we prepare for an interfaith concert
respecting Jewish and Christian traditions in a place which in some ways has a
dark history toward the Jewish people.
One of the figures on the wall, literally, is Martin Luther. To Americans (especially non-Christians and
non-Lutherans), we especially associate that name with Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who is a real hero even to the Jewish community. But the man for whom he was named—Martin Luther, was, in the end, and in the centuries
after his life, no friend to the Jewish people, to put it mildly. Although he defended the Jews for a few
years—say 1514-1523—by 1536 he had turned against them, and it is by his
authority that the hatred for Jews continued to grow through the centuries in
Germany and elsewhere.
The
concert was entitled “Shared Music—Shared Message”—an ecumenical festival
concert with the Cantors Assembly.
Picture, if you will, a concert in the most powerful seat of
Protestantism in Germany beginning with a series of Shofar blasts and cantors
adorned in tallitot—followed by the recitation of Psalm 114—recited alternately
in Hebrew and in Gregorian chant by members of the two different religious
orders. The concert featured two of the
Dom’s outstanding choirs and its famous organ under the direction of Tobias
Brommann, organist and directror of the Berliner Domkantorei at the Cagthedral
of Berlin. (Nick Strimple, “our”
representative is a highly regarded conductor of Jewish and other choral music
in the western U.S. and has traveled widely in Europe as a conductor as
well.)
Remarks
were offered not only by our Nate Lam—Cantor of Stephen S. Wise Synagogue of
Los Angeles, who is the visionary who hatched both the Poland/Israel Mission
(leading to the movie “100 Voices”) and the Germany/Israel Mission—but also
leading figures from the Berliner Dom and the President of Germany, Joachim
Gauck.
Cantors Assembly’s Nate Lam addresses the audience at the Concert at the
Berliner Dom
The
President’s remarks weren’t translated into English, but I am sure that they
were more than appropriate to the occasion.
Professor Scheider of the School of Theology of Humboldt University,
spoke most eloquently and movingly about this special occasion, and our shared
intentions to celebrate God through our music.
The concert featured music from the Jewish world and the Protestant
world and beyond. The Cathedral Choir’s
performance of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia was breathtaking. And Cantor Rebecca Carmi’s performance of
Kurt Weill’s Kiddush was an amazing moment—to hear funky Jewish music by an
exiled Jewish composer in this place was just fabulous. Each of my cantorial colleagues acquitted
themselves beautifully in this awe-inspiring venue. The concert concluded with all the cantors
present coming forward and singing Lewandowski’s Psalm 150 from the steps at
the front of the cathedral—alongside (mixed with) the Cathedral choirs.
Prof. Dr. Rolf Schieder addresses the audience at the Berliner Dom Concert
At the concert’s conclusion, cantors sing together with the Dom’s
choirs—including yours truly, bottom center
So
it was a day that touched repeatedly on the darkest and most painful days in
the 20th century history of the Jewish people—on the many reasons that
many of us Jews have chosen never to visit Germany—and perhaps to promise never
to visit German y. Yet it also connected
with some of the high points of our cultural past as Jews in Germany and, in
the end, with the recognition that we can, if we choose, move forward: that
many of the official leaders in Germany and the church leaders in Germany and
the people of Germany have admitted and tried in some ways to pay for the
terrible things that they inflicted on our people.
We
cannot say that “we won” – for our losses in the Holocaust were and are too
great. But we CAN choose to move
forward, aware that the future holds only the future; that we mustn’t FORGET
the past, but we shouldn’t be imprisoned by it.
(This theme was noted repeatedly in my experiences a week earlier as a
participant in the Shimon Peres Presidential Conference in Jerusalem—noted more
than once by Peres himself. I’ve got
pages and pages of notes on THAT experience. . . but don’t want to unpack them
until after I’ve blogged through Germany. . . )
No comments:
Post a Comment