Vorab-Veröffentlichung eines
Artikels von Prof. Leslie Brent
mit freundlicher
Genehmigung der Zeitschrift
"Journal of
the Association of Jewish Refugees"
Second reunion of
former pupils of the Jewish orphanage for boys, Pankow, Berlin
The building of the Jewish
orphanage in Pankow, East Berlin, survived the war and the post-war period
though it is no longer used as an orphanage. It was totally renovated in the
late 1990s, thanks to the Walter and Margarete Cajewitz Stiftung, a Trust whose
primary function is to provide comfortable accommodation for elderly people and
that chose to turn the orphanage building into a community centre for Pankow.
This now comprises a public library on three floors and a centre for the
rehabilitation of drug addicts on another. On the second floor is the Betsaal -
the former synagogue, the ornate ceiling of which has been lovingly restored to
something of its former glory. This large room is now used by the local
community and by the committee "of the association of the supporters and
friends of the former Jewish orphanage" for public concerts, talks and
discussions. (I had my Barmitzvah in it two months before my departure from
Berlin in the first of the Kindertransports.)
The renovation was
orchestrated and supervised with the utmost care by Prof. P-A. Albrecht,
Trustee of the Stiftung, and it is partly thanks to his continuing interest and
generosity that this kind of reunion has become possible. The committee, led by
Dr. Hermann Simon, Director of the Centrum Judaicum - Dr. Inge Lammel, writer
and local historian of the orphanage and the local Jewish community, Eva
Bentzien, welfare officer of the Stiftung and Karin Manns, teacher at the
nearby Rosa-Luxemburg Gymnasium - worked indefatigably, with unflagging
enthusiasm, and great warmth and generosity to make the four-day reunion a
resounding success.
The 2001 reunion saw 15 men
who had been Zoglinge" (pupils") at one time or another before and in
a few cases even after the outbreak of WWII. This time we were reduced to
seven, though some of us were accompanied by our wives. Represented were the UK
(3), U.S.A. (1), Argentina (1) and Berlin (2). This smaller reunion, no doubt
determined by the fact that as a group we are becoming older and more decrepit,
lent itself to a more informal programme and to greater intimacy, though absent
friends were greatly missed.
The programme was an
attractive mix of the enjoyable, nostalgic and poignant. Among the latter was a
visit to the Jewish Museum, which I had previously seen when it was still
empty. It continues to be a hugely impressive and moving building, the welter
of historical exhibits, artefacts, memorabilia, videos and interactive computer
terminals detracting only slightly from its symbolic significance. The Garden
of Exile, with its leaning columns, tilting gangways and foliage now forming a
canopy, is as disorientating and discomforting as ever, and the largest of the
"voids", the Holocaust Tower (the only void one can enter) still
utterly daunting and alienating. Three hours seemed inadequate to do justice to
the exhibition (which now includes a section on some non-religious Jews such as
Karl Marx), which seemed overcrowded but nonetheless gave a fascinating account
of the history of German and European Jews over the last 2000 years.
The visit to the recently
opened "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" was very poignant.
Its 2700 gaunt giant slabs of slate-coloured stone, arranged in straight
intersecting rows, cover an area the size of two football pitches, right in the
heart of Berlin, close to the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag. The narrow
walkways between the stones, which vary considerably in height, often undulate
and tilt disturbingly. The memorial had a long and stormy gestation and it has
been much criticised because of its size, the absence of any plaques (thus
leaving everything to the imagination), its vulnerability to abuse and the
exclusion of other minorities who suffered, such as the Roma and Sinti. The
fact that among the hundreds of visitors that Sunday afternoon there were some
who sat on the low stones near the circumference, drinking coca cola or eating
icecreams, didn't disturb me at all, nor that some children were playing hide
and seek among the higher slabs. On the whole the atmosphere was contemplative
and respectful and there were no graffiti. My attempt at a little market
research foundered when I asked (in my best German) a group of three young
people sitting on some stones what they felt about the memorial. One of them
answered at length, thoughtfully and positively and with a slight foreign
accent: alas, they turned out to be English!
The extensive underground
Holocaust Information Centre was brilliantly devised and the exhibits movingly
displayed, with stark historical facts and photographs followed by family
histories from a variety of countries, eye witness accounts by survivors and
non-survivors and interactive exhibits such as the computer terminals to the
archives kept at Yad Vashem, permitting visitors to look up biographical
details of relatives who died in the Holocaust.
An exhibition of "Art in
Auschwitz" had opened on the last day of our reunion in the Centrum
Judaicum and we were given the opportunity to view it. This was the first major
exhibition based on Ausschwitz (Oswiecim), organised in collaboration with the
Museum authorities there. On the face of it, the idea that art could flourish
in the camp seems incredible and bizarre, but the high quality of many of the
deeply moving paintings and drawings of life in the camp, the numerous
portraits of inmates as well as of some SS officers and their families (and
even their dogs) and some escapist and romantic landscapes was a reminder of
the wealth of talent that was so wantonly destroyed there.
On the lighter side, we had
several get-togethers, always with wonderful food, allowing us to reminisce,
listen to readings from the autobiography of one man who described the harsh
life in the orphanage early in the 20th century, and watch a video of a film made
at the first reunion that focussed on the lives of five former orphanage
pupils, including myself. We also listened to a delightfully lighthearted
choral concert, with soloist singers and instrumentalists, given by a choir
from the Rosa-Luxemburg Gymnasium. The
concert was, appropriately, performed in the Betsaal of the orphanage building
and well attended by local people. Some of the older boys and girls had
volunteered to help with some of the catering and did so with great charm.
Another agreeable concert of
ancient Italian music took place in Pankow Town Hall, an ornate red brick
building that had survived the war; and a very pleasant evening was spent on a
pleasure boat cruising through central Berlin on the river Spree, giving us a
good idea of the adventurous design of many of the new buildings.
Berlin has done a great deal
to confront and acknowledge its murky past - there are numerous memorials and
plaques commemorating different aspects of the Holocaust in all parts of the
city, and the kind of event hosted on this occasion is a clear indication of
the continuing wish to make amends and not to forget. I came away from Berlin,
the city from which my family were sent to their deaths, without bitterness for
the first time and I could see it for what it now is - a vibrant, diverse and
interesting city.
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