No Words

How do I begin to describe the last two days? Yesterday, there were simply no words. In the morning, we toured the the monument at the old train station from which Jews were deported to the concentration camps. Lists of names, and railway tracks, were so powerful that most people broke into tears. There were simply no words to describe what I had seen or what I had experienced.  In the afternoon we toured one of the concentration camps. Although this was not considered to be an extermination camp but rather a work camp, it was clear that the expectation was death by work. One does not dig in the clay and water with bare feet and minimal clothing and food in the winter for very long without dying.As I walked through the grounds I thought about those who walked the same steps and those who died there.

Today we  attended a luncheon at City Hall hosted by the deputy mayor of the city of Hamburg. The place cards read  "Senate lunch for  persecuted former citizens of Hamburg  in Hamburg City Hall. "   The deputy mayor made a beautiful speech, a very sincere speech, talking about the atrocities that had occurred and welcoming us back to the city that had so betrayed our families.

 Afterward, a Rabbi, a lovely gentleman, asked me for my father's name and said that he would say Kaddish for him during Shabbat on Friday. The tears fell again. None of us have cried so much in front of strangers in our lives.

All of us met for dinner tonight for the last time. Tears flowed again as we hugged and exchanged email addresses and added each other to Facebook. We have truly journeyed together. We do not want it to end. We are bonded. I learned another new vocabulary word: Jekke. It means "German Jew".

I am a second generation Jekke. And I am proud and grateful to finally understand what that means.