My dorm brings in speakers and this week we heard from a woman who is Jewish by heritage and managed to 'hide-out' in Berlin for over 2 years during the 'Nazi-Times'. Her story involves this museum dedicated to Otto Weidt and his workshop for blind people...
Our tour had two parts: we'll start with outside first...
We made our way through the neighborhood of 'Grosse Hamburger Strasse' which was known as a very tolerant neighborhood since the late 1800's. This is the site of the old Jewish Seniors' Home that the Gestapo used as a gathering place for Berlin's Jews.
Back in the day, behind the Seniors' home was also the Jewish graveyard. The Nazis apparently destroyed a lot of the stones and then the war made it 'necessary' to remove the remaining Jewish gravestones and put them in an archive.
The only one that they reconstructed is the supposed gravesite of Moses Mendelssohn: Wikipedia says, "Moses Mendelssohn (September 6, 1729 – January 4, 1786) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment) is indebted. For some he was the third Moses (the other two being the Biblical lawgiver and Moses Maimonides) heralding a new era in the history of the Jewish people. For others, his ideas led towards assimilation, loss of identity for Jews and the dilution of traditional Judaism. He was also the grandfather of the composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn."
This is kind of an introduction to some new concepts in me brain....as an American, I don't know where I got this (probably all the WWII movies, etc.), but the Nazis = the Germans. For me, still in some ways, there was no distinction between the two. When I first lived in Germany I saw a plaque and it talked about how it was dedicated to 'the victims of the Nazi regime'. That was the first time when I was like 'hmm..what?! I don't get it...Germans were Nazis and the Nazis were Germans...so who are 'the Germans' and who is 'the Nazi regime'...aren't you one in the same?' Then little by little I realized that in Germany there is a 'belief' that there were the Nazis, hooligans who were in control and did horrible things, and then the German people who might have supported Hitler in the beginning, but were largely forced afterwards to follow his plans....
Anyway, so the lady that came and spoke to us talked about how she and her mother who were Jewish, hid with 20 families in Berlin during the war. I thought about it...and I still feel that Germans at times try to throw these 'heroes' names forward as a way of trying to escape the reality that Hitler enjoyed, for a long time, the support of the majority of the German people, HOWEVER, and this was a SHOCK when I learned it, NOT ALL GERMANS WERE MEMBERS OF THE NAZI PARTY! (I didn't know also that not all Russians were members of the Communist party either, but I digress...) SO, in all fairness....there were 20 families who helped her and in the end about 1700 Berlin Jews were able to survive through the help of the Berliners! That says something to me...it might not be the 'majority against' that some Germans, especially YOUNG Germans, wish had existed, but that is definitely something! (It kills me the way we Americans will judge other countries for what these other countries did, but then....there weren't a whole lot of white Americans willing to hide and take in the Cherokees and save them from 'the Trail of Tears' (instead, it was like war-profiteering during WWII, the white Americans more than likely were happy because then they got the Cherokee farms cheaply(an issue for me, because during our tour they talked about how confiscated furniture from Jewish homes was then sold to the residents of Berlin....but I digress, yet again...)
So now that you're totally lost, that side of the building has names on it and those are names of the 'Stillen Helden'/silent heroes who hid Jews during WWII...
The lady who came and spoke with us also mentioned how she had to wear the Star of David and how sometimes when she was on the bus someone would put a loaf of bread into her sack or something....this woman has a VERY positive opinion of her experiences from that time....she just remembers all of these people helping her....and these are the names of people who hid Jews...
These are called 'Stolpersteine' (stumbling stones) and you find them all over Berlin. This is a movement, started by an artist, which lays these metallic 'reminders' all over the streets of Berlin where Jewish residents used to live.
It has their name; date of birth; when they were deported from Berlin; and where they were killed (they use 'murdered' in German)....(this isn't the photo), but we saw some on one corner of a whole family - 5 total including a 3-month old baby...
NOW we come to the 2nd part of our journey. This is an image of the group at Otto Weidt's shop back in 1942(?). Otto Weidt was almost blind himself and established in the late 1930's a workshop to make brushes/brooms. One of the things I thought was interesting was that our tour guide told he us he had NOTHING to do with the Jewish community before WWII. Then suddenly....the majority of his workers were blind, deaf or both Jews! He literally saved 13 people's lives! ......what a guy!
Here is the workshop where they made the brushes. One day the Gestapo took most of his workers away (deaf, mute Jews = worthless, probably was their thinking). Otto Weidt went down to GESTAPO HEADQUARTERS (and in such a 'Schindler's List' way) said 'I HAVE ORDERS TO FILL FROM THE ARMY! I AM A WAR-NECESSARY BUSINESS! I NEED MY WORKERS BACK!' The Gestapo promised, but Otto didn't trust them, so he went to the Jewish Seniors' home (pictures are up above, by the Jewish graveyard) and he literally stood outside the door apparently until they let him have his workers back!! ('Greater love hath no man than this...') Seriously....no words...no words....
And it's so interesting....these are some of the kinds of brushes they made at his workshop....odd that brushes could save people's lives....
The lady on the right, Inge, came and spoke to us. Her mom is on the left. They hid out for 2 years and 4 months, living in stores, boat houses, etc. (it all started because (I think - I don't know if I understood the German that well) but some people said 'you have to come with us, Fritz (I am guessing their son) was stationed in the East has just told us what they are doing with the Jews they send there...' 'What?' 'Oh...it's so horrible, I can't tell you...Fritz had to sign a paper that said he would never talk about it...' So they 'disappeared', but were in plain sight. They got fake identity papers and Inge went to work at Otto Weidt's workshop.
In a way, you could say this is what 'brought it all down'....I don't know if you can tell, but it looks like a closet, right? Well...if you open the closet and walk through (VERY Lion, Witch and Wardrobey) there is....
A SECRET ROOM! There were 5 people living in this secret room for A LONG time....until...and this is what is so sad....but I can't judge....anyway, the son who lived in this room one day was out on the street and met a fellow Jewish person. They started talking and he told that person about the secret room, etc., THAT SAME DAY the Gestapo came in in a raid and found them all! UGHH!
Here is, the man of the day, Otto Weidt! He went down and spoke with the Gestapo and said 'yes, I've been hiding Jews...' but apparently not much happened to him...apparently he bribed them like crazy. ;) (that's the thing about Nazis - they TRULY were just a bunch of thugs! Goehring was probably the biggest thug, but anyway...)
And to end this, one 'happy' story. One of Otto Weidt's workers was sent to a concentration camp. He went to the outskirts of the camp himself and hid clothes and money for her. He then got a message to her and let her know that there was stuff waiting for her. Towards the end of the war, with all the chaos, etc., she was able to escape, get out and find the things....
I don't know....life is crazee....it seems even crazier at certain times than others, but things like this happen sometimes IN A RUSH and then it's 'what kind of person are you really?....what will you do when the pressure is on?....' Some of us, and I'm not preaching, because I don't know what I would've done, but, some of us look away and ignore our consciences and others act....Otto acted and he's got my respect for having done so! Way to go, Otto!
