C O N F E R E N C E
Remembrance and Responsibility
One by One's
Bi-Annual Conference took place at the Wannsee Forum in Berlin from
November 8-12, 2004.
The theme of the conference was "Remembrance and Responsibility."
The conference was very successful. Over 60 participants from Germany
and the U.S. attended the various workshops and events.
Martina Emme
welcomed us on Monday afternoon and introduced Hilde Schramm who opened
the conference with her presentation.
Hilde Schramm
is an educator and has served as the vice president of the Berlin Parliament.
In the fall of 2004 Hilde Schramm received the Moses Mendelssohn Award
from the State of Berlin for her work promoting tolerance and reconciliation.
Schramm's confrontation with the past has translated into concrete action:
She has fought for compensation for former slave laborers, promoted
the establishment of the Topography of Terror documentation center on
the Gestapo, and established the Zuruckgeben foundation - the name means
"giving back" in German - to help Jewish women in the arts.
Schramm said she would donate part of the Mendelssohn prize to her foundation,
which marks its 10th year in October. The rest will go to the Kontakt
foundation, which helps Nazi victims in Eastern Europe not covered by
the German government fund for former slave laborers; and the Berlin-based
Center for Victims of Terror, on whose board Schramm sits.
That evening
Robert Hilliard, Professor at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts,
spoke about his experiences as a 19-year-old soldier who took action
against the abusive conditions in which the displaced Jews were kept
after WWII. Conditions for the displaced Jews at St. Ottilien in Bavaria
were desperate. There was inadequate food, clothing and medicine, and
liberated Jews were dying. To help alleviate the suffering, Robert and
his friend Edward Herman stole food from their own mess and smuggled
it into the camp. Robert and Edward also started a letter writing campaign
to raise awareness and encourage donations of food and other supplies
from Americans back home. The campaign caught the attention of President
Harry Truman, who had commissioned an investigation of the displaced
persons situation. He ultimately ordered an end to the abuse.
During Robert's
talk it became clear how important it is to take responsibility in society,
to show civil courage when human rights are at stake and when society
shows its indifference. People can make a difference and Robert Hilliard,
along with his comrades, is a humanitarian who exemplifies courage.
To round out
the evening Zella Brown, who was born in 1947 in a Displaced Person
Camp in Heidenheim, reported on her experiences upon returning to her
place of birth a few years back.
The Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday morning sessions consisted of "mini dialogue
groups." Two groups were formed and three intense mornings were
spent dialoguing using the conference theme as a starting point. These
mini dialogues were patterned after the Berlin Sunday Meeting model
and were led by our One by One facilitators.
There were numerous
workshops and events during the afternoons and evenings:
Szabine Adamek
In Search of Mourning - The Political Relevance of a Feeling
For nearly sixty years hasn't the life force of many survivors been
consumed by their never ending pain, is sorrow their prevailing feeling,
innumerable human disasters happen today - almost unseen. The theme
of this workshop was to sensitize and to open the door for a "Politik
der Anerkennung" (A Policy of Acknowledgment.)
Eugen Kahl
and Frank Goehrlich
Dangerous Help - Experiences in Frankfurt in 1938-1945
Eugen Kahl witnessed his parents, Dr. Fritz Kahl and Margarete Kahl,
help numerous Jewish patients by hiding them and also helping them flee.
Frank Goerlich spoke about his research project on this subject.
Petra Schneiderheinze,
Regine Sarstedt
Our History in East and West - what are the Implications for Coexistence?
Sometimes in discussions between East and West Germans different characteristics
of two political systems become apparent in the language, in the disappointments
and in the way we are offended. Do these differences divide us or can
they enrich us when we bring them into the conversation. This workshop
was essentially a continuation of two previous workshops that had taken
place in the spring (See previous newsletters.) During this workshop
it became clear that this difficulty remains a very important topic
for many.
Felicitas
von Aretein
"Die Enkel des 20. Juli 1944" (The Grandchildren of July 20,
1944.)
Marking the 60th anniversary of the most famous plot to assassinate
Hitler Felicitas von Aretein's book, Die Enkel des 20. Juli 1944, was
published. It contains interviews with the grandchildren of many members
of the Resistance who were condemned and executed by the "Volksgerichtshof"
(People's Court.) Much of this information made public for the first
time. F. v. Aretin is the granddaughter of the general major, Henning
by Tresckow, who played an important role in the attempt to assassinate
Hitler. She provides insight into the story of members of the resistance
and their families and into the silence around the topic of the Resistance
in postwar Germany.
Beate Bormann
A Virtual City Tour to the Sites of the Resistance.
The theme of this workshop was "Witnesses of the Resistance and
their Stories." Using the district in Berlin called the Prenzlauer
Berg as an example we "visited" some memorials. It would be
great if in the summer an actual tour could be organized to the places
of the resistance and thereby to again touch upon this topic from another
perspective.
Wolfgang
Graeser
Topography of Terror - a Tour.
Between 1933 and 1945, the central institutions responsible for the
repressive and criminal policies of National Socialism were located
on the terrain of the Topography of Terror, situated between Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse
(today Niederkirchnerstrasse), Wilhelmstrasse and Anhalter Strasse.
Twelve conference attendees signed up for the tour of this "open
air" museum. The group was guided by an extremely engaged and competent
woman, Andrea Dech, who works for the foundation "Topography of
Terror."
Beate Niemann
"The Good Father" - Film and Discussion.
Beate Niemann was born in 1942 while her father was away in the war.
In 1953 there was a suddenly a great deal of excitement in the family
when she found out that her father was alive, but imprisoned in a GDR-penitentiary.
He was never released even though he had been "denatzified"
twice and had his sentence abolished in West Berlin. Her mother even
received payments until his death in 1972 from his service as a policeman.
Beate Niemann
wanted to find out why he was never released. In 1997, 17 years after
he mother died, she went in search of the truth. She hoped to find a
man she could be proud of, but instead uncovered a truth that lay hidden
for so long under family lies and deception.
At one point
in her research she found a book "Serbia is free of Jews"
by W. Manoschek. She was interested in this book because she knew that
her father had at one point been in Belgrade. The book recounted unimaginable
horrors, which she believed her father had a role in. Thereafter she
continued her research in Europe, America and Israel. What she found
was a father who was a mass murderer with the blood of hundreds of thousands
of Jews on his hands. He had joined the Nazi party, become a policeman
and took the fast track to promotion with the Gestapo. Then he went
into the SS security service, the SD, and then into the ranks of the
Einsatzgruppen.
Her story became
public through this film, "Der Gute Vater" (The Good Father)
by Yoash Tatari. The film won the Gold World Medal at a New York film
festival on January 30, 2004.
Elisa Medina
One by One in Peru
Elisa Medina spoke about the civil war that ravaged Peru from 1980-2000.
She described the cycle of violence that erupted in her country, which
caused such great suffering. Elisa was a member of the September 2003
Dialogue Group in Berlin. She was inspired by One by One. Her goal is
to introduce the One by One Dialogue Group concept in Peru: to help
alleviate the suffering and trauma of victims and perpetrators who were
affected by the internal Peruvian armed conflict, to create Dialogue
Groups for national Reconciliation, to interrupt the intergenerational
transmissions of trauma to the second and future generations. She has
a very personal stake in that the issues that divide Peru's society
also divide her family.
"….und die Schuld, die bleibt" (…and blame remains)
On Thursday some of us saw a film that was broadcast on television on
November 9th. The film was about a young person, a former right-wing
extremist who, for political reasons, was condemned to 6 ½ years
in prison. Back in 1988 Frank Lehmann along with 4 others climbed over
the wall of a Jewish cemetery in (East) Berlin. They knocked over gravestones
and screamed anti-Semitic slogans. They were arrested and sent to prison.
Salomea Genin, who is Jewish and who emigrated during the Nazi period,
read about this event in the newspaper and became frightened. Her concern
was that these teenagers will not be cured of their Anti-Semitism by
being thrown in prison, quite the contrary, when they come out of prison
they will truly be Anti-Semitic, whereas before they might simply be
labeled stupid kids. Salomea Genin advocated for these boys and she
played a role in Frank's introspection about his crime, but she also
set him on the path to discovering his family history. Frank reported
about this at the One by One Sunday meeting.
Inge Franken,
Martina Emme
Discussion group: Reflections on School Visits
There has been a One by One School Visit program since 1966. In the
U.S. it is called the Speakers Bureau. Dialogue Group participants have
volunteered their time to talk to students, to relate their experiences
by relating pieces of their own, their parent's or their grandparent's
life story. There is always a representative of the victim's side as
well as a representative of the perpetrator's side present and they
speak together, this is a principle of One by One. Both sides belong
together, the experience of one rounds out the experience of the other.
In our workshop
our goal was to create a balance sheet, to measure the value of our
school visits and determine if this "practical" offshoot of
our work functions satisfactorily. Questions were raised: Does it serve
to talk about our experiences in the National Socialist time? What do
the students learn? What do the teachers learn? How do the One by One
speakers experience their conversations with these young people? What
moves the speakers to discuss their personal experiences in these educational
institutions over and over again, experiences that are sometimes very
painful.? Students, as well as teachers, from the Protestant High School
Neuruppin, the Protestant secondary school Frohnau, the Stephan-school
Moabit and the 1. National Educator Vocational School responded to One
by One's invitation to come to the conference and report from their
prespective. One by One Speakers also took part in the discussion.
Our Party
On Thursday evening we had our traditional conference party. Salomea
Genin began the evening by reading some passages out of her soon to
be appearing book. She was accompanied musically and spiritually by
Karsten Troyke and Jens-Peter Kruse. Everyone had a wonderful time.
The audience would not let them leave without at least one curtain call.
This performance filled with thoughtful and cheerful words and songs
was a wonderful lead in to the party. The party was a great way to unwind
and relax, particularly after so many strenuous days filled with One
by One work.
Our Last Day
We began Friday morning by remembering three One by One members who
passed away in 2004. It was a very moving hour in which we remembered
Bina Gibson, Carola Domar and Marjorie Cohen. They were the center of
our spiritual circle that morning and we reminisced, laughed and cried
with these 3 extraordinary women.
Bina Gibson
7/4/1920 - 1/22/2004
Carola Domar
12/17/1919 - 9/24/2004
Marjorie Cohen
8/29/1951 - 9/24/2004
Auschwitz
- The Wound of the Knowledge by Bina Gibson
Father, dearest,
dearest Father
I've come to thank you
For giving me life, for loving me when I was small
I remember your lap
And I remember your wounds of the war
Which used to frighten me so much.
You played with me and my brother and you read us poetry
But then you went away
And the pain and the hurt began.
I couldn't write to you, I couldn't imagine
How you lived without us.
When I heart that they had killed you
I could not speak of it for thirty, for years.
This hurt was to deep for words
The wound of the knowledge of how you die.
This wound is shared by the whole mankind. -
They stripped you, held your naked body
The wound in your spine and the hole in your arm
For these wounds you had your German Cross of Honour
And then they forced you into the gas Chamber
Like long ago the witch in the children's fairy tale
Was pushed into the oven. - You, "Vati", with your blue, blue
eyes
And you're high fore head.
This is not possible - I want to scream out load
This can't be true, it simply can't be true.
You never knew me fully grown
Could not be proud of us -
Did not know of your grandchildren
Never lifted them, with your smile, onto your lap.
Now I am here to Thank you
To honour you and to love you.
I pray with others for those of good will
For, after all, we are part of each other.
Together, here, we have to say:
I forgive you; May God forgive you and me.
Forgive you what you did to them
Forgive me, for having hated you.
Here we have to learn to become man and woman,
People, who can love, who can forgive
People who will pray, who will work
So that we may become as God wanted us -
As he, His Image, made us.
Following the
memorial we shared our thoughts about the conference. It was unanimous
that we spent very intense, hardworking, rewarding days and that everyone
could go home feeling they had benefited from the week. The next conference
will take place in New York in 2006. The theme of the conference is
"Dialogue
around the World."
The preparation
committee of this year's conference handed over the baton, so to speak,
in the form of a neatly wrapped package, filled with good thoughts and
support to the American group and wished them the best of luck in their
preparation of the next conference.
At this point
in the newsletter it is appropriate to extend One by One's immense gratitude
to the Berlin based organizing committee for this year's conference:
Martina Emme, Petra Schneiderheinze and Gottfried Leich, for the immense
amount of work it took to prepare this conference. Without them the
conference would not have become such a success. At the same time we
would like to use this opportunity to wish Gottfried Leich, who is in
the hospital, a speedy recovery. Shortly before the beginning of the
conference he had to check into the hospital to undergo tests and treatment
and could not share in the fruits of his organizing efforts, an extraordinary
conference!
