An hour with Martin Goldsmith

from the jewish community center in lawrence jp our presence martin goldsmith i'm kate mcintyre martin goldsmith is the author of the inextinguishable symphony a true story of music and love in nazi germany he writes of his parents' time in the jewish pool to avoid an all jewish performing arts ensemble maintained by the nazis goldsmith is the director of classical music programming for athens satellite radio and previously three days it's a real pleasure at the time i know i follow the college sports live on the university of missouri and i rooted for johnny roland and against us ayers always views it's going to make working from spike going to lawrence these many years later

the book before i do i would like to do with your indulgence three the brief opening chapter of the book and it puts certain things into perspective of the book begins like this the first scene of the opera on the volunteer in the second of the four operas is making up recurring owners ring cycle there's plays in the house of hundred years the central feature of london's houses a mighty ash tree its trunks or an off the floor its branches for in the canopy over the roof embedded in the massive problem is a golden assortment of vote on president for his son the heroes england to find and we knew that as our need in the house where i grew up with my father and my mother and my brother there was also an enormous tree growing up through the roof it's great trump

dominating the enclosed space in many ways richard a perfectly ordinary family life my father spoke to my mother my mother taught me and at nights my brother and i played with each other when we weren't fighting never acknowledged the trees the tree wasn't real one of course but its impact on my family was overwhelming the effort would require for all of us not a consciousness of it was also huge this enormous presence in our house was the fate of my parents nowadays jews who lived in germany in the nineteen thirties and my parents' escape from now that their story is so similar to and yet so different from the six million other stories of that time and place a second everything these two people did it was at the root of their lives and grew ever awkward as they grew older and as in so many other families like ours it was something we never spoke of not that i was completely unaware of the tree and the shadow cast on our house when my friends talk

about visiting their grandparents at thanksgiving or going to the ballgame with uncle and i knew that something from the past have made similar excursions impossible for me returning to our house fall an afternoon of playing in the neighborhood i was often causes of taken off my own real personality hanging up in the closet with my jacket and the sort of internal costume that would enable me to blend in with the emotional scenery but again we never spoke about such things the businesses i thought was never overtly forbidden by no means was i want my brother ever shot he attempted to steer the conversation in certain directions we simply never made such attempts as a family we didn't discuss what had happened in germany for the same reason that we didn't discuss bauxite mining in peru simply did not exist for us nora i want to give the impression of a darkened lee a household where

silence rand paul once revolved around my mother's activities as a musician a violist first as a member of the st louis symphony and then as a member of the cleveland orchestra and that meant that there was always music in the house my parents' friends and colleagues were often come by for after concert parties when house with resound with music and laughter but every year the tree grew taller and as i grew older i tend to be more and more aware of its presence and how it was that we never spoke of it since that dominate the landscape its leaves turn yellow and drifted to the ground when my mother died in nineteen eighty four the tree itself remain oliver casting its prodigious shadow over my relationship with my father finally answered both grew more aware of the ever beckoning passage of time i decided to do something about it in nineteen ninety two the year i turned forty i was travelling in europe while my father who was nearly

seventy nine was also in europe with his family over when rearrange the medium bowl under my father's hometown we visited his childhood home and he told me something of his memories of that long ago time italy to wear his father's store and down and told me that the nazis thought was an organized a boycott of the story in april nineteen thirty three an actionable into his father's having to sell the family house he showed me the air a lot the horse market or his father have been taken following his arrest in november nineteen thirty eight slowly those shadowy figures my grandparents whom i'd never known began to take on human form and for the first time my father and i began to take notice of that huge tree in the house it wasn't a fast process by any means a year later while visiting my father in tucson i try to get him to talk more about its use he spoke only briefly however and quickly move the conversation on to something else it was obviously from

these trips into the past very painful but persist in my efforts to talk to him about those days believing that coming to terms with them would somehow benefit both him and our relationship and i visited tucson resulted in something extraordinary degree to come to washington dc and four with made the newly opened united states holocaust memorial museum a few days before our fathers arrival i haven't mentioned are planned to alex chadwick reminded national public radio alex asked if he could come along with a microphone and record my father's reactions but my father and i had read and in late january nineteen ninety four the three of us visited the museum those hours mark a turning point in my father's life and in our relationship at first i thought i've made a terrible mistake and asking him to come to the museum to tour the permanent exhibition you measure an elevator that takes you up to the top floor from where you slowly walk

back down to ground level when we step out of the elevator the first image that that my father's eyes was a huge photograph of general eisenhower during a concentration camp after the war surrounded by the skeletal remains of former prisoners of all our gas and try to get back into the elevator but the doors had already closed alex and i studied him and we made our way through the rest of the museum the names and faces the piles of shoes and eyeglasses the cattle are and also played by the man was that right next to my father in the berlin new difficult weren't orchestra but it all in and spoke very little but the next day he came to npr in recorded interview with alex crime he said to explain the unexplainable outlets prepared a feature for npr's morning edition and suddenly people all over america began telling my father to tell him that they had been moved by his

story he in turn was moved by their interest and silence with his thoughts and his memories for so long he had come to feel isolated from other people now those people were reaching out to him and the effort was transforming for both of us you now feel more at ease with his past and with me i've always felt distance from him but now i saw him in a different light less so in one level it really shut me out and more as someone who had a roadway overcome the horrors of the third reich to establish a normal average life in the foreign land we became friends and we began to talk about his early years in germany the more i learned the more i respected him and the more i learned about myself as well i discovered an important source of my feelings for music it's beautiful and moving of course but music also literally saved my parents' lives

and i remember a small jewish orchestra maintain the pleasure of joseph goebbels ministry of propaganda that would never have made it out of germany alive during their years in berlin before their escape but hers really risked everything by defying the nazi party's so the played chamber music with her friends as i heard my father told me a story i came to realize that somehow i had inherited the knowledge that music cannot only enrich your life is also something worth risking your life for i can see that my chosen profession has been no accident maybe in fact it shows me i learned that the treaty growing in our house like the ash tree in the house of london also contained a golden shore there are indeed within its how my parents' story of music and courage and persistence and walk but has proven to be a source of great strength and inspiration for me by sharing his life my father was unable to extract and

possess a rich treasure of understanding and whoa that's how the book begins and that involves a story of my parents and their families and of the extraordinary organization that they weren't part of the usual cooper wants the jewish cultural association an organization that came about as result of what else ever did in the weeks and months following his coming to power in january of nineteen thirty three the nazis and many things on their plate many things they hoped to accomplish one of first things they didn't do was to begin to kick jews out from their positions with a german orchestra is opera companies and theater ok so that by spraying of nineteen thirty three there were upwards of eight thousand unemployed jewish artists in germany and some of them came together in the late spring and early summer of nineteen thirty three to

form this cultural and this cultural association reasoning that they could no longer make art for their fellow germans the policemen are from their fellow german jews album they chose as their spokesperson a very interesting element of current center kurt center up until january of nineteen thirty three of them the assistant director of the berlin city opera he was actually trained as a neurologist and psychiatry as he had written books about music he was a theater director and choral conductor your thoughts in the trenches of the first world war and it was considered to be the perfect person to head up this nascent organization he was described by one of his contemporaries this way he had remade looks with a surge of gray hair wriggling back from his forehead and imposing life figure a wickedly seductive face it but the reason that the organization probably wouldn't get any warrantless about official nazi section i mean i'm knocking on the

doors of various nasa ministry settling upon amount of the name of homs and gold hair and gold in nineteen thirty three have been with the national socialists for ten years already had actually been at hitler's cited in november nineteen twenty three at the venice of the infamous beer or push in munich and on simple consider themselves open a cultured man and he agreed to come to the hospital uncivil actually rose to become the number two man behind rows of girls in what was called the ministry for public enlightenment propaganda from the very beginning the whigs permission but the encouragement of the masses dr goebbels match for a propaganda saw that the court would be useful to the nazis for two reasons on the one hand the idea of

the jews often corner somewhere put on plays and concerts a song that very nicely with the masses desire to create a society that would be and there were you know lying or free of jews and another and that would also be very handy propaganda tool when the rest of the world began to protest such as the rest of the world did well they have their own opera company that have their own orchestra obviously were recruited and just fine to us as a culture what always operated with the express permission of the national socialists and the they were reserved for the first time on october first nineteen forty three with a production of the play not hung there was a nascent the wires by an eighteenth century german playwright and to hold less and ironically enough the

theme of the play is religious toleration and for that reason press october first nineteen thirty three was the first and last time wise was ever produced in nazi germany the wrong places that would on operatives they put on symphony orchestra concerts chamber music concerts they sponsored lectures they showed films they eventually publish a newspaper all for the jews of coming to perform with the pope were launched to be on while in a store or a dancer or an actor or to build sets backstage or two we're in the tickets office or tripling the lavatories to do any of those things you have to be jewish to attend the courtroom and performances you have to be jewish you were married her spouse was not jewish you're she was forbidden from attending the organization very good they

did very good work but by no means was this some sort of a judy garland mickey rooney hey kids let's put on a show sort of organization they have some very finest artists working in germany a barstool until january nineteen forty three had been important numbers i'll march life berlin philharmonic orchestra long had aids violinists in the violin section who previously have been concertmaster has various german orchestras they have been such a very fine actors as alfred berliner and the very first performance the first time that the play six characters in search of an author and rejigger and alone was never performed in germany it was a production of the cold war not the first time the thirties although was ever performed in germany it was a garment production they have very primal musicians

and actors performing with them the conductor below huntsville how much feinberg was the music director of the government or destroying property eventually immigrated to this country and under the name william steinberg was the music director of the various times the pittsburgh symphony the buffalo philharmonic and the boston symphony orchestra they haven't really very fine artists performing vocal problems and they had first reported at the beginning they were able to perform german composers in germany by riots but after a couple of years of the gestapo rule that for a jew to perform music by beethoven for instance or for jewish actor to speak the words of girls or shoulder was somehow to defy all these great german artists and therefore they were for miami playwrights or

composer's after nineteen thirty eight after the anschluss the takeover of austria by the nazis austrian artist were added to the banned lists mozart haydn and sugars were no longer available to go forward but they were able to perform jewish artists of music by the mendelssohn or mahler for instance or so mo here and shakespeare became very important players for the cold war world and they did everything necessarily the watchful eye of tom segal and just goes and opera singer when he grew up at the following years prospectus of plays and concerts and run everything by other nazi sensors and apps at every april florence and every rehearsal there are always a couple of gestapo in the audience apparently to make sure that's the unknown

but the legal protections of beethoven or schumann rounds were given the members of local government would often ask james ellsworth identify that suddenly broke out and nobody ever got the chance just just in case she was the status of this really extraordinary organization my mother was eighteen years old in nineteen thirty five when she became a member of the court order and her father who was named julianne greenberg ran a music conservatory in the solar and new plans to launch hundred the music director of the corporate orchestra down in front for it i should say we tried what's the sentiment of the ethical for what was a hole in the nineteen thirty three in berlin on the body and the

nineteen thirty three the first rationalization have opened in cologne and by nineteen forty five there were corporate organizations and forty nine cities across germany and about seventy five thousand members were subscribe and members of the court ruled that as a wannabe important organizations was in frankfurt and hans hillen feinberg was the music director there and my mother's father got her an audition with her father and he was impressed with her and asked her to join the orchestra and she gave her first concert with the orchestra from birth on september tenth nineteen forty five he was it seemed in nineteen thirty five when she gave her first concert as assael september tenth nineteen thirty five but her we were to date in german history but just five days later september fifteenth nineteen thirty five saw the passage of the infamous nuremberg laws which restrict the jews of germany of their citizenship and in lots of other nasty things besides time of my father was

twenty two years old at the time and studying the flute in the german city of carl's rule and he was asked to leave the eu conservatory in karlsruhe actual passage of a number of lives and he decided that he would leave the country of his origin and over the next weeks and months and a response to emigrate to sweden and that found himself an apartment over a milk bar in stockholm and was all set to move to sweden in march of nineteen thirty six when the phone rang in his apartment in karlsruhe and at the other end of the phone asked him if he would be able to what he was doing for a whole with the coup or an orchestra in frankfurt couldn't sell ask i ask my father take a tram up to frankfurt and play a couple of concerts and my father read his

reasons and was it this a trend too rehearsal for a couple days and day to concerts with a gold roman orchestra one in frankfurt and one in homeward but it couldn't forget the lovely young violist and that's luring those concerts are correspondence and today he him stop home she uncovered and the summer months later in august in fact a minute recess where most employers to haven't gotten sick in march emigrate to palestine my father decided to move back to nazi germany with his wife my mother and with your permission i'd like to this republic are asked about that part of the story of my father's name was glitter goldschmidt my mother's name was rosemary bluebirds and the young may and

we're on the concert they gave in frankfurt and hummer it was a great fun at symphony the symphony number six by tchaikovsky the next day just hours before leaving for sweden turmail rosemary a copy of writer maria rilke those letters to a young poet i have a little longer before me now a precious relic on the first page is the following instruction in german naturally rosemary covers a small amounts of two concerts tchaikovsky in frankfurt und hundred in march nineteen thirty six signed gigi i wonder which of rwanda's gentle and profound observations by the greatest impression on the center and on the recipient more than sixty years later two in particular struck my destiny destiny is like a wonderful wind tapestry in which every threat is guided by an unspeakable a tender have no place to the side another threat and helen terry one hundred others and railroad is always my wish that you might find

enough patients within yourself to endure and enough innocence to have faith believe me life is right in all cases a few days later boehner was thrilled to see return envelope from rubber inside he found an enthusiastic letter from rosemary thanking him for the book and expressing her happiness of having met him but he had addressed the letter to the staff apparently confusing him with the king of sweden to that must have been a wee bit exasperated preventer to think that it made so little impression on the object of his affection that she couldn't even remember his name but getting a part of my mother's occasional difficulties with such matters i can only smile with love and indulgence west indies in the name the senate aren't correspondence between from her unstoppable and believing has in a beautifully woven destiny and in the rightness of life returned after spending six months and the white knight safety of sweden an engaging in a regular and

intense correspondence with rosemary decided to go back to germany to be near her the opportunity presented itself in the same voters tune called cold in march went to palestine in august foolishly more rapidly or both won father accepted the position of principal flutist of the frankfurt school portland orchestra why have done the same thing whenever my answer i have the advantage of hindsight knowing the terrors of the next ten years but still even in the late summer of nineteen forty six my father must have known what a damn fool thing he was doing deliberately of all his faculties intact on terror going back to nazi germany with a country whose leader have vowed to eradicate is kind of from the earth for ever and for once are for love for music and for love i don't know if i would have done it but i do know this i

love and admire him for and i think it's the most wonderful story i know so for the next several years my father and mother played together on the same stage in property in the food section issue in the viola section thirty six nineteen thirty seven nineteen forty eight my than enough jews have begun to emigrate from germany so that the audience is for the cold war began to shrink as the numbers of members of the court were going to sell so but by nineteen thirty eight is a number of the organization's beyond the berlin began to close their doors now is the case with the proffered built around my parents gave their last performance with proper courtroom artist hr in april nineteen thirty eight they then joined the apostles people moving to berlin to perform with the berlin told when they arrived in october of nineteen thirty eight or just in time to take part or down in the best of what was apparently a wonderful

production of verdi's opera rigoletto after the end of october my mom went back to be with her parents my father stayed behind in berlin to prepare for what was scheduled to be the first rehearsal for the berlin or destroyed in mid november of nineteen thirty eight and that is how matter stood on november ninth nineteen forty eight when i remember as kristoff the night of broken glass when a nazi thug is around germany from border to border now breaking the windows of jewish owned businesses setting fire to synagogues and ranges out into the street and starting them off and to death that night my father managed to make his way down to the zoological garden train station in berlin where he hopped a train heading

west he rode all night and arrived the next morning november tenth nineteen thirty eight in the store if we walk through the still dangerous streets until it he arrived a number seventeen volts and sharon shaw so which is where my mother was living with her parents my father figure out their act like several days until the worst of the danger was passed and then about a month later they decided to get married they were married on friday the thirteenth of the summer of nineteen thirty eight when the ceremony took place in the office of the local justice of abuse on the efficiency at the ceremony was wearing the brown uniform of the us house and on his own war was a floor to ceiling portrait of the level of hitler his hand resting on the head of a german shepherd that you're looking out the upper plate over the mountains of pakistan that was the main decoration for my parents' wedding

they then went back to berlin and can continue to perform with the cold war won't orchestra in nineteen thirty nine nineteen forty by this time there were a number of regulations and passed against the jews of germany and so one by one by one jews were forbidden to swim again later was a cyber land it was declared illegal for a jew to own a radio driver's licenses of jews were declared invalid i became illegal for a jew to own a pet and they're not a curfew was passed against the jews of germany if you were jewish you had an office rates by atm during the wintertime nine pm during the summer and being young and foolish or both the fight was produced by often going through the streets

after curfew to play chamber music with her friends but it seems that sometimes the things that you love protect you because my parents played the reputation of england chamber musicians and they were invited to play announcers conscious that took place at all places the american embassy in the hinterland on the phone with her and some of the law are just a little bit east of the brandenburg gate so in early nineteen forty my parents' nasty woman who work at the embassy a woman my father remembers only as mrs schneider we did a couple of very nice things for parents on the one hand my my father remembers the great refreshments after these concerts including cheese it came from this far off land called wisconsin and the other more important says schneider

convinced my parents that they should i fill out the forms that would enable them to crops get a visa to travel the united states she cautions parents that this was not an election year nineteen forty and president roosevelt is running for an unprecedented third term and probably wouldn't want any immigration issues come up during the election season that history repeats itself and so my parents were told to be patient because it might be a while before their visas can prove that in fact it was more than a year on february twenty seven nineteen forty one their visas arrived which enable more parents begin to look for a ship that would take them to the new world and luckily they were able to block passage on the news you know which left lisbon on the tenth of june nineteen forty one hand they were able on various means to be on board that ship which arrived in new york or sailing past the statue of early on june twenty first

nineteen forty one conference arrive safe and sound in new york they're really and they arrived in new york what was really just in time less than three months later on september first nineteen forty one the jews in germany were forced to begin to wear the yellow star and ten days after that on september eleventh nineteen forty one the government was suddenly dissolved it was of no further use to judges no further use to the masses as i mentioned it was but it was a propaganda tool for a number of years by this time september nineteen forty one germans have been practicing the rundown on the battlefield for two years already and as far as it's helping to make germany you know ran by september nineteen forty one that was not our concert a very primitive solution

to what was termed the jewish problem by this time a final solution to the problem was being ready so the government was seen as being the man from the us to the jews no not really used to be houses and the glitter went as i say was dissolved when suddenly on september eleventh nineteen forty one and all members of the government would not get managed to escape were sent to the camps join hands were really quite fortunate to have arrived in the last three months before that their families went out to be quite so fortunate on november ninth nineteen forty eight christoph my father's father alex goldschmidt was arrested and was taken to the fair tomorrow or started wherever he was forced to stand there along with other jews who had been arrested that night the following morning on november tenth nineteen

thirty eights the women and children were dismissed and the male adults jews of oldenburg were marched through town past the still smoldering remains of the senate on that on paper straw sent to the president olmert where they were forced to spend the night the following morning they were again marched through town to the train station this time they were put on a train headed east to the concentration camps on some autumn just north of berlin my grandfather alex spent three weeks in santa monica before being released in the summer of nineteen thirty eight he was told he had six months to leave the country or face further arrest so the message monday made arrangements for and sell them for his younger son my father's younger brother helmand to travel to the new world of the plan was that they would establish a beachhead in and some former us the country of rest of the family a lesson was their misfortunes of a

passage on the refugee ships the st louis which left former inmate of nineteen thirty nine bound for cuba they arrived in havana harbor safely only to find out that a power player upper reaches of the cuban government and impossible for more than nine hundred jewish refugees on board the st louis to disembark the ship sail north to the coast of the united states the ship plied the waters off florida for several days hold a while sending rouse sending messages to the state department and to president roosevelt for permission to land and during these days and nights the ship was sailing close enough to the coast of florida the people on board the ship are very clearly see the lights of miami but for whatever reason their request was denied the ship and sailing back across the atlantic to europe on the way back to europe a deal was

brokered whereby the refugees on board ship we're going to be allowed to disembark in one of four countries in london france along or my mr yoon friends please please take them back to germany were placed in a displaced persons camp by this time it was late june of nineteen forty nine they were in this displaced persons camp the next ten weeks while the french government decided what to do with them but then came september first nineteen thirty nine the beginning of the second world war or my parents my grandparents my grandfather and uncle no more closed in the eyes of the french voters overnight from displaced persons to enemy aliens since there were no since they were of course karen german passports so they were sent to camps concentration camps run in all the land in the south of france first camp result and then kathleen you were their workouts until august of

nineteen forty two on aug fourteenth nineteen forty two my grandfather and uncle worshippers while costly to auschwitz on my father's mother and younger sister were transported to the ghetto in riga my father's grandmother grandmother barons was transported to the concentration camp and parisian shot terrorism and my mother's mother was also sent to a camp in poland so obviously my father and mother were quite fortunate to escape as they go in making her way to new york in nineteen forty one i'm hoping it's impossible symphony after all mortals piece of music that if you do not know i commend to you know the symphony number four by the danish composer choral nielsen he wrote his fourth

symphony here in nineteen sixteen partially in reaction to the first world war he was appalled at all the destruction he saw around him what was essentially an optimistic mountain road ahead of the score to his fourth symphony that even should all of life be destroyed all life would eventually return even if it were plant life or animal life news mom to write the music is life and like life inextinguishable and ever since its premiere in nineteen sixteen nielsen's fourth symphony has been known as the extension will symphony adults are writing what the members of the court were once in berlin were i'm planning to perform the inexorable symphony in the fall of nineteen forty one but they were broken up before they have the opportunity to give the performance but i've always thought that the inexcusable symphony was a marvelous metaphor for these very courageous artists who

continue to give they jews of germany an opportunity to attend the performances because the court for one that was really the only place that the jews in germany were allowed to very soon after medical corpsman was formed and it became illegal for a jew to buy tickets to attend the berlin philharmonic or even to see a movie anywhere in germany so the government was the only place where the jews of germany could come for an evening and attends a play or a concert or a lecture and for a few hours at least be away from the increasingly ugly and dangerous streets of nazi germany so it's emotional something that was a very good metaphor for those heroic jewish artists before i close and answering questions you might have liked to just a request up the pages of the book

wednesday november tenth nineteen ninety nine and how the chilly afternoon in portland ore so its time during the preparation of this book i've spent living in what british historian g and rebellion called the land of mystery which we call the past today after several years of history reaches for it rachel sixty one years after my grandfather alex goldschmidt marched through the streets of the point of a gun the citizens of olmert have gathered to retrace his steps for more than a decade rulers has come together every year to commemorate the anniversary of the most shameful moments in their silliest six hundred fifty year history the marsh which follows the exact route taken by the captains and their nazi guards is all the nerds way of atonement for the sensitive for bears it's remembered their ritual of remembrance but rather if you're an icon to honor our father and

grandparents but taking part in the march will welcome warmly in particular bible and birds mayor who tonight heart and her husband rolled and while his heyday an iranian born writer and filmmaker my young lutheran pastor lady guard and the koreans is they are pleased that we've come all this way to join we are overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality at three o'clock that afternoon about three hundred people have gathered in the air marked the markets where alex and his forty two fellow prisoners again their ordeal after a few sullen words by one of this year's organizers we begin to walk a line of people stretches for more than a hundred yards old folks schoolchildren mothers with baby carriages young men fashioned bicycles a woman in a wheelchair to marchers carrying a banner that reads november tenth nineteen forty eight nothing that is forgotten no one has forgotten you the world of emotions and

sensations i'm struck by two french policeman so i'm like the only sixty one years ago assist us in our effort and stopping traffic at intersections and easing our way the science show three hundred people walk almost noiselessly through the streets pedestrians to start conversations as we approach drivers and automobiles haven't stopped to let us pass wait silently patiently enjoying the press it seems as if the entire city is taking part what the cobblestone streets of the old city passed within a block of the side of my grandfather's story emerge onto elizabeth strout aware of borders suddenly while sparks family afternoon sun pours its benediction upon us through the golden trees there's like the beautiful dream but then we turn left and the dream has over bagram an ugly prison

it's dirty red walls topped by razor wire stands waiting today as a good for my grandfather its squat an arguable presence as a shark an almost palpable blow the prison's heavy iron gate has been drawn back its courtyard stands open i am painfully aware that i'm about across an inspirational to recreate that awful stuff when alex goldschmidt slight essentially and now i noticed the past or dimitri others is out my side she has sensed my discomfort she touches my arm and softly asks my grandfather's name his name was alex i say grateful for the interruption she nods and moves off when we walked into the prison courtyard i'm still deeply aware of the significance of the moment but my education has used to brief speeches two teenage girls saying that jewish folks on the march is ended my heart not my turn to find my brother peter but there again is pastor of the matriarch is

she takes my hands and was unbelievably into my eyes when cain slew able she says to me got mark him with his brother's name so that all options here that mark has kept a bull's name alive across the generations those who in germany who have had their name is kept alive by the mark with which god has touched my country she smiles soundly and continues every so softly and that's the case with alex his name shall live for ever pastor crosby than an ensemble on her shoulder crying for those poor people in their unmarked graves the relatives i never knew and miss so much before i leave the city the cast out my grandfather as now welcome me that i revisit the oldenburg archives a modern glass and steel building no more than half a mile from the prison the archivists from your roster oldenburg citizens a direct them to the page

mr goldschmidt and inform them that goods are some of alice as a son named martin who was married in october nineteen ninety nine they literally write our names addresses dates of birth our family is not extinguished the peak to peak the first question from the audience how did you go about finding out what happened to your family my father actually shortly after we met in the limburg in nineteen ninety two when other content of the international red cross and asked them

to look in all of this and then it was they who informed my father and through him me what happened to most of the families they learned what happens to ground water alex and what happened to he is my father's grandmother barons and what happened to all the members of that way except for my mom my uncle my father's hunger rather they didn't know what happened to him but then the holocaust museum are people at the holocaust museum began to do research into the face of the people who were on the boat the st louis and they took up the cause of science and i the shiny happy

the french concentration camps when i'm not sure what happened to him and was the holocaust museum found out that hallowed was on the sand transport of my father now to our grandfather was immediately gas and hello to remain alive for two months before nine oct ninth nineteen forty two official young sons usually are not well known the woman made mention of the fact that it's a national alert i was made to feel very welcome in the police were welcoming them and she wondered whether that was a hopeful sign i will say that we're wondering about the research for the book i am i was received extraordinarily kindly pass i may have learned it from him

research archivist at the holocaust museum here in washington that a museum in berlin the economy there and stood in berlin and mount an exhibition about the government so i was really quite quite literally walk in off the streets and i have not forgotten about of time ally in my very weak german one of the contestants and i understand there was an exhibition a few years ago you directed the archivist and prisons and work on this hall interim welcome b archivist of the core problems exhibition not on his office door pull him that my parents when the government was interesting research he literally probably was doing now is he literally figure out what he was doing and directed me to a place

where all of the materials have been apps and i discovered many marbles photographs some of which remember when the book photographs of my parents' plan in the government and in frankfurt germany and the book read the full cost is really almost like an almost any other current events in germany virtually every comma in there there has says theirs simultaneously a big deal around on television about the holocaust there's an article in the rich people which is german newsweek there are books being published it being debated it is is very much a current events it's in very difficult to be a sense in person in germany these days to not be aware of what happened many years ago i'm like i i have realized love rather unlike a situation in this country where

slavery and the annihilation of native americans has been some communities were under the rug and we never think about it or talk about it all whereas in germany and at ten he said the law passed his more recent events them slavery or of the annihilation of the americans but still it's troubling that your neighbor images can gotten a lot more units perhaps yes why did russell turn of the st louis around why did he not allowed the show to land in in miami ostensibly because he was following the follow us law at the time was bound by the immigration laws like the nineteen twenty three nineteen twenty four which stipulated that every year x number of people from various countries were allowed to arrive and as it was argued back then if we allow these nine hundred

germans too landing at in miami than nine hundred other germans who have done all right things unfilled all forms will allow they'll have to be sent back to a line that would not be fair wouldn't be obvious why not allow the road a lot you know for but so either they were being it extensively they were following the rule of law a letter or the fact that these were jews somehow play a role in that their word by no means was this something that was not what through the cracks this was a major cause some ago at the time the ship was right off the coast of florida for several days editorial

cartoons were work prince william beavers telegram from the usual hollywood leftist suspects foul sense to be white house energy robinson scientists around saying they use a lot of people for a lot his long wait once again and immigration the issues with illegal immigrants are coming and i'm on top of her wanted innovative prison oh yes this last question how do you account for the world standing by and doing nothing about the genocide and therefore i think it's because there were signs that the main reason it although obviously in the world stood by a role in

the bosnian expense in second place and we all out of things to do you know but mom i guess is that this is this incredible massacre was the site were going on in enjoy korean border area deprive i might send says the world will be a turning point because one man's been true story of music and live in nazi germany in april fourteenth two thousand seven at the lawrence jewish community center and j mcintyre keep your presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas it was a pleasure to oregon it was a special pleasure to see

things to see things black and then next time on k pr presents fahrenheit four five one of this year's big reed sponsored by the national endowment for the arts and that's a peak at shawnee county public library joined at eight o'clock sunday night for the degree heat in an interview with you five why we argue you want to be kbr presents ray bradbury and fahrenheit four five one sunday night at eight o'clock and kansas public radio there's been a piece by fbi has

been it's been with the pope it's

b speaking in this

book