The impossible return to Germany
Watch story of two women who, after escaping horrors of Nazis, returned to Germany determined to rebuild their Jewish life on their own terms
Only very gradually did the Jews begin to regard Germany as their home again.
Video courtesy of jn1.tv
This is the story of two women who, after escaping the horrors of the Nazi terror with their parents, returned to Germany determined to rebuild their Jewish life on their own terms.
Every now and then, most of us are stunned by powerful memories of our past. Memories too painful to remember we simply choose to forget. Lotte Bruchfeld, 98, says she does remember that while a refugee in Chile she married another German Jew refugee and together they returned to Germany in 1958. Then she goes back to the privacy of her mind.
While for some painful memories are forever locked in the intimacy of their minds, for others the experiences of a life lived in many countries become best seller books and Hollywood movies.
In 1935, the Nazis had taken away the citizenship of Jews living in Germany, so they had no papers and no passport. They were in fact people of no nationality, with no official name, no home and no country.
By the end of World War II, novelist Stefanie Zweig had fallen in love with Kenya, and by then only very gradually did the Jews begin to return to Germany among them the Zweig family.
The Jews who began to return to Germany were often treated with hostility from the non-Jewish population. Many of them feared that the Jews would demand that their property and belongings be returned.
There are six million stories of the Jewish Holocaust tragedy. This has been one of them.
