European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday May 10, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 9 Sas pm Wiki by dded Lido a Tirc Tyral from the Frankfurt Feuer Chr gives a sparkling Welcome to the City s jewish Ruels. 1 Lenry Friedman right ills nl1 surviving Guclu Wald concentration Camp. Former Frankfurt jews recall War times by de reams Sloff writer Worms West Germany except for the men with inc guns it looked like an Ordinary group of tourists standing outside the famous synagogue. Four or five perhaps More Young men with Walkie talkies in their hands and pistols on their belts followed the group wherever it went a group that included former Frankfurt jews and their spouses Back to visit he City of heir birth. Since 1980, the Chy of Frankfurt has been running a program which so far has brought More than 1,000 jews Hack for to week visits. The great majority of the returnees even the spouses arc of German jewish ancestry who had escaped the a i terror. The guards bore silent testimony thai even four decades after world War ii a jew in Ger Many is something special Herbert Stein 76, Sells rare books and books about jewish religion and history in Tel Aviv Israel. We Are standing at the Birthplace and burial ground of German perhaps even european jewry Stein said standing at the door of the synagogue in Worms with the group of about 130 returnees the jewish Community of Worms claims to be the oldest in Germany. It is said to have existed since the earliest Christian Era. While on a main River boat excursion a Frankfurt fire department fir Boal came alongside to Demon Strate its water cannons. A Fine film of water sprayed the guests. Look they re christening us Stein said. But Stein recalled less Jovial times in Ger Many. When he was 26 years old he was taken with his brother to the City Fairgrounds where the jews were gathered before being transported to Buchenwald Buchenwald near Weimar where Golche lived for most of his life. Ted Frankel of Lakewood n.j., said he got out in january 1935 by boat from Italy. He was 22 Yean old at the Lime. But he first worked m Czechoslovakia on a farm because the zionist wanted people who could work the land in Palestine or who could pay 1,000 British pounds. He was the first to get out his brother got out in 1937 to South Africa and Hii sister even later to the slates via France Spain and Cuba. You could t be choosy when you re running for your life Frankel said. His parents were hidden by neighbors but died in Germany. He visited their grave during this trip. Frankel had his bar Mitzvah 62 years ago in the Worms synagogue. He snid the handwriting was on the Wall but most people did t Sec in. He had a quasi government Job until a 1933 Law forced jews out of Public life every one was fired. Yet German jews kept thinking it would All pass. After All we were germans first jews second. Even the first brutal attacks by the a Hitler s private army did t make us waver in that belief Frankel said. In addition our German neighbors Kepi telling us Hitler had nothing against German jews he was Only against those poor jews from the Frankel met his wife Judith in Palestine on the Kibbutz tomorrow. Mrs. Frankel had Gotlin out in april 1935 via Italy. She Learned to work the land like her husband. They got married in Palestine on inc Kibbutz which does t exist anymore. In 1947 they went to the United Stales on inc German immigration quota. She had five Brothers four of whom fled. One was caught and survived the Auschwitz and Burgen bal san Camps. During this trip to Frankfurt she ran into a former schoolmate use Jour Dan who now lives in Forest Hills . Jourdan got out in 1937. Went to Brazil where she knew Judith Frankel s brother before com ing to the United states. Stein said the world is Small but then corrected himself. No it in t. We jews just get Fred Meyer said he had no problem coming Back to Germany. Gelling out was the Meyer explained that when he was trying to leave the . Consulate was allotting numbers to jews who wanted to go to the slates. But 1 was dumb. 1 had a number and in never came up until i found they were Selling numbers that did Meyer said As a jobless jew in Germany there was nowhere to go but out. He also said he s Learned his lesson from history and he could never Trust the Ger mans again. His wife. Dora escaped from Russia via Romania in 1920 with her family when she was 3 years old. Crossing the Border illegally we had to Wade through a shallow Pond and i began crying. The family was frightened i would give them away. Until this Day my Uncle who was there when he sees me asks me if i m going to cry. During the cruise Hans made Quick sketches of the sights they were shown. Later in the evening he worked on them. Drawing Isis passion. He even did in during the War while com ing through North Africa and Sicily and while on the beaches of Anzio where he was seriously wounded. I was with the 60th infantry 9th division 84th chemical mortar battalion. I was also a regular contributor to Pup tent poets in the stars and stripes and published my front line poems and sketches under inc title beachhead and mountains ". said two of his poems appeared in the 1945 Pup tent poet anthology along with poets such As John Ciardi who served in the Pacific and former american poet laureate Richard Wilbur who also was at Anzio. Jucar Gonsen came out of Silesia alone when he was 15 years old in 1934. He is now a professor of humanities at the univer sity of South Florida in Tampa where lie teaches Crea live writing and sometimes German literature. Henry Friedman survived Buchenwald and got u the United states in 1937. The first thing we did in inc . Was to Stop speaking he went into radio intelligence working with inc air Force during inc War. He attended a British Intelli gence school and then spent the weeks just before d Day in inc Bilge of a French fishing boat using its Mast As an Antenna checking Oul German radar off the coast of Normandy. We came in at sic. Marc Elisc and went a the Way to before the War Friedman irid to become a Horticulturist like his father but jews weren t allowed to work we moved to Paris because my father could speak French but they did t like us germans. I worked in a Kitchen in Versailles and went to school and Learned horticulture. I was just in love with the tropics. My family had been Farmers in Bavaria for five generations so my father thought the a is could t mean his father died in Paris his Mother in Frankfurt. He a Cal to new York and moved to the Kendall area of Miami in 1947 because of his love of the tropics. He worked with tropical plants there and today runs a Small retail Nursery just to keep the visitors interviewed bore no grudges against postwar germans but they could never again live Here. The place is Loo full of sad memories. While leaving the Worms synagogue a woman said softly you can l interview the important ones the ones they gassed and killed in the ovens. They would have the Story to Tell. We were Lucky we Gol
