Nov 18, 2024
Our final day in Germany. I was sad to say goodbye and I looked forward to sleeping in my own bed. I also excitedly anticipate returning to my family’s places in Germany and Holland.
Our last stop before the airport was Köln (Cologne in English, based on the Roman name for it, Colonia). Josh was excited to purchase 4711 cologne in the shop in Cologne. We had lunch in a brauhaus, and visited two different Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas markets). Too bad I had no room left in my suitcase! Of course, we also walked inside the cathedral.
At the bottom of the stairs in front of the cathedral, I noticed the memorial plaque remembering 1,000 Sinti and Roma people who had been transported to their deaths in May 1940. It is easy to miss this memorial in the sidewalk, one of many markers on the “Trail of Remembrance” toward the nearby train station. Perhaps my senses are tuned in to these markers of the horrors. We can learn so much about a community—past and present—from reading plaques. Often, what we might learn also raises questions.
The persistent presence of the war atrocity reminders is hard for me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a 2G (second generation survivor) or if it’s just the way I am. Or if it’s because, at home, I have more physical distance from it. But I can’t not be affected by every memorial, plaque, and monument that I’ve encountered related to WWII and the Holocaust. In every town and city we visited, we’ve seen Stolpersteine, memorials of those lost in WWII, and plaques where there had been synagogues and mikvehs (ritual baths) in once vibrantly Jewish communities.
The complexity of emotions I’ve experienced these past two weeks is difficult to describe and more so to sit with. It is heartbreaking and distressing, healing and touching, all at once. I am so grateful to have been able to visit my family’s places, now for the fourth time, and most meaningful of all to visit with my kids.
Auf Wiedersehen to Germany. And tot ziens, Nederland.
Featured photo: Plaque remembering 1,000 Sinti and Roma people transported to their deaths in May 1940.
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