In 2017, my mother, my sister Judi and I embarked on a meaningful journey to Europe in honor of our mother’s 80th birthday. We set out on a pilgrimage through Germany, France and Switzerland, retracing the steps of our family’s past.
Our first stop was Lörrach, the birthplace of my mother, where we felt an instant connection to our family heritage. From there, we followed her childhood journey to Freiburg, where my grandfather Paul (Adolf) worked and where my mother lived with her parents until the age of four. It was a bittersweet visit, as we learned about the deportation of our family to internment camps in France in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II.
The trip became an emotional exploration as we visited the places where my mother sought refuge during those tumultuous times. We walked the path she took as a young child, escaping to the safety of Switzerland at the young age of six and a half. We also visited the sanatorium where she battled tuberculosis, spending over a year to recover. It was a poignant reminder of the hardships she endured and the strength she displayed during those trying times.
In 2018, an invitation from the history workshop at the Lessing Realschule in Freiburg brought us back to Germany, where my mother had the opportunity to share her remarkable story with children at several middle and high schools. It was a powerful experience, offering hope that the lessons of history would not be forgotten and that future generations would learn from the past.
During that trip, we also visited the Dachau concentration camp, where my grandfather, great grandfather, and great uncles were imprisoned after Kristallnacht in 1938. The visit was emotionally challenging, but we believed it was crucial to confront history and honor the memories of our ancestors.
While our journeys have been all-encompassing and emotionally draining, there is still more we wish to explore. We hope to return to southern France to visit the internment camps Gurs and Rivesaltes, where our grandparents and mother were sent after their deportation from Freiburg.
Though our trips have been physically exhausting, the experiences have deepened our understanding of our family’s history and the resilience of those who came before us. Each step taken is a tribute to their enduring spirit, and we look forward to completing our investigation and preserving their stories.
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