An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte
Vol. 38, No. 7
TammuzAv 5776
August 2016
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Berlin Remembers forwarded my letter to what must have been an acquaintance at the office of the Senate of Berlin, the Governing Mayor of Berlin. Suffice to say, miracles still happen, I received an invitation from the office of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, to spend a week in Berlin, together with a compan ion of my choosing. I chose my friend Leah Naliboff, since we had traveled together and seemed to get along beautifully. We started out on May 14 and arrived in Berlin the next day. The hotel we stayed at, the Bristol
5007 Providence Road, Suite #112 Charlotte, NC 28226 Change Service Requested
By Susan CernyakSpatz There is a publication called “Jewish Voice from Germany.” Rabbi Judy Schindler sent me the May 2015 edition of the paper and I was amazed at the amount of in formation it contained. I’ll never know why I decided to write that letter to the editor, giving my short biography and lyrically expressing my desire to see Berlin once more, before it is too late. I never thought I would even get an answer, but I did re ceive a letter from the editor, in forming me, that she had
The next morning we talk to Mr. Lachmann. The playground was not the met our guide, Barbara BoehnTetelbaum, in the same any more; the big basin with the fountain was gone. lobby. We drove by my house in the About 50ish, she was fluent in English and Bambergerstr. The number 36 was sympathized immedi still there, but it had been replaced with a modern building. The ately. We drove first to my house had been built in 1913, with old school, the Chamisso a lift and hot and cold running Lyceum. It had been water and a little balcony. Berlin turned into a grade loved and still does love balconies school, but the building and loggias (balconies recessed was as ever 19th century into the house front). Central Berlin. We drove to the Schoeneberger Gruender period, the square with its fountain city hall, the imposing building Kempinski, was right across the still unchanged. had not changed one stone. But on street from the building where the We drove to the former Fasanenstrasse synagogue “Bayerische Viertel,” used to stand. The location was the area around the very familiar to me. As a young “Bayrischenplatz.” It ster, since my father liked had been, preHitler, Kempinski, the best place to eat, the largest area occu we went there on special occa pied by Jewish sions, for family dinners, because uppermiddle class normally youngsters were not professionals and taken to elegant restaurants. business men. In this The room was large and gener area, every streetlight ous. We unpacked a bit, took a has a square metal short nap, and then ate supper at a sign attached to the charming restaurant, called “Das lamppost, informing Lieratur Haus” which was located the public of the di Interview at the City Hall for the permanent exhibi tion “We Were Neighbors” in an old elegant town house with verse rules and regu a large veranda. lations imposed upon Jews during the inside, on the second floor, the Hitler period. Such there is now a permanent exhibit, as: Jews are forbidden called “We Were Neighbors.” In a to have “pets,” Jews very large hall many large tables could only go to the are lined up, on them albums with grocery store between names of families and individuals 45 PM. Lachmann’s who lived in the Bayrischen Vier bookstore was still in tel. Most of them are dead, a small the same corner of number still alive, having success Speyrer Str. and Bay fully managed to escape the Hor erischer Platz. How ror. There will be a new album often did my mother there of Susan CernyakSpatz nee and I stop in there, to Eckstein of Bamberger Str, 36. That evening we went again to get books from the lending library and Holocaust Memorial overlooking the Reichstag. (Continued on page 8)
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