An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Charlotte
Vol. 39, No. 8
Elul 5777-Tishrei 5778
September 2017
FEDERATION CAMPAIGN SURPASSES GOAL!
Achieves Highest Level of Annual Giving Ever — $3,955,117
Thank You!
ITS ALWAYS SOMETHING. THAT’S WHY THERE’S FEDERATION.
One gift to the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte is a gift
to the whole comnnunity. On behalf of the people whose lives
you will change this year, thank you. We are grateful for your
continued support of our Jewish Federation and for caring about
fellow Jews in Charlotte, Israel and around the world.
Jewish Federation
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OF GREATER CHARLOTTE
Visit lus at WWW.JEWISHCHARLOTTE.ORG
Turn to page 11 for Jewish Federation’s annual listing of donors.
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'THANK
' YOU!
A Surprise Received in the Mail
A Letter of Remorse to a Victim of the Holocaust
By Amy Krakovitz
It wasn’t uncommon in Nazi
Germany during World War II for
Jewish families to be forced from
their homes without any compen
sation, and for “Aryan” families to
take possession of these homes.
However, it is extremely and un
common for one of those dis
placed Jewish families to receive
a letter years later from a descen
dant of the Nazi sympathizers
who received their home - a letter
full of pain and repentance in ac
knowledging the past.
Such an experience happened
to the family of Charlotte’s Judy
August. Judy’s grandparents,
Claire and Julius Hirschmann,
built the home at Eichendorfs-
trasse 15 in Nuremburg, where
Judy’s father, Henry (z”l) and her
uncle Peter Hirschmann, now age
92, were raised. Recently,
Hirschmann was surprised by a
letter that came from Germany.
The author, Doris Schott-Neuse,
wrote about her desire “to contact
the family who owned the house
... where my Mum, Karin, and
my aunt, Helen Muhr, grew up
and lived.” She continued, “I am
deeply ashamed for what us [sic]
Germans did to yourself [sic],
your family, and to your friends
and relatives and to the members
of the Nuremberg Jewish commu
nity. It is hardly bearable to start
thinking about the details - what
a horror and nightmare it must
have been to live through this.”
She went on to admit deep re
morse at the crimes committed
against the Hirschmanns and all
Jews. A recent visit to Israel’s Yad
Vashem and participation in a
Bavarian-Israeli initiative inspired
her to learn more about her fam
ily’s history. “There is no way to
say ‘it is all past,”’ she admitted.
“[We] Germans need to deal with
remembering. I do think that this
is the task for my generation.
handed down from the grand
parents - ‘we did not know’-
generation via the parents ‘we
were not allowed to know’-
generation to us ... with this
comes the obligation to re
member and not stay away any
longer from tough questions.”
She included current pictures
of the home, which her family
no longer owns, for
Hirschmann to see.
Hirschmann’s response to
Schott-Neuse was equally as
moving. “I have lived a long
life,” he wrote, “and you are
one of the finest human beings
I have ever encountered. Your
letter brought tears to my eyes
for many reasons. First, be
cause it called to mind the un
deserved suffering of my family
and so many families like mine,
and the loss of my beloved child
hood home. But it saddened me
also to think that of you, who are
blameless.”
Doris Schott-Neuse’s
Hirschmann.
letter
Peter
He expresses appreciation for
all of her research and her quest
for understanding, “You had the
option to ignore it and instead you
confronted it. My tears reflect the
fervent hope that the humanity,
(Continued on page 19)
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