Germany Vacation - Part 5 - April 6 and April 7

This last part of the Germany Vacation series chronicles my last 2 days in Germany.  April 6 was incredible and I'll tell you all about it below.  But if you haven't read about the previous days of my vacation, click on the below parts:

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

April 6

This was by far the best day of my trip.  It was also the most emotional.  This day was the reason for my journey to Germany.  You see, there is an artist in Germany who is creating gold cobblestones.  On these gold cobblestones are the names, bithdates, death dates and place of death for all German Jews who perished during the Holocaust.  The stones are placed in front of the homes in which the people lived before being taken by the Nazi's.  On April 6, and the reason for my trip to Germany, the artist was laying down the stones for my grandfather's father, step-mother and younger brother.  We woke up early in the morning.  We were going to stop back at Goetheplatz to lay roses down on the stones placed there for my grandmothers father and younger brother before heading on the audubon to our first stop of the day.  After getting ready and eating breakfast, we packed up the car and headed for Goetheplatz which was not a far drive from Gabi and Frank's house.  We laid down 2 white and 1 red rose on the place where the stones are.  Thier names were Josef (my great-grandfather) and Erwin (my great-uncle).  I took a photo.  After laying down those stones, we hit the audubon to go to Hildesheim.  Hildesheim is the city from which my grandmother's grandmother came from (my great-great-grandmother).  Two years earlier, there was a stone places in front of her home.  Her name was Emmy Levi.  We also laid 2 white roses and 1 red rose.  We walked around Hildesheim since we had some time to spare.  We had lunch at an Italian cafe right across the street from my great-great-grandmother's stone.  While we were sitting at a cafe, some old lady picked up the roses that had been placed on the stone.  It greatly upset me.  I told Gabi and Frank that I couldn't leave Hildesheim knowing that there were no roses there.  "When I leave Hildesheim, I need to know that there are roses there.  At least if someone picks them up, I won't be there to watch it."  We had passed a flower shop earlier so I went back, bought a bouquet of red roses and quicly went back to the cafe where I laid a few roses from the bouquet down.  I felt better now that I'd done that and we left.  It was time to head to Schwarzenborn, the small village from which my grandfather came!  The whole reason for my trip.  It was a 2 hour ride from Hildesheim to Schwarzenborn.  I just kept looking out the window at the countryside and all the cars that were going way faster than we were going (and we were driving pretty fast at 120 KM / hour).  It was a great drive.  We got off the Audubon and Schwarzenborn was still 30 minutes into the hills of the countryside.  We finally arrived to Schwarzenborn.  We met with the Mayor for about an hour and I learned a little bit more about my family and the Jewish heritage there.  I learned that my great-grandfather, Siegfreid, was a soldier for the German army in WWI.  I also learned that my great-grandmother, Recha, who had died of cancer before the war, had another child with my great-grandfather but the child, named Fritz, had died at only one month old.  I learned that before WWII there were 19 Jewish families in Schwarzenborn.  17 of them fled elsewhere when then found out of what was occurring across Europe.  2 families stayed there, including my family, the Oppenheimers.  My great-grandfather never thought the Germans would do anything to him.  He had a medal of honor from WWI and never thought they'd take him and his family away.  But they did.  Today, one of the leading neo-Nazi leaders lives under this mayor's jurisdiction. No one in the village likes him but they can't arrest him because he hasn't actually done anything yet.  After learning a little bit more about the village, it's history and my own family history, we walked outside to find a crowd of people.  It immediately brought tears to my eyes to see how many people were there to witness this ceremony and to remember what happened to the Jews during the war.  I calmed down and began walking towards my grandfathers home.  I remembered exactly how to get there.  There were so many people standing there.  It was incredible to see everyone there.  The ceremony began with music.  The leader of the band was a man who was friends with my grandfather's stepbrother, Martin, when they were children.  I thought this was very special.  After that, the artist when on to lay the stones.  It took him about 10 minutes to get all three in the ground.  After the artist was finished, a class of elementary school students did a presentation, a woman spoke, the mayor spoke and the artist spoke as well.  The first people to place the roses down was a high school class from the area school.  It was beautifully done.  The ceremony was in total, about 45 minutes.  I was crying the entire time.  I laid down the rest of the bouquet of roses I had bought in Hildesheim.  After the ceremony, there were many people who wanted to speak with me.  I needed a translator so Frank came by.  One man came over, his name was Fritz, who said that my grandfather (Leo) taught him how to tie his shoes.  The man who led the band also came over and said that he was good friends with Martin in school.  Yet another man came over and said that the Oppenheimers were very good neighbors.  That seemed to have been the concensus of those people still surviving who were alive at that time.  "The Oppenheimers were always good people."  A woman came by with a photograph.  She was friends with my grandfather's sister Marga (she survived).  The photograph was a class picture with Marga on the bottom row, third girl from the left.  It was incredible to see.  The entire experience was wonderful.  There was also a bishop there who studied and lived in Philadelphia for a while and his wife is American so he spoke very good English.  I spoke with him for about 10 minutes.  The entire experience was wonderful but Gabi and Frank were rushing me away so I took some photos with each of the people and then walked down the hill.  I had no idea that I was being rushed because we were going to have lunch with the mayor at a hilltop hotel overlooking Schwarzenborn.  The hotel was not a 5 star hotel but it was a good place to have a bowl of soup and a beer.  The mayor also presented me with a wall clock that had a picture of the Schwarzenborn coate-of-arms.  It is a nice wall clark but I haven't yet figured out how to work it!  I was very emotional and the view from the hotel was absolutely gorgeous.  Since I could not figure out what they were saying anyway (they were all speaking German) I walked outside with my camera and had a breakdown.  I couldn't believe that I was actually standing, looking at the town that my grandfather spoke of so highly.  The town in which many stories were set.  I couldn't believe that my grandfather grew up in this beautiful place (at least until he was 21).  I couldn't believe that such a beautiful place could exist.  When I was at the top of that hill, about 100 yard from the hotel, I felt like my grandfather was there with me.  I know he would have loved to have taken me there himself.  It would have made him very happy to do that but I'm pretty sure he was looking down on me and was happy that I was there and taking such an interest in his history.  Gabi came out and watched the town with me.  It was just absolutely beautiful.  She knew how emotional it was for me and she understood which was special.  Jens came out and said that everyone was leaving now.  I was said about this but I wanted to take one more quick photo: me with the town in the background.  Frank took the photo for me and then we began walking towards the hotel to say our goodbyes and head back to Hannover.  I said goodbye to the mayor and then had to say goodbye to Gabi and Frank because I'd be going home with Anke and Jens (they would be taking me to the airport the following day).  I cried because I really enjoyed my time with Gabi and Frank but mostly because I didn't want to leave Schwarzenborn.  We got in the car and drove towards Hannover.  It was a drive that took just over 2 hours.  We stopped on the way back to get dinner at a Greek restaurant in Hannover.  It was alright.  I was so emotional at that point that I just wanted to get to bed.  Dinner was finally over and we went back to Anke and Jens' house where I called my mom quickly and went to sleep.  Not only will Schwarzenborn always be in my heart, but a piece of my heart was left in Schwarzenborn.

April 7

This is the day that I journeyed back to New York.  I had a long day of travelling ahead of me: Hannover to Paris.  Paris to Boston.  Boston to New York's LaGuardia airport.  I boarded the plane in Hannover for the 2 hour flight to Paris.  In Paris, I went through security again and up the escalator only to be met by a mini-luxury shopping mall with stores like Hermes (the most prominant and my favorite), Prada, Dior, Longchamp and Yves Saint Laurent.  I looked but did not buy anything!!!  I had no money left!!!  I went to my gate and then we boarded the plan from Paris to Boston.  It was nice being in First Class but let me tell you that Air France has the WORST food!  Who needs to be eating Frois Gras on a plane???  We landed in Boston.  I went through customs (quickly thanks to my First Class status) and then had to get my luggage.  I had to get a shuttle bus to a different terminal so I could hop onto the Delta Shuttle to LaGuardia airport.  I got to the Delta terminal, checked in and got on a flight 1 hour earlier than planned.  My mom was at LaGuardia to pick me up!  It was nice to be home but I was sad that I couldn't be in Schwarzenborn longer.  It is almost two weeks later and I still miss it very much.  Like I said above, I left a piece of my heart, and maybe my whole self there when I left.

____________________

And that is the end of my Germany Vacation.  I am sorry it has taken so long to finish the series but I had work to get back to and a lot of unpacking and of course the Passover holiday (and Easter)!  It's been nutty with my family the past couple of weeks!  I hope you've enjoyed reading about my trip and viewing the photographs!