The Wall of Rememberance

August 22^nd, 2007

I met with a very important woman today who by coincidence has made her hobby studying my ancestry on my father’s father’s side for a local museum. She showed me my family tree and took me to the Jewish history museum where 3 names of my ancestors are printed on the wall of remembrance. There were 11 of my ancestors total who were killed in the Holocaust and it was powerful to see their names in front of me. I cannot say that I felt strong feelings about it, but what it did for me was make me feel extremely connected to the generations before me.

Most of my family had been involved with Liquor/Vinegar distillery businesses and before the war as things were getting tense, the Nazis began to restrict their business freedoms because they were not considered to be “German Businesses,” but rather “Jewish Businesses.” Taxes were raised to the extreme and it was forbidden to make trades with Jewish businesses. Eventually they had to sell their distillery in Augsburg to a Local hotel – I saw the chilling statement of the transferring of a Jewish owned business to a German hotel. I can’t believe Veronika knew so much about my family – I was blown away by how much detail she had. She gave me some translated journal entries from my great, great grandfather and my great, great grandfather’s uncle who talked about how they felt about the Arianation of their businesses. We’re going to meet again tomorrow evening.

On this day I also met with a friend of a friend of mine who lives in Los Angeles. The man I met with (Michael) is part owner of an Advertising Agency here in Munich and it was so good to meet up with another creative person. We talked about the Advertising industry with all its quirks and it reminded me of home. I felt very much like a princess because he took me out to dinner and to tea afterwards and I never even had to say a word to the servers. In Europe, when you go out to eat – its not just for the food…Its for the experience, so instead of ordering-chowing-paying-leaving, you sit and enjoy your meal-drinking-smoking-eating-talking-talking until it feels right to leave.

Michael is Italian and he has figured out ways of living life very passionately. We talked of food and motorcycles and special places in Europe until 2am.