Dear friends, we want to wish you all a happy Passover filled
with peace and health.
Chag Pessach Sameach
________________________________________________________________________
About our private life
After Eckarts Giur in front of the Beit Din and his
first bath in the Mikwe we went to Shabbat Service, where Eckart had
his first Alija laTora.
I was more nervous than he himself and pressed
the wrong buttons on the camera, and therefore only captured the last
Bracha. At least I had the full naming ceremony. He is now Aaron ben
Abraham. Here we go:
Last Tuesday we had to let go our oldest cat Florian. He almost became 18 years old. We miss him very much. His Diabetes was cured but his Pancreas did not work properly and neither did his liver nor his kidneys. We had to proove our love and let him go. We all miss him very much.
For my birthday we had a wonderful trip to Prague.
Everything was just
perfect. From the very beginning until the last minute we were spoiled
and for the first time in my life I did not have to care about anything,
because the tour agent took care
of every little detail until the last minute.
We had a walking tour through
the Jewish quarter with our wonderful guide, Kamila, and found the
names of my family written to the walls in the Pinkas Synagogue among
the names of nearly 80.000 victims.
My grandfather, Richard Aronhold, fled Berlin in 1938 to
Prague. My mother had been sent to Colombia in 1937 to save her life,
she knew she would never see her mother again, since my grandmother was
hopeless dying of cancer.
My grandfather, Richard Aronhold, had to leave
his wife here in Berlin and left for Prague but did not report immediately
to the authorities and when he did so, he
ended up in prison. After a week he was released, but not allowed to
share the flat anymore with his sister in law, my grand aunt Elsa. He
had to go and live in a so-called "Judenhaus".
He tried to emigrate to Colombia
to join his daughter (my mother), and he even applied for leaving to
Shanghai. We were shocked that up until today his passport and all documents
are kept by the police in Prague. With Lucias help we learned all that.
Lucia, who works for the agent, offered to do the research of my family
and has been deeply involved finding out a lot of valuable information.
Actually, she gave me my family back and now I do have a story to tell.
I cannot thank her enough for what she has done and given to me!
On
October 16, 1941, the first transport
to Lodz left Prague and my poor grandfather was among the bunch of Jews
deported and died after 5 months.
My mother never spoke about it. Whenever I would
ask "Why don't I have grandparents, uncles and aunts like other
children?" she would answer "Because we just have no family!".
And I – of course – did believe her.
It was Eckart who a
couple of years ago started researching the few photos my mother left
me and found some names. With this little information Lucia started the
research. And did a wonderful job.
And my mothers aunt Elsa Stranska, who was an important
business-woman, was taken to Terezin and deported to Izbica. In a transport
of 1.000 people. Only 5 survivors on that transport.
We visited all places where my family lived in Prague and the Jewish Cemetery to visit my grand-grandparents graves. And again - Lucia was so thoughtfull: Once we arrived at the cemetery she took out of her purse several little stones for my familys to be put on my grand-grandparents tumbs.
And last but not least we were guided by Irene, an
88 years old survivor, through the camp Terezin.
Now I do have a family-history,
which I missed for so long, since my mother never spoke about it. She
did not even mention Prague with a word. Now I know my roots and
my history and have something to tell when I am asked about my family.
For
more information and if somebody wants to see more about my family, Eckart
made a website www.aronhold.de
This was a wonderful trip, sad in a way,
but wonderful in another way since I found my family, my roots and my
history. And therefore my special thanks to Lucia, who did the whole
research, which was not easy at all and my special thanks to Dana, who
organized everything in a wonderful way. Thanks also to Kamila, our wonderful
private guide in Prague for an excellent Jewish tour and Irene, our 88
years old and wonderful guide in Terezin. Thanks to John for the excellent
driving.
Dana, Irene, Eckart, Lucia and Sue
We had a wonderful experience and cannot
say anything but "Best of Best", customized,
friendly, knowledgeable and just perfect.
This was all for today. Wishing
you all the best for a happy Passover we say
Chag Pessach Sameach
Sue and Eckart Arns
your Berlin Dream-Team
March 28th, 2010
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Sue Arns Stadtführungen (former Sue Blumenthal) Landshuter Str. 28 10779 Berlin sue@arns.de www.sue-arns.de www.jewish-touring-berlin.com www.aronhold.de