Rebuilt from Broken Glass

Larry Hanover, Fred Behrend

Description

Symbolized by a three-hundred-year-old Seder plate, the religious life of Fred Behrend's family had centered largely around Passover and the tale of the Jewish people's exodus from tyranny. When the Nazis came to power, the wide-eyed boy and his family found themselves living a twentieth-century version of that exodus, escaping oppression and persecution in Germany for Cuba and ultimately a life of freedom and happiness in the United States. Behrend's childhood came to a crashing end with Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) and his father's harrowing internment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. But he would not be defined by these harrowing circumstances. Behrend would go on to experience brushes with history involving the defeated Germans. By the age of twenty, he had run a POW camp full of Nazis, been an instructor in a program aimed at denazifying specially selected prisoners, and been assigned by the U.S. Army to watch over Wernher von Braun, the designer of the V-2 rocket that terrorized Europe and later chief architect of the Saturn V rocket that sent Americans to the moon. Behrend went from a sheltered life of wealth in a long-gone, old-world Germany, dwelling in the gilded compound once belonging to the manufacturer of the zeppelin airships, to a poor Jewish immigrant in New York City learning English from Humphrey Bogart films. Upon returning from service in the U.S. Army, he rose out of poverty, built a successful business in Manhattan, and returned to visit Germany a dozen times, giving him unique perspective into Germany's attempts to surmount its Nazi past.
Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

A Scholarly Introduction and a Call for Scholarship

Chapter 1: Growing Up in Germany

Chapter 2: Kristallnacht and Sachsenhausen

Chapter 3: Biding Time in Cuba

Chapter 4: A New Life in New York

Chapter 5: A King on Riverside Drive

Chapter 6: Tales of the Unlikely Soldier

Chapter 7: Finding My Way in New York

Chapter 8: Tales of Other Escapes

Chapter 9: Germany through an Older Man’s Eyes

Chapter 10: Looking Back

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612495033
• Langue: English

Extrait

Rebuilt from Broken Glass
A German Jewish Life Remade in America
Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies
Zev Garber, Editor Los Angeles Valley College
Rebuilt from Broken Glass
A German Jewish Life Remade in America
Fred Behrend
with Larry Hanover
Introduction by Hasia R. Diner
Foreword by Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
© Copyright 2017 by Fred Behrend. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Behrend, Fred, 1926- author. | Hanover, Larry, 1967- author.
Title: Rebuilt from Broken Glass: A German Jewish Life Remade in America / Fred Behrend and Larry Hanover; foreword by Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer.
Description: West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, [2017] | Series: Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017012198
ISBN 9781557537843 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 9781612495026 (epdf)
ISBN 9781612495033 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Behrend, Fred, 1926- | Jews—Germany—Lüdenscheid—Biography. | Jewish refugees—New York (State)—New York—Biography. | Jews, German—New York (State)—New York—Biography. | New York (N.Y.)—Biography.
Classification: LCC DS134.42.B44 A3 2017 | DDC 940.53/18092 [B] —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012198
Cover image credit: Seder plate used by the Behrend family since 1710. Photo by Tyler Hanover. Stained Glass Background supplied by bee67 via iStock/Thinkstock. Broken Glass Transparent Frame supplied by macrovector via iStock/Thinkstock.
To my daughter Evelyn and my son Andy, who are the reason I began writing down my stories and translating my family diaries. Also, to the memory of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, both those who perished in Europe and those who had the strength and courage to start new lives in a new country. With this book, we have accomplished the true spirit of the words b’chol dor vador (from generation to generation) .
—Fred Behrend
To my wife Cheryl, son Tyler, and daughter Gabrielle for their encouragement and love, which has meant so much to me throughout the years, and for being there for me as I worked on this project. You are my world. Also to Mom and Dad for their never-ending support through the years .
—Larry Hanover
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
A Scholarly Introduction and a Call for Scholarship
Chapter 1 Growing Up in Germany
Chapter 2 Kristallnacht and Sachsenhausen
Chapter 3 Biding Time in Cuba
Chapter 4 A New Life in New York
Chapter 5 A King on Riverside Drive
Chapter 6 Tales of the Unlikely Soldier
Chapter 7 Finding My Way in New York
Chapter 8 Tales of Other Escapes
Chapter 9 Germany through an Older Man’s Eyes
Chapter 10 Looking Back
Image gallery follows page 70 .
Foreword
When I like something, I literally end up sitting on the edge of my chair, and that was my position the whole time when reading Fred Behrend’s book Rebuilt from Broken Glass: A German Jewish Life Remade in America . It’s true that there have been many books about World War II, the Holocaust, and the murder of six million Jews, and it’s also true that I lived through that era in Europe and so am far too familiar with what occurred. But this book has some unexpected twists and turns and is both moving and humorous, so that whether the reader is an expert or new to the subject, Rebuilt from Broken Glass will be a welcome addition to this particular bookshelf of stories.
Like others blessed with a little bit of luck, Fred and his family managed to flee Germany. But the path they took wasn’t the usual one, as they ended up in Cuba, a place so much in the news today. After a time, they managed to make the next step and move to New York, but this circuitous route to join the large German Jewish community in upper Manhattan is what makes the story so worth reading—that and Fred’s personal style and humor.
I have known Fred for 50 years. He was a close friend of my late husband. We have spent untold evenings together over dinner and coffee. But like so many survivors of the Nazis’ plan to exterminate the Jews, Fred didn’t talk that much about the details of his escape. We all had similar stories, and so when together, we preferred to talk about our life here in America or the future rather than dwell in the past. The memories always remain painful, no matter how many years have gone by, and to dwell on those memories means keeping Hitler and his awful atrocities that much more alive in our new lives. We who were there would like nothing better than to forget. And yet we can’t, and I mean that in both senses of the word. Yes, it’s impossible for us to forget what happened to us, but also we must not forget, because there are too many people who would like us to deny that these horrors ever took place. They say it’s all propaganda, but we who were there know differently, and we owe it to those who perished to keep these memories alive.
Others talk about Holocaust fatigue—that there have been so many books written, so why read one more. Even I suffer from it from time to time, being asked to talk about my life when I’d prefer to talk about more pleasant things, like sex! I’m not going to say that Fred’s book is as good as sex, but I will say that while there are tough parts to read, he’s created a book that’s readable, that is to say, that it teaches along the lines of the Torah, and does so with humor. We need to keep the story of the Holocaust alive in the hopes that it will never be repeated, and Fred Behrend proves to be a storyteller worthy of the task.
Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, sex therapist, media personality New York City November 2015
Preface

(In every generation one must look upon himself as if he personally had gone out of Egypt.)
—Pesachim 116b
You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul … You shall teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
—Deuteronomy 11:19
Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.
—Elie Wiesel
Passover is more than just a holiday for me. My mind hearkens back to the years spent in my grandparents’ home, everyone dressed in formal attire—right down to the dark suits and top hats worn by my father and grandfather. My grandparents never had much money, but on Passover, we were all royalty. Though our immediate family was not large, we always had at least twenty people at our table as it was important that any travelers coming through our hometown of Lüdenscheid be able to celebrate.
Passover is inseparable from my own personal story. It sits deep in my soul and reaches back b’chol dor vador —from generation to generation. It is so vivid that it does more than remind me of long-ago ancestors. It creates images of them as real people with real stories with whom I share a heritage.
The flavors and smells of the ritual Passover Seder meal take me back in time, as we use the same recipes now as we did in Lüdenscheid and in the generations before. But nothing symbolizes that feeling of connectedness more than the pewter Seder plate that sits at the center of the table. The Behrends first used it in 1710, when my ancestor Jacob engraved it with the Hebrew words describing the parts of the ritual service. It has been used at the Behrend table for every one of the more than 300 years since, with only one period of interruption.
That came in 1939 when we were forced to flee for our lives. The Nazis threw my father into a concentration camp in November 1938, arresting him on Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. He was released on the sole condition that we leave Germany as quickly as possible. Our quota number to allow us into the United States would not come up for some time, so we fled to the only country that would take us—Cuba. The Germans confiscated any material objects of value. Our Seder plate was not taken, thankfully, and it would sit in storage with most of our other unseized possessions for a couple of years, even after we arrived in New York City upon being permitted entry, until we could afford to pay the fee to retrieve them.
That Seder in Cuba, when I was 12, was life changing. At our Seders in Lüdenscheid, only two parts of the service interested me. First was when we got to eat. Second was when we got to search for the afikoman , a piece of matzo (unleavened bread) hidden for the children to find, for which there was a chocolate bar as a reward. Now, however, like the Hebrews leaving Egypt, we had lived our very own Exodus. Sadness pervaded the room. But after reading the words b’chol dor vador in the haggadah (the book telling the story of Passover), my father, ever the optimist, lifted our spirits with a short speech. He reminded everyone that we had left with our most prized possessions—the children.
Ever since Cuba, it has been a tradition to stop for a speech at that same point in the service, which comes after making a sandwich out of matzo and bitter herbs to remind us of the difficult times that we left behind. I remember asking my father at that Seder in Havana who would lead it when he wasn’t around anymore.
“Just as I was taught by my father, and