DIE ISAAK-SYNAGOGE
& DAS 'VILLAGE PROJECT'

Bernard Offen:
Das Teilen erschafft die Zeugen der Zweiten Generation

10 Saiten ein Bogen:
S'brennt!!!
Konzert in der Isaak Synagoge Krakau
Violine: Herwig Strobl
Gesang: Bernard Offen

DIE ISAAK SYNAGOGE

Die außergewöhnliche Akustik (7sec. Hall), inspirierte Herwig Strobl zu einer CD. Er spielt improvisierte jüdische Musik, basierend hauptsächlich auf Liedern des Krakauers Mordechaj Gebirtig.

Ein Brief von Herwig Strobl an Bernard Offen

Lieber Bernard!

Schläge an der Tür und das deutsche Wort 'Aufmachen!' muß noch in Deine Seele eingebrannt sein. Denn in der Nacht (23.1.96) als wir zusammen waren - als Du mich auf den Weg durch Deinen Geburtsort, das spätere Ghetto von Krakau mitnahmst,
- und um 11h nacht bei unseren Aufnahmen in der lzaak-Synagoge, - hast Du Dich an diese Szene erinnert:
Schläge ans Tor, ''Aufmachen!'' und marschierende Stiefel.... während ich gegen den Widerhall anspielte ''ss' brent", einige kurze Anklänge an eine J.S. Bach Solosonate und das wehmütige deutsche Volkslied ''Es waren zwei Königskinder..."

Ich spürte Dein Zittern, während Du's rausschriest, indem Du die Rolle der Unterdrücker allnahmst, dann marschiertest!
Wie konntest Du in deutsche Stiefel hineinsteigen?

Du warst so schwach und stark zugleich, hast all die Demütigungen überwunden, die Aufgabe zum Heilen angenommen und ohne Beschuldigungen einfach gezeigt: ich bin ein Mensch, deshalb lege ich Zeugnis ab.

Ich will Dir diese CD widmen, und ich hoffe, daß meine Musik viele Menschen berührt.

Dein Freund
Herwig

Bernards Antworten:

My mother tongue: Yiddish

My parents spoke Yiddish, and in the neighborhood, too. \/\/e actually had to speak both, Yiddish and Polish. I was not allowed to be Polish because I was always called a Christ-iller, we Christ-killers.

Auschwitz

lt first takes me to thinking about my father (killed there) and if l'm beyond that - and many times I am - I feel very, very sad.
l made a bargain with G-d, when I was in Auschwitz, that - if I survive - I will witness. I was a boy ot fourteen. So I've been keeping my word.

Are you a victim ?

I don't think of myself as a victim any longer. Though I might be suffering as a result of the experience. I say: I'm into exploring: what do I believe in, what do I do, how do I live my life.

After the war

I was very, very, very angry at the whole world after the war a long, long. long time. And I had this dream:
I was Atlas holding up the whole world. And I started to shake the thing, cursing everything else.
I would be commiting suicide, if I kept shaking the world. Because I'm part of the world. I shook myself awke from that dream.

The first German man

I met my first German man, many years ago. We were in a retreat. We could not talk together. After four days l still kept looking at this man thinking, feeling: ''Who are you, where were you during the war?
So I went to him and I said:
I want to know more about you!"
I introduced myselt. We became friends, - And I realized: lf I had been born in Germany, in Austria, I could have been on this side. I could have been this person. And that changed everything for me. We are in a creative process to connect with people.

Healing

I do believe we can heal ourselves.
What is not possible to heal is the damage to the psyche. Not only to us as Jews as to the world....
what terrors have been committed, all in the name of religion.

Human being is sacred, everywhere, in all religions.
I think the beginning for a healing world is the quality of relationship of two people; how two people are together, how I am with  you and how you are with me. I am responsible for my own self.

The Izaak Synagoge - - - the village project

WeIl, you know ... lt was 5 years ago I went into this synagogue. And when I heard the sounds, the reverberation .... I started singing.
You could put on the jacket of the CD, that this Village-Project is on the way. We are looking for names of people who might have been members of that synagogue. To recreate the village. How many members, their homes, their children's names, ... to show a larger piece of a small vanished community.

7 or 8 synagogues in Kazimierz and we are picking out just one.

PLEASE CONTACT: Bernard Offen, Email: boffen@well.com

born 1929 in Krakow-Podgorze, which later became the Cracow Ghetto.
One sister, two brothers.

In my family over 50 people were murdered including my parents.
OnIy three survived, my two older brothers and I.

I survived five camps: Plaszow, Julag, Mauthausen, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau-Kaufering where I was Iiberated by Americans.

For the last five years I have spent each summer teaching what Jewish life in Cracow was like before die war. Through sharing my own story with people and my ''Journey and pilgrimages each year of Witnessing and Healing" I hope to create ''Second Generation Witnesses''.

Herwig Strobl: tel/fax 0043-732-794195

http://www.hagalil.com/jidish/klezmer/krakau14.ra

10 Saiten ein Bogen: Shalom alekhem! Friede sei mit Euch! (Konzert in der Isaak Synagoge Krakau, Vocals Bernard Offen)

http://www.hagalil.com/jidish/klezmer/krakau-3.ra

10 Saiten ein Bogen: Papirosn / Das Jiddische Krakau... (Konzert in der Isaak Synagoge Krakau, Vocals Bernard Offen)

Eine Einladung:

KRAKOW PLASZOW AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU PILGRIMAGE WALKS IN KRAKOW GHETTO CONCENTRATION CAMPS PLASZOW-AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU FOLLOWED BY DISCUSSIONS Mit Bernard Offen im Juli 1998 - forum56/messages/111.htm I was born in 1929 in Krakow-Podgorze, which later became the Krakow Ghetto. I survived five camps - Plaszow, Julag, Mauthausen (Austria), Auschwitz-Birkenau (tatoo # B-7815), and Dachau-Kaufering camp (Germany). For the eighth year, I have spent each summer sharing about my personal experience and what Jewish life was like for us here before the war. In my family over 50 people were murdered. Only three survived, my two older brothers and I. Through sharing my story with people and my "Journey of Witnessing and Healing", my dream and hope is to create "Second Generation Witnesses". You dont have to be a survivor or Jewish. It's for all the wounded who want to understand the power of good/evil and want to create goodness in the world. Our pilgrimage will be followed by discussions, sharing and processing in order to create a deeper sense of connection and healing. What & where: As a way of witnessing, and to better understand what happened, we will visit historic sites in and around Krakow, my birthplace, and places where my family and I lived and experienced the war.

hagalil.com/sound/awima28.ra Unser Vater, unser König hagalil.com/sound/geshem.ra Jehudah Poliker: Züge nach dem Regen - Japoso kehrt heim... hagalil.com/sound/halon.ra Jehudah Poliker: Ein Fenster zum Mittelmeer, Du und ich und der Bub...

The Krakow Ghetto - Plashow concentration camp - Kazimierz (the old Jewish Quarter) - Polish/Jewish - Polish/Catholic sites - Auschwitz-Birkenau - View my film "The Work", my family's Holocaust experience. - View my film "My Hometown Concentration Camp"

Pilgrimage walks of healing - - - July 20-26 1998
For information: Tel/Fax 1 707 987 4769 USA

• VIII. Jüdisches Kulturfestival Krakow