DIE ISAAK-SYNAGOGE
& DAS 'VILLAGE PROJECT'
Bernard Offen:
Das Teilen erschafft die Zeugen der Zweiten Generation
krakaus6.ra
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
BERNARD OFFEN
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.
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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
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