New book chronicles remarkable local reconciliation

By Susie Davidson
Special to the Advocate

An amazing story of historic reconciliation on a local level is chronicled in “In Gratitude and Hope,” a collection of the annotated remarks of the outgoing German Consul General Wolfgang K. Vorwerk, just released on Somerville’s Ibbetson Street Press.

The 93-page book, produced at the request of the local Holocaust community, was distributed to attendees at a June 22 luncheon at Temple Emeth, where both German Consulate Liaison for Holocaust Issues Monika Dane, and President of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Israel Arbeiter were honored with Orders of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.  Arbeiter leaves for Germany next week, where in an incredible, “full-circle” life occurence, he will be lecturing at German schools on his experiences during the Holocaust.

"Ibbetson Press is proud to publish a volume that displays both the efforts of an extraordinary man and the warmth and receptiveness of a community that has been able, difficult as it is for all, to move beyond the past," said publisher Doug Holder.

On June 19, Arthur Obermayer, founder of the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards, hosted a farewell reception with his wife Judy for Consul Vorwerk at their Newton home. There, outgoing AJC Executive Director Larry Lowenthal said, “Wolfgang, you represent the new
Germany.” Nancy Kaufman, Executive Director of the JCRC of Greater Boston, called Vorwerk “a mensch” and spoke of the honesty of Vorwerk’s personal struggles with the history of the Nazi era. Holocaust survivor Rosian Zerner read a poem, and the Besere Velt Yiddish Choir of the Workmen’s Circle performed three songs in Yiddish.

“Over the past four years, knowing full well that some Jews continue to harbor resentment toward Germany, Consul Vorwerk has established an especially warm relationship with Boston’s Holocaust survivor community,” said Zerner, who with Arbeiter, Lowenthal, Obermayer,
Kaufman, and New England Region Anti-Defamation League Senior Associate Director Diane Rosenbaum, lent commentary to the book’s final pages.

“More than sixty years ago as a slave laborer in Auschwitz, I formed my feelings about Germany and about all things German,” said Arbeiter in his remarks. “Had someone told me then that one day I would write words of praise for a German government official, I would have pronounced them completely and utterly insane. And yet today I find myself doing exactly that.”

Vorwerk has displayed profound sensitivity, humility and graciousness in the face of the greatest tragedy in modern Jewish history. “Even as a diplomat, I cannot say 'I serve my country' with the same empathy, and as unconditionally as an American can,” said Vorwerk at a March forum on German resisters at 126 High St., “because we created the experience not only of what man is capable of doing, but what the Nazi regime was capable of doing.”

The book includes photos, a bio of the Consul and recent speeches by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before the Knesset in Jerusalem and German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the opening of the Berlin office of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.

Vorwerk’s position ends June 30, when he will return to Germany with his wife, Heide. Their son, Alexander, an International Affairs major at Northeastern, will remain behind. The family lived in Brookline during their term in Boston.

Vorwerk first spoke at the 2005 Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at Faneuil Hall, the German Consul to do so. He has spoken every year since (often bringing German students and teachers along), as well as at the Falmouth Jewish Congregation, the memorial service for University of Vermont Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, United Nations International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, the AJC’s Diplomats Seder and at other Holocaust-related events. He has supported the four German-Jewish Dialogue Groups, has funded efforts such as a five-night run of Holocaust victim Marc Smith’s play “Journey to Kreisau” about the German Kreisau resistance circle, and will co-sponsor an October performance of the music of concentration camp victim Edwin Geist at
Brandeis.

“The Holocaust does not have to mean speechlessness between Germans and Jews,” said Vorwerk at the June 4 retirement tribute to Lowenthal.

In one of the book’s emotionally affecting photos, Vorwerk stands with Arbeiter, who holds his new great-grandson. As will be the case with many area Jewish leaders, Arbeiter and Vorwerk will maintain and continue their friendship after his departure.

“With tremendous energy and creativity, [Consul Vorwerk] used his post to educate us about Germany's efforts to fight anti-Semitism and hate, its role in the European Union supporting so many of the issues important to us as a democracy, and of course, Germany's support and
friendship for Israel,” said Rosenbaum.

As evidenced in the book’s warm and heartfelt afterwords, Vorwerk leaves behind a deep and lasting, truly historic impression upon the area’s Holocaust community. But the book also portrays a story of reconciliation, forgiveness, and the possibility of a better future.