General Discussion

Her father was a German journalist who spoke 5 languages, and he sent his young daughter to live in Switzerland so she wouldn't have to join the Hitler youth group and be indoctrinated. He was forced to join the Nazi party and became part of Hitler's press corps. When the Germans conquered a city he would travel there to report on the glorious victory, and he would smuggle in various documents to help the residents escape. He knew that birth and baptismal certificates, travel papers, military IDs could be forged if they had original documents to copy. He'd also travel to Switzerland to see his daughter when he could. She returned to Germany after the war, eventually immigrating to the US.

My "aunt" Sigrid and my mom were new brides living in the same apartment building in Brooklyn, and her daughter was born 4+1/2 months after I was; we were raised as cousins, but she's also my best friend for almost 63 years. She'd privately joke about her mom being like a Nazi, a tough disciplined German, especially when rules were imposed she objected to. Kids!

But Sigrid came to the US on her own, met a Jewish man and married him, and gave him a Jewish child, or at least a child with Jewish blood and a Jewish name. I've sometimes thought over the years how what she did was her own form of reparations, ignoring the fact that she loved my "uncle". He was from an Orthodox Jewish family, and was rejecting their lifestyle by marrying a nonjew, but she raised her daughter as a Jew (with my mother's help). I think it was important to her, giving the world a Jewish child. She always had German magazines lying around.

She passed away earlier this year at age 95, feisty until the end!
I have many fond memories of my German Aunt.