My father wrote this to his kids the day after Trump was elected. I had no idea…

“Hi, all of you. parents and descendants ---

NOW where are you going to emigrate to??
In 1938, ("Krystal Night", November 8) my (Jewish) father told us to keep the lights off, and windows closed, so nobody would bother us in the apparently empty  house.   The burning of the synagogue across the street, was officially the work of "Germans tired of the Jews.” It was done by "people disgusted with the Jews.”
The next day, a guy at school bragged that the night before, his big brother, an SS or SA man, was one of the people setting the synagogue on fire.  The burning of the synagogue was (to remain politically correct) “by the people people against the Jews.”  My dad told me to never ever tell anybody about what I had heard.
He wouldn't believe things could get worse. He knew he had done no wrong. He did not want to take us out of school or compromise promising careers in our future.  He would not leave his house or his language.
My entire life would have been different if he had made different decisions. 
But, of course, it IS a BIG decision, and my impression of our current situation might be totally different from how you or your kids feel.
I strongly hope I am wrong in my defensive attitude.  But I believe, now more than ever, that 2016 is now quite a bit like 1938 in Europe, when my Jewish uncles left their businesses in Berlin to go to America.
I personally could not survive moving any more – I’m getting very old now.  But I would feel bad if I failed to tell you about my own experiences and fears.  I MUST tell you, especially those of you who may have a Mexican-sounding name in their ancestry.

Now I'll shut up.
Love --   Dad”
Dad died less than four months after Trump was elected. Thank god he doesn’t have to see this. It would kill him.

It took a Trump candidacy for my German-Jew father to finally break his silence

(My father as he arrived in New York from Germany, April, 1952.)
Long-time readers of my blog will remember my father from this post, in which he shared some of his experiences and documents from WWII with his grandchildren. He has always been extremely private and protective about his past, writing prolifically for family, but never willing to share beyond those he knows.
Until now.
He’s almost 88 now, but my father has finally broken his silence. This is what it took – this Trump candidacy for president of the United States -- for my father to agree to speak up publicly.
In what is a huge move for him, Dad agreed to send a letter to the editor of his small town newspaper. I was able to convince him to send his letter to newspapers with slightly higher readership – like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune.
But here it is on my little blog as well, posted with his permission – FINALLY! I hope it has an impact.
Please share, share, share!

Editor:
Being a Holocaust survivor, I am one of only a few people who, as a teenager of 15, was old enough to have experienced Hitler’s coming to power.  Now, as an old man, I am witnessing our current US situation.   I was a German citizen then and there, I am a US citizen here and now.  I cannot be quiet any longer; I must recall my memories.

If you hear the speeches now, just mentally substitute “Mexicans” and “Muslims” with “Jews,” and there you have Hitler in the 1930’s -- the same gestures, the same shouting, the same continuous referrals to himself.

A year or so after getting "emergency power,”  Germany -  once a democratic country - was no longer recognizable as a democracy.  Yes, FDR got a similar authority, but he was no Hitler!

“Trust me!” Hitler had said, and the Germans did.  They loved him for verbalizing the already-existent anti-Semitism, not unlike the feelings and fears that many Americans  have now about Mexicans and Muslims.

Hitler did not rise to power because “it had been built into the German DNA" (per Jochen  Bittner, NY Times 5/31/'16, article entitled "The West's Weimar Moment").   Hitler told us exactly what he was planning to do.  Hitler, too, told Germans to trust him.  He, too, knew precisely how to convince people, and how to win.

One of the first things the Nazis did was to get control of the press.  Now, we see the press being slammed and an ABC News reporter being called “a sleaze.” Watch it.  This is well beyond normal election talk.
Yes, there are real differences, but identical circumstances are not a requirement for being doomed to repeat history when we have chosen to ignore it.

Yours truly,
Thomas Heumann

I am going to visit my father in early July and am hopeful that he will allow me to “interview” him and post snippets to my blog. I truly believe that his memories, his message, and his voice – right now -- can have an important impact that could, at the very least, prompt some who have not been listening to take note.

(My father and me. April, 2015)

Aleks’ Adventure

During the November elections when Aleks was about 8, he seethed that he wasn’t allowed to vote because, as he put it, he probably knew “more about the issues than a lot of adults.”  He was right!

That was around the time that Aleks taught himself Russian (with a bit of help from my father) and changed the spelling of his name (then “Alex”) to Aleks.  It was also about the time that he became interested in Russian and Eastern European politics, economics, and philosophy – something that he has remained deeply interested in all along.

Years later, in 2010, as a Political Science and International Studies major at the University of Washington, Aleks took part in the University's 4-month intensive Comparative History of Ideas program in Prague. 

He fell in love with the city, its people, and the Eastern European region in general, and vowed to return for a longer stay.

And return, he will!  Aleks has just been accepted to the INTERNATIONAL MASTERS IN ECONOMY, STATE & SOCIETY program (with reference to Central and Eastern Europe)!  This is a two years Master’s degree program, with the first year taking place at University College London and the second year taking place in either Prague (his first choice) or in Krakow, Budapest, or Moscow. 

Although Aleks was accepted to the program last week, he needs to wait at least another week to find out whether he is one of the few lucky recipients of a full-ride scholarship for the program.  If not, he will have to defer enrollment and work his tail off (and live at home) for a year to save so he can pay his own way.  Needless to say, cross your fingers that he receives a scholarship! 

I am so incredibly proud of my son! 

I had a feeling his life would take a road in this direction, but I didn’t know it would be such a far-away road.  I will miss him horribly while he’s away – and chances are good that he’ll establish his career in Europe -- but I am fully confident that this is the road Aleks is meant to be on, and I predict that it will bring about all good things for him – and perhaps contribute to a global good, as well.

Addendum: Unfortunately, Aleks won’t be attending the IMESS program next year because he didn’t receive the scholarship. Little did we know that there were over 280 applicants for only 8 scholarships!  You’d think they could have waited two weeks to inform applicants about both acceptance to the program and financial aid status at the same time.  It seems just cruel to notify someone that they’ve been accepted to the program and then make them wait another few weeks, during which time they just build excitement and anticipation, before notifying them about their actual chances of attending.  Just GRRRRRRR!  Mama Bear is feeling angry and protective!

German citizenship: 70 years to full-circle

My grandfather was a German Jew.  Because he had converted to Christianity in his youth and married a non-Jew, he believed, at least in the beginning, that his Jewishness was a non-issue.  He was wrong, of course. 

Beginning in the 1930’s, my grandfather was officially identified as a Jew by the German government (see ID below with the “J” to identify him as a Jew) and his independence and his livelihood were slowly taken away from him.  He was forced to relinquish his position as vice-president of a prominent bank and then was forced to sequentially give up small but significant rights – such as the right to own a telephone.

My father, the child of a Jew and a non-Jew and the product of what was known as a “privileged mixed marriage” was, according to the very detailed and specific Nuremburg Laws, dubbed a “mischling ersten grades,” or “mixed breed of the first degree.”  He was forced to resign from school and be taught by other persecuted Jews (which, it turns out, led to an excellent education) and, unlike most of his peers, he was not “allowed” to join the Hitler Youth – which at the time, was hard for a young teen who wanted to be accepted.

There’s so much more to tell, and my father has been writing about it all for years, but he doesn’t want me to share details on the internet, so to respect his wishes I will be vague -- except to say that, because of my grandfather’s and my father’s experiences in Germany during World War II, my children and I will likely have the option to obtain German citizenship, and my father can very likely have his own German citizenship reinstated.  None of us would have to revoke our American citizenship; instead, we would all have dual citizenship.

The application for German citizenship/naturalization is complicated, with very specific requirements and requiring many qualifying documents (which, fortunately, my father has) and other information.  I have been in the process of preparing these applications for a few months now and I’ve been working with my father to gather the many required documents that prove the lineage and the persecution of the family under the Nazi regime.  

A primary impetus to head down this road is Aleks’ strong desire to work and live in Germany or elsewhere in the EU.  He’ll graduate from the University of Washington next June with a degree in International Relations and minors in history and political science.  He then wants to go on to earn an Erasmus Mundes master’s degree in European Economy, State & Society (the IMESS program), so having German citizenship would help greatly for his ability to work and live in Europe.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Aleks “brings the family back” to Germany after two generations in the US!

Peter, too, has entertained the idea of working and living internationally – possibly in Australia – and he’s been told that having an EU passport would help his chances immensely.  So there’s that, too.

And yes, there’s just a small twinkle in my head and heart called Ruhpolding, my favorite place on earth.  Is it possible that perhaps Tom and I could retire, at least part-time, there?  I don’t know, but having options is a good thing.

And you never know when radical politics and insane leadership could drive people from a country that they’ve loved since they could remember and would never consider leaving… until the unthinkable happens.  Ah yes – full circle.

The impact of Berkeley’s People’s Park riots on a 12-year-old

A group of well over 200 kids who grew up in the very tight-knit Claremont-Elmwood neighborhood in Berkeley during the 60’s have converged in the digital age and are having the most amazing and enjoyable dialog on Facebook!  It’s so immersive that quite a few of us are probably not dedicating our full attention to our jobs these days… and we’ve even seriously discussed meeting in person later this summer – possibly here, at the Claremont Hotel, where many of our shared neighborhood memories take place:

In an effort to find memorabilia from those days, I ventured into our garage this morning, climbing over crates and digging deep into bins, where I finally found my diary from 6th grade.  There was plenty in there to make me giggle (my god, was I boy crazy at the young age of 12!), but THIS really gave me pause from a much more worldly perspective.  When I noticed the date of the entry, 42 years ago yesterday, I couldn’t help but let out a quiet gasp…

It says:

“Thursday, May 15, 1969 (Very important): Dear Diary, About 2 months ago the hippies around Telegraph (Avenue) built a park for themself's (sic). They got some of the Universities (sic) land and started building swings sets, a pool, a fish pool, and a lawn. They were almost done about 2 weeks ago. A lot of people came a gave money for materials. They worked for their park. Then today the police came and put a fence around it 'cause it wasn't their property. There was a huge riot and more than 100 people were hurt. Even the National Gard (sic) came! I don't like Berkeley anymore. Carol"

I remember those tumultuous years in Berkeley so well and they absolutely shaped who I have become (even though we moved away by the next summer).  I had no idea in 1969 how unique the energy in Berkeley really was, thinking that the whole world did things like collectively observe a monthly moratorium in protest of the Vietnam War by basically shutting down an entire city.  How wrong I was!

Danny and Elisabeth went to Costs Rica and Nicaragua and brought home a little bug…

…a microscopic and quite dangerous little bugger, it seems -- right in poor Danny’s intestinal tract!

This post was going to consist of photos of some of the beautiful places Elisabeth and Danny visited on their trip, but thanks to some unwelcome drama, it’s now so much more interesting!

Let’s work backwards and just slightly out of order, shall we? 

So last Saturday evening, Elisabeth called us from Queens, New York – which was not on the original itinerary.  It seems that she and Danny had missed their flight back to Seattle and had been diverted through New York, requiring a night there.  But after being cornered and detained (licenses confiscated!) earlier that day by a bunch of corrupt cops in Managua as they attempted to turn around on a dead-end street, they were just happy to be back in the states, so a little diversion was not a big deal. 

(Yes, my maternal heart was pounding a mile a minute when I was listening to the story… just grateful that they were back and safe!)

Elisabeth and Danny came over for dinner on Sunday night, and we all enjoyed their stories, their photos, and their company.  When the rest of us travel, we tend to go to “predictable” places, like Germany and Hawaii, but Danny is an adventurer and he travels to places like Vietnam (where he went last November, alone, traveling via motorcycle).  For their first trip together, Danny suggested going to Central America, and Elisabeth (quite the adventurer herself) loved the idea.  Tom and I were a bit nervous, but she’s almost 27, fergoodnessake; she will go and do what she pleases! 

So anyway, we were treated to some wonderful photos of their trip.  Photos like these…

		Nicaragua and Costa Rica VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After photos and dinner, Elisabeth and Danny left.  Danny had mentioned that his stomach was bothering him “just a bit,” but no one thought much of it.  Fast-forward a few hours and Danny had been admitted to the hospital with a severe intestinal infection.  It’s been two days and he’s finally feeling a little better, but doctors are still mystified about what he has – and why Elisabeth doesn’t have the same thing. 

Elisabeth thinks that Tom and I should go to South America for our next vacation.  It all sounded pretty good, but I must admit, visiting Danny in the hospital today did give me pause.  Maybe the Big Island or Lichtenstein should be our next vacation destination?!