My childhood included a traumatic time in Germany (1950-1953). Some buildings were still bombed-out shells. Many Germans hated us, and the USSR was threatening an invasion. My father had parachuted into Normandy with the 101st Airborne and fought across Europe. They liberated Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.
His Unit history books lay on the coffee table and showed horrific images of War, including graphic images of the Nazi extermination camps. I found a Nazi sword and dagger hidden in our apartment. Beneath our building and down a spiral staircase, our neighborhood gang discovered a hidden room with five barred cells. Even as a 10-year-old, I understood that evil lies behind the most ordinary appearances.
Adults, both German and American, discussed anti-semitism, extermination of Jews, and the continued presence of ex-Nazis in our neighborhood. I listened. Herr Schmidt down the street served at Auschwitz. Dr. Braun was in the Nazi Party, but was forced to join, he says. Sophie Scholl, a University of Munich student, and the White Rose movement, resisted.
I was confused: This happened? This can't be! Oh, my God, this is real!
Those images and issues have haunted me, leading to this painful portfolio made some 70 years later. I still struggle to understand how No One Knew. My conclusion, found on the Teesch family tombstone: Nur Gott Weiss Warum! (Only God Knows Why).
