On Sunday August 29 we had the privilege of hearing a stirring service presentation called "Who are These Germans". The presenters were Susanne Ortner and Fritz Ottenheimer. Fritz is a Squirrel Hill resident who escaped Germany in 1939 as a boy. Susanne is young Christian German woman who plays Klezmer music on her clarinet and came to the US four years ago on a grant to promote international understanding through her music and Fritz's memories. She has since gone back to and returned from Germany to marry Pittsburgh jazz pianist, Tom Roberts, Tom accompanied her in this service. With Susanne setting the mood with her music, Fritz related several moving anecdotes from his life, including the loss of the family business, her father's imprisonment and later release, their escape to the US, and some war stories. Not all of these memories were negative, however, since at one point some German POWs that he was escorting to a camp probably saved his life with a warning about a trolley wire across the road that could have decapitated him. Susanne related how young Germans knowledge and ultimate shame regarding the Holocaust have changed with her generation.
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