UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:35 AM Page 11 TheJewishWorldou.org.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/ja/5766/summer66/11_17.pdf · the story aired, a number of social acquaintances who normally greeted

Summer 5766/2006 JEWISH ACTION 11

Today in Israel, there are voices in society

demanding that geirut (conversion) be

viewed as a tool for social integration. This

is most unfortunate since geirut is a serious religious

act. Indeed, Chazal describe the ger (convert) as a

newborn, leaving his former self behind. A most diffi-

cult transformation indeed!

We have previously had occasion to discuss the

technical requirements of geirut (winter 2003). In the

pages ahead, we present the life stories of converts

from different nationalities, cultures and backrounds

who found their spiritual home in Judaism. We hope

that the lives of these extraordinary individuals, all of

whom demonstrate the true meaning of genuine

geirut, will serve as a profound source of inspiration

to all of our readers.

CHOOSING ISM

TheJewishWorld

UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:35 AM Page 11

12 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5766/2006

B Y Y I T T A H A L B E R S T A M

It’s said that the “truth will set you free,”but when an intrepid Israeli reporter brow-beat Dr. Daniel Brown* into going publicfive years ago, the aftermath was traumatic.“I had always been open about my identitywith both my family and friends,” he recalls,“and no one had ever been less than sup-portive and warm. But this particular Israelinewspaper misrepresented its agenda to me.I didn’t know that it intended to publicize orsensationalize my interview the way it ulti-mately did. The story was printed in theweekend edition of the paper, and all daylong on Thursday and erev Shabbat radiocommercials continually blasted every fif-teen minutes: Hitler’s nephew’s grandson—right here in Israel—and a Jew! The reper-cussions left my family shaken.”



IN ALLTHEDARKPLACES


Brown’s sons—enrolled in aModern Orthodox yeshivah inJerusalem—were spat upon by several oftheir classmates and called “Nazis.” Ahandful of neighbors studiously avoidedBrown when they encountered him onthe street. And in shul the Shabbat afterthe story aired, a number of socialacquaintances who normally greetedhim with hearty handshakes turned theother way. “To these people, who hadknown me as Jewish for twenty-fiveyears, I had become—overnight—apariah,” says Brown. “I thought I wassharing a valuable lesson with others:that the past can be recreated and that aperson always has the opportunity tochange. But actually, it was I who wastaught the lesson: Some people willnever let you change.” (Not surprisinglyBrown wanted to use a pseudonym inthis article.)

Still, the incident becoming a lit-mus test for the varieties of humanbehavior, the responses were not uni-formly negative. “In the same shul thatShabbat, I was also the recipient of aclearly symbolic act of acceptance,” saysBrown. “I was given the first aliyah.This told me in no uncertain terms thatthe majority of the shul membersregarded me as a full Jew and an accept-ed member of the community. Sadly,however, the decency of the majoritydidn’t nullify the crude conduct of theminority. We were badly wounded bywhat happened.

“Now I understand why most ofmy counterparts hide their identities,”says Brown. “Many Israelis are uneasyabout our genealogy; they don’t knowhow to react or what to do with us.”

Perhaps that is why in a countrystill scarred by the Shoah, a country

whose very existence still trembles onthe foundations of the ash and bone ofthe Six Million, very few people areaware of what I like to call “ThePenance Movement”: a subculture ofhundreds of children of Nazis who haveembraced their own dark past in themost extreme possible way. They havenot only aligned themselves with thegroup of people their parents sought toannihilate, they have cast off their for-mer identities and themselves becomemembers of that very group. The major-ity of them have converted halachically,live as Orthodox Jews and reside inIsrael. This, I believe, is one of the lastgreat, untold chapters of the post-Holocaust era. It’s a story that speaks tohumanity’s quest for meaning in life,our capacity for goodness and ourpotential to reshape identity and des-tiny. Yet, when I contact governmentofficials, rabbinic courts and Israeli jour-nalists themselves asking about this phe-nomenon, most seem shocked by myinquiries. “Are you sure?” they ask, somesurprised, others skeptical. “It’s an urbanlegend,” many insist. “How could it bethat children of Nazis live right here inIsrael and no one knows about them?Impossible!” 1

Interestingly, a disproportionatenumber of the German converts are dis-tinguished academicians—most notably,in the field of Jewish studies. Brown hasfollowed this trajectory himself andchairs the Jewish studies department atone of the country’s leading universities.In his engagement with rabbinic andTalmudic literature, Brown is joined byRabbi Dr. Aharon Shear-Yashuv (for-merly known as Wolfgang Shmidt andone of the few converts who grants mepermission to use his real name), chair-man of Jewish studies at Bar-IlanUniversity, and many others includingthe chairman of the Jewish studiesdepartment at a Southern university inthe United States and a professor of rab-binic literature at an Ivy League collegein the United States. But it is clearlyBrown who possesses the most interest-ing antecedents of all.

“My grandmother’s name was

Erna Patra Hitler,” says Brown. (Afterthe War, she dropped the “t,” changingher name to ‘Hiler.’) “Hans Hitler—hersecond husband—was the Fuhrer’snephew, but he didn’t resemble him inany discernible way. He was soft andgentle. But what my step-grandfatherlacked in vitriol was more than made upby the fierceness of my grandmotherwho was a sworn Nazi. She believed inthe Nazi ideology before, during andeven after the War. She was proud thather father-in-law was Hitler’s brother,although he kept away from politics.Instead, he managed a café in Berlin,and because everyone knew that he wasthe Fuhrer’s brother, all the Nazi elitepatronized his establishment. This madehis family and him—including mygrandparents—local ‘nobility.’

“When [my grandparents] visitedus, they arrived in a black Mercedes,which was then a novelty and statussymbol. It was a big deal when theMercedes arrived in the working-classneighborhood where my mother and Ilived.”

Brown was born in Frankfurt in1952 to Protestant parents who hadboth served in the Wehrmacht. Hisfather, an ardent supporter of the Naziparty, divorced his mother shortly afterhis birth, and promptly disappearedfrom their lives. Brown was raised by hismother, who scrambled to make a livingin post-War Germany. She received nei-ther financial nor moral support fromErna Hitler, whom Brown describes as“indifferent to the pain and suffering ofothers.” Brown’s childhood years weremarked by deprivation and hardship, ashis debt-ridden mother struggled tokeep them afloat. They were constantlyon the go, moving from one apartmentto another, leaving when frustratedlandlords forced them out for lack ofpayment. Still, in one respect thatwould have profound reverberations forhis future, Brown was fortunate. Hismother always told him the truth.

Today, there are Germans whocomplain that they are “sick and tired”of the “endless talk” about the


Yitta Halberstam is the author and co-authorof eight books, including the best-sellingSmall Miracles series (Cincinnati, 1997-2003) and Holy Brother: Inspiring Storiesand Enchanted Tales about Rabbi ShlomoCarlebach (New Jersey, 2002). Her mostrecent book is the anthology ChangingCourse: Women’s Inspiring Stories ofMenopause, Midlife, and Moving ForwardCincinnati, 2004). *Name has been changed.

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Holocaust, but in the immediate yearsafter the War, there was only silence anddenial, explains Brown. “In school, his-tory teachers taught German historyonly up until World War I, in accor-dance with governmental legislation,”he says. “The government was afraidthat if these teachers had a Nazi past orhad been supporters of Hitler’s regime,they would not be objective in the class-room. So, actually, this law was borne ofgood intentions. But as a result, weremained largely ignorant about whathad happened only a few yearsbefore. I remember having conversa-tions with classmates who refused tobelieve in Germany’s accountability.Their parents had glossed over thedetails or lied outright. But my ownmother hadn’t.”

Instead of the elaborate fabrica-tions concocted by his friends’ parentsto conceal the truth, Brown’s mothershowed her son her cache of docu-ments (which bore seals of the Reichwith accompanying swastikas), lettersand photographs of family members—including herself—wearing Wehrmachtuniforms, which testified to their com-plicity. She told him that she had beenstationed in the Polish city of Lodz,where they hung Jews in the center ofthe city. “It was awful,” his mother toldhim. “I needed to pass through the cen-ter of town everyday in order to getfrom my house to headquarters andback. But I couldn’t bear to see the Jewsstrung up like that, so I took a longdetour around the city each day toavoid this terrible scene. I never gotused to it.”

Brown was horrified by his moth-er’s account. He felt the room go blackas he rifled through the physical evi-dence of her past, but his mother’s gen-uine remorse provided him with somesmall measure of comfort. “When Iasked her why she kept followingorders, why she didn’t resist, sheanswered simply, but with deep shame,‘I was afraid.’ I believed her,” saysBrown.

Although Brown tried to share hismother’s revelations with his school

friends, they couldn’t accept them astrue; they told him that he was makingit up. “So I tried to block it from mymind,” says Brown.

But when he was a high schoolstudent his destiny came calling againby way of an inheritance from his bio-logical grandfather—his grandmother’sfirst husband—who had willed him acarton of books, among them his per-sonal copy of Mein Kampf. “I had neverseen Hitler’s infamous book before, andI read it thoroughly,” says Brown. “I was

absolutely enraged by what he wrote. Ikept on writing comments in the book’smargins, comments that counteredHitler’s claims. I still have this book inmy library, because it served as a majorcatalyst in my life. I couldn’t remainapathetic to what I read. I know myencounter with it shaped my future to alarge extent.”

The future of every youngGerman in the post-War period includ-ed a mandatory stint in the army, butlargely as a result of his encounter withthe Holocaust, Brown had become apacifist. “I was expected to join thearmy as soon as I graduated [from] highschool, so I cast about for ways to getout of this civil obligation,” he says. “Ilearned that the two groups that wereexempt from military service were theclergy and students of the CatholicChurch. So when I opted to become atheology student, it was originally out ofopportunism, not spiritual concerns.But way leads on to way, and that’s pre-cisely what happened to me.

“Theology students are requiredto take several courses in Judaism andHebrew, and I became increasingly fas-cinated by what I was learning,” says

Brown. “While studying Judaism, I sawmore and more things that troubled meabout Christianity. For example, theconcept of the Holy Trinity botheredme a lot … how [could] God be three?Another thing that I didn’t understandwas the idea that a Christian has to suf-fer in order to be redeemed. The Jewishapproach manifested by Yom Kippurmade much more sense to me.

“The vast theological differencesbetween Judaism and Christianity creat-ed a schism inside myself, and I wasbeginning to feel schizophrenic,” Browncontinues. “In 1977, I decided to go toIsrael to further my studies at HebrewUniversity where I … took classes inHebrew literature and Jewish philoso-phy. I fell in love with Israel andlengthened my stay from one year totwo.” Ultimately, Brown ended upstudying at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav.

Brown makes short shrift of my“Penance Movement” hypothesis—

that children of Nazis convert toJudaism as atonement—maintainingthat he converted for theological rea-sons, not out of penance for his parents’sins. “Maybe there are unconscious psy-chological reasons that drove me toJudaism,” he allows, “but since I am acritical thinker and very cerebral, on aconscious level at least, I believe that Icame to Judaism from a place of pureintellect.” He does, however, concedethis: “I believe that whoever is willing totake this step [conversion] must have avery deep identity crisis preceding theconversion itself. He’s not able to returnto the identity that he was born into. Iunderstood that I was not happy in theplace where I was born, and I made adecision to go to another place.

“The fact is that during the seven-ties and eighties many young Germanswho wanted to detach themselves fromthe previous generation, the generationthat was complicit in the Holocaust, leftGermany. And the percentage ofGerman converts in Israel is notinsignificant. I converted mainlybecause I had a theological criticism ofChristianity. Is this a rationalization Igave myself? My grandfather didn’t have

“How could it be that

children of Nazis live

right here in Israel and no

one knows about them?”



any educational or cultural influenceover me, but it still makes me feel awfulthat this is the background I comefrom. It sharpens the identity questionsthat I am so busy with.... My identity isnot taken for granted. It is somethingthat I must continually deal with.”

Brown converted to Judaism in1979, and married another Germanconvert who is also an academician.Although his wife’s parents in Stuttgartcut off all contact with their daughter,his own mother (who died seven yearsago) accepted him as a Jew and visitedhim several times at his home in Israel.“Perhaps she was afraid that if she didn’taccept my conversion, she would loseher only child,” says Brown. “Whateverthe reason, she dealt well with myJewishness. She attended my three sons’Bar Mitzvahs and participated in ourPesach Sedarim. I once even suggestedthat she come live with us in Jerusalemand not remain alone in Germany, butshe said, ‘You don’t plant an old tree ina new place.’ But up until her death, weremained very connected.”

Brown is strictly halachic, identi-fying with Centrist Orthodoxy. Still, asa German convert, there are a few areasthat give him pause, such as participat-ing in Yom HaShoah ceremonies; emo-tionally it is too turbulent for him. “Iusually stay home.”

Brown and his wife have workedhard to create a home that is warm, lov-ing and supportive. “I wanted to makesure that my children have a path, adirection, a value system, not the mud-dled and complex dysfunction I myselfexperienced as a child,” he says. “But asmuch as I’ve tried to protect them fromtheir schizophrenic legacy, there arethings I can’t control. For example,when my son Yisrael traveled to Polandwith his school several years ago, hisreaction was completely different fromhis classmates. ‘Everything felt weird,’he told me. ‘I stood in the camps andthought about how the grandfathers ofall of my friends had been inside, whilemy grandfather had been outside. Myclassmates came to those camps withtheir pasts; I just came to watch. I was

caught in the middle—it felt screwedup.’

“I also feel utterly helpless whenmy sons’ classmates say mean and hurt-ful things to them—comments whichhave accelerated since the interview inthe Israeli newspaper was first pub-lished,” Brown says. “Last year, forexample, during a ceremony on YomHazikaron, several students whisperedto my youngest son that they weregoing to beat him up because he’s aNazi. I refused to send him to school

for a week until the principal tookcare of the problem.”

Brown has had his share of uglyrun-ins himself. “I have always tried tobe open and honest about my roots; Ihave never hidden my background likemany converts from Nazi backgrounds,”he says. “Most of the time, people areaccepting and tolerant. Once in a while,though, someone will say somethingoffensive. Recently, after sharing somebiographical details with my universitystudents, one of them told me:‘Imagine! Your grandfather might haveturned my grandmother into soap.’”

Brown guesstimates that there areapproximately three hundred Germanconverts in Israel, but most are averse topublicity and remain relentlessly reclu-sive. Still, as the Holocaust recedes intohistory, an increasing number of theseconverts are coming forward with theirstories. Recent newspaper articles pub-lished in both Europe and Canada havedetailed the extraordinary metamor-phoses of people like Matthias Goering,great-nephew of the notorious LuftwaffeChief Hermann Goering, who keepskosher, celebrates Shabbat and wears ayarmulka; Katrin Himmler, great-niece

of SS Commander Heinreich Himmler,who married an Israeli and Oskar Eder,a former member of the Luftwaffe whochanged his name to Asher, married aHolocaust survivor and currently worksin Israel as a tour guide. The astonishingtrajectories of these personalities, andpeople very much like them, demon-strate for Brown the powerful messagethat “nothing is immutable. The mean-ing of my story, of my counterparts’ sto-ries, is that things can be changed: Youcan change your behavior, your loca-tion, your faith. Being and becoming is

what we are doing every day.” �JA

Note1. Interestingly, it is in

Germany where there is someheightened awareness of the subjectdue to the occasional article that hasappeared in mass-circulation maga-zines such as Stern and Der Spiegel,and to the publication of a fewbooks in German. These books

include Rabbi Dr. Aharon Shear-Yashuv’s autobiography and an antholo-gy by Antje Eiger entitled Ich bin JudeinGeworden: Begegnungen mit DeutschenKonvertiten (I Became a Jew: Interviewswith German Converts) (Hamburg,1994), in which a caustic essay byHenryk Broder, “Zum Teufel mit denKonvertiten” (“To the Devil with theConverts”), scathingly denounces theGerman converts as opportunists whowish to “attach themselves to the rightside of the victims.”

“My grandmother’s namewas Erna Patra Hitler.

Hans Hitler—her secondhusband—was the

Fuhrer’s nephew.”

To Advertise in the Fall issue ofJewish Action, Contact:

IN THE US

Deborah [email protected]

IN ISRAEL

Lisa Rubin972-054-721-1968

[email protected]

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UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:35 AM Page 11 TheJewishWorldou.org.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/ja/5766/summer66/11_17.pdf · the story aired, a number of social acquaintances who normally greeted