Born in Germany

Inge Bernhard lives with her husband Carlos in a beautiful apartment in Jerusalem. Sadly, Carlos now suffers from severe Parkinson's disease and I was not able to interview him. Even so, the stories my mother told me about Carlitos were some of the funniest of all.

Carlitos has quite a sense of humor and used to write letters to my mother when she was away at boarding school in the US. They would pretend they were society ladies, addressing each other as Senorita "Carlotta" and Senorita "Rutilinia." Apparently, the letters themselves would border on the ridiculous. :)

Inge welcomed us into her home and I instantly smelled something familiar. On the table was my Oma's famous plum tart, a dessert I had not eaten in years since Oma stopped baking five years before she passed away. When I saw the food, my eyes started to tear....it was such a loving gesture yet it made my Oma's absence feel even more real.

Inge is very loved by many people and all were asking about her upon my return to the US. I instantly felt close to Inge and her story is completely captivating. Born in Braunschweig, Germany to a Jewish mother and a Gentile father, Inge stayed in Germany throughout the war. A physicist who worked for Siemens, he somehow (with an enormous amount of courage) persuaded the local Gestapo to grant protection to his family while he was completing a defense project for the German army. There were quite a few close calls and relatives were not included in the deal. Watching people disappear and always worried about "being next" plagued Inge for years. Her testimony about the war is truly one of a kind and I hope to have the transcript prepared soon for posting.

Carlos is Inge's cousin (by marriage and not by blood) and she knew him for years. After she moved to the States to study at the University of Arkansas, she ended up in New York for some time. Carlos would call her to bail him out of terrible dates, etc. He would introduce her as his cousin and his date would usually give up pretty quickly once the romantic potential of a twosome quickly transformed into the more friend-oriented dynamic of a threesome.

Carlos decided to revisit his aunt in Germany some time afterwards and asked Inge to accompany him on his first trip "home" since the war. When waiting for Carlos, Inge did not expect anything to happen but this time she saw Carlos with new eyes. It was love at first sight and it was mutual. Even their aunt suspected something.

Inge arrived in El Salvador as Carlos's wife and remembers life early on as idyllic and care free. When the Civil War arrived, Inge feared for the family's safety, especially that of Carlos's as an employee of the well-known firm Goldtree Liebes. The kidnapping of Ernesto Liebes hit the community hard. As Carlos Bernhard always rode with Ernesto Liebes to and from work, he would have been a victim as well had it not been for a doctor's appointment that took place at exactly that time. Inge wanted to move to Israel for quite some time but Carlos insisted on staying by Ernesto Liebes's side. Now they had no choice.

Inge has lived in Israel for over twenty years yet interestingly, she tried to settle there two times before. While the third time was a charm, it has not been completely easy since her two children (David and Ariela) live in the US.

It is impressive how Inge indentifies herself as a full citizen of the State of Israel considering her very frightening and tenuous early relationship with anti-semitism, Jews and Judaism.