Inge Bernhard Part V: Meeting Carlos for the Second Time

When Inge arrived in New York from Germany, her second cousin Carlos along with a few family friends met her at the boat.

(So that’s the first time you’d seen Carlos in quite a few years.)

The next year, I came for a visit to New York and I met again Carlos and who do I meet? The family Reich (interviewer's grandparents and mother). Ruth was very small. I don’t know how old she was at that time. That was 1950, how old were you?

Ruth Reich de Alpert: Eight.

Eight. Wilma and Ernst told me, “Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah.” That means in German, “See the good things are in front of your eyes.” That is, Carlos. “Why don’t you marry him?” Well, at that time I had a boyfriend in the university, and I didn’t even think about it. I helped Carlos. Carlos was looking for a bride, and he said, “Would you help me?” He had several addresses. “If she’s terrible, I call you in the hotel and you come and save me.” And I did. (laughs)

(You did? This happened? He called you because someone was terrible?)

Yes. And then we met.

(And you came in, and what did you do in the hotel?)

Then we talked and then—

Then he was not alone with her any more, he was not supposed to kiss her or take her home. He took me home. And he was still my cousin. (laughs)

(Tell me, were you in university in New York?)

No, in Arkansas.

(OK. So you went to visit New York a second time?)

I went to visit. I wanted to visit Maria again, and I wanted to see everything. I was fascinated by New York. I couldn’t understand that my mother didn’t want to go, but she didn’t know how beautiful it was. I understood my father very much, how much he liked it.

(So during this time you were in touch with your parents and your brother? They were still in Berlin?)

Yes.

(OK.)

My parents were in Berlin, but my brother had emigrated to Berlin, and there discovered he had multiple sclerosis. He went home, and he stayed with my parents and after a few weeks he couldn’t even stand on his feet any more. And when I came home in ’51, I saw him already—I met him at the airport. In ’51 he came home, and from then on he was very, very ill. He lived almost until the age of sixty, but as a very, very sick person.

(In Brazil, or back in Germany?)

No, he was back in Berlin, and later on he went to a home for handicapped people in Hannover. My mother went to visit him every month. My father was very upset about this, but he had his own life. When he was retired from Siemens Company, finally, he had a great interest in music. He collected all kinds of albums and music on tapes. As a scientist he had a lot of interest in modern techniques. At that time the tapes were like big wheels, and he kept them for me. I could never use them later on.

After two years of studies in America, I had to go home, because my visa could not be prolonged and I had to go back to Berlin. In Berlin, I made my exam for the music school. Now I was well prepared, after having studied for two years in America music and English. I was accepted, and I started to study in the Music Academy of Berlin for music education.

It was a very difficult program. English was my second subject. So music was my main subject and English my second. So after the first two years—no, after the first year, they advanced me half a year. They gave me—for the two years that I studied in America, they gave me half a year. So at least I had half a year more. Then after two years I said, “I have to make my Examen in English and I need a year just to study English.” So I did that. I was very lucky. I got a very good grade in that, and that was already my state exam, which I would have needed as a teacher. Then I wanted to finish my music studies and I had to write a paper, a special paper about a musical subject. At that time, it was in the summer, I had already started. I went to the library and I was looking for material. Then Carlos wrote—what time, in which month did you come? July, August, I think—Carlos wrote he was coming. I said, “What can I do now? I’m studying. Right now he’s coming to visit, and I really don’t have any time. I want to finish my studies.”

What could I do? Carlos said he would go to Braunschweig first and see where he had lived, where he was born—he wasn’t born there, he was born in Berlin, but where he had lived with his parents. I loved Braunschweig, although it was completely bombed. It looked terrible. I said, “Of course I have to go. He’s my cousin and I have to go.”

Transcription by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC