"Seelenreise" - part 2
On March 2 I was off to Koblenz for my 30^th birthday. It was a special way for me to spend this day because that is where my grandmother is from. When I arrived in Koblenz at the visitors center, I asked how to get to the Jewish cemetary. As the lady was telling me what busses to take, another lady, who was waiting said that she lived right next to it, and that she would be willing to take me right over there. I know it sounds kind of out of the ordinary, but I got a good vibe from her – she didn’t seem like a serial killer, and Koblenz is, as European towns go, a pretty small town. As she drove me to the cemetary she asked what I was doing there, etc… and so I told her about my journey and it turns out she is an amature historian and a native of Koblenz and her name was Sabine. She offered to meet me later to give me a tour of Koblenz! I was in disbelief – what a nice thing to do. So, I went to the cemetary and found the gravestones of my great-great-grandmother (Ur-ur-grossemutter), Meta Siegler, and her father, Nicolaus Nahm, according to my grandmother. I put stones on their graves and also flowers.

Then I went back to town and walked up the Rhein and the Mosel rivers (the coverge in Koblenz), and then I found the location where the synagogue used to be. My grandmother had told me that it was now supposed to be a gym, but I found out through the visitors center that it is actually a children’s library. I didn’t know what to expect, but when I went there I found many large picture frames on the walls of the children’s library that detailed the lives and fates of the Jewish families of Koblenz. There was also a room that served as a memorial, which contained more of those large picture frames, books about Jews, Jews in Koblenz, and the Holocaust, and also Jewish artifacts. I thought it was fitting that it was at a children’s library because the children see the memorial when they come there – that is good.

Then I talked with Sabine and we decided to meet up near the library for my “tour.” I thought maybe we’d walk through the town a little, I’d see the Rathaus (all towns have old Rathause), you know, pleasant and consise. Well, that’s not exactly how it went. I did not know the extent to which Sabine knew her Koblenz history. She took me on a full walking tour of Koblenz giving me details I couldn’t have gotten even in a guidebook! I wanted to thank her for all she had already done by taking her to dinner, so she recommended a good Italian place and we had a lovely meal there and I met the nice people who work there (whom she knows). As if that weren’t enough, she offered to take me up to the Festung. I wasn’t really sure what that was. The German word for party is “Feste” but I could tell that it was something historical by what she said about it. She said we’d have to drive there and after we got on the way and she pointed to it, I realized the Festung was the city wall (“fest” as an adjective means strong or firm, so Festung the noun kind of means, “reinforcement” or “strong/firm-thing”). I should say at this point that we were only speaking in German to one another, which is what I prefer to do. Now that doesn’t mean I always understand, but I think it’s good to try and usually with a good description unknown words can be learned. The thing is that in Koblenz (as in all of the cities I visited) they have a special dialect and accept. In this case, the word “ich,” which should be pronounced in high German “ickh” with the gutteral sound, is pronounced as “ish,” and the ending “–ig,” which should be pronounced similarly (but softer) is also pronounced as “ish.” Not to mention that she talks pretty fast. Whew! Depending on the situation, I generally can understand now about 80-90 percent of a conversation, but I have to say that with her I was probably getting about 60-70. But listening to her sure helped me listen faster.

In any case, we drove up to the Festung, where there is now a youth hostel and also several historical buildings and items (like an old cannon, etc…). Now at this point it is getting late (8pm or so), and they don’t let people up there after a certain hour, but don’t underestimate Sabine! She talked to the guy at the gate for 5 minutes and it turns out she knows his wife, etc… and she told him that my grandparents used to live there and I came from the US to visit there. Well, I thought she told him that my grandparents used to live in KOBLENZ, but she meant that they used to live IN the Festung itself! I wondered why she would say that, but she explained that it was because after the war everything was so bombed out that there were not enough places for people to live and so people lived in the Festung. So this man thought my grandparents lived IN the Festung. Well, whatever works. So, we walked around there and she gave me a detailed account of the building of the walls, and how they used to shoot stuff out of the catapults, and stuff, citing exact trajectory calculations. Needless to say, I was pretty darn impressed.

Then we left and went to my grandmother’s house and her school. She had looked them up on a map earlier since I had mentioned the address, though I had no idea she was going to do that. We took pictures there, but it was pretty dark and so they didn’t really turn out very well. She said she would go back there with her camera, take pictures and send them to me! Can you believe this? I didn’t even ask her to do that – she just wanted to do it.

I had left my bag at the train station at a locker (most European trainstations have lockers “Schliessfacher” – very convenient), so she took me there to get it. It turned out that something went awry with my locker (I did something wrong, I’m pretty sure) so she talked to the security guard for me and we got my stuff out. I probably would have been able to handle it, but it would have been slower and there was a greater possibility that I would have ended up in prison (hey, it could happen…). Then she took me to my hotel (which was admittadly remote) and made sure it was suitable, reminded me to lock my door for security and we said our goodbyes, but not before taking a picture of us shown here.

What an amazing person. How many people would just drop everything and do all she did for me that day? Me, a perfect stranger. I told David that I think that she is the Koblenz version of me because I like to think that I would go out of my way to help a stranger the way she did. I reflected a lot about this unpredictable day, this unique person, this place where my grandmother, her sister and parents fled from in fear, this place where I spent my 30^th birthday alone, but not alone, and I thought again about redemption, if there is such a thing. I was very touched by the experience.