Page 94 - issue
P. 94
SHANGHAIABARMITZVAIN
Tby Albert Sherman found his destiny in a city as far as pos- though this didn’t spare him or his sec-
he sky was gray and it rained sible from his origins. ond wife from perishing in a death
Friday. It was October in camp when Jews were rounded up from
Shanghai, China, 1942, and Bernhard (Bernie) Kiewe was born Berlin in 1943 to ’44. (Bernie found the
Bernie was to become bar mitzva in Konigsberg, Germany (present-day record of their deaths in a killing camp
the next day. But before describ- Kaliningrad, Russian Republic), on in Russia at the Holocaust Museum in
ing this most significant day in the November 4, 1929. He was the son of Washington, D.C.). As far as Bernie
life of a Jewish boy, let’s go back Lesser, born in 1903 in Golub, West knows, most of his mother’s family died
to where this tale began. Prussia, and Ettel, born in Stavisky, in the Holocaust.
Poland. The parents married about
◆◆◆ 1923 and came to live in Koenigsberg Bernie’s father, Lesser, worked as an
which was then in East Prussia. Bernie administrator in a clothing factory in
Many Holocaust-era experiences are had two brothers, Siegfried, born in Koenisberg. By the time Bernie was
full of frightening scenes, despair, and 1931, and Sol, born in 1938, and a sis- born, Germany was in the midst of a
miserable endings. This story, though, ter, Selma, born in 1933. devastating economic depression that
has a happy ending. It is about one led to political turmoil and the rise of
family, particularly one of its sons, who Asher Kiewe, Bernie’s grandfather, the Nazi party. The Kiewe family was
grew, was nurtured, and ultimately won the Iron Cross in World War I,
86 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
Tby Albert Sherman found his destiny in a city as far as pos- though this didn’t spare him or his sec-
he sky was gray and it rained sible from his origins. ond wife from perishing in a death
Friday. It was October in camp when Jews were rounded up from
Shanghai, China, 1942, and Bernhard (Bernie) Kiewe was born Berlin in 1943 to ’44. (Bernie found the
Bernie was to become bar mitzva in Konigsberg, Germany (present-day record of their deaths in a killing camp
the next day. But before describ- Kaliningrad, Russian Republic), on in Russia at the Holocaust Museum in
ing this most significant day in the November 4, 1929. He was the son of Washington, D.C.). As far as Bernie
life of a Jewish boy, let’s go back Lesser, born in 1903 in Golub, West knows, most of his mother’s family died
to where this tale began. Prussia, and Ettel, born in Stavisky, in the Holocaust.
Poland. The parents married about
◆◆◆ 1923 and came to live in Koenigsberg Bernie’s father, Lesser, worked as an
which was then in East Prussia. Bernie administrator in a clothing factory in
Many Holocaust-era experiences are had two brothers, Siegfried, born in Koenisberg. By the time Bernie was
full of frightening scenes, despair, and 1931, and Sol, born in 1938, and a sis- born, Germany was in the midst of a
miserable endings. This story, though, ter, Selma, born in 1933. devastating economic depression that
has a happy ending. It is about one led to political turmoil and the rise of
family, particularly one of its sons, who Asher Kiewe, Bernie’s grandfather, the Nazi party. The Kiewe family was
grew, was nurtured, and ultimately won the Iron Cross in World War I,
86 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
