Martin Oppenheimer, Franklin
I have visited Berlin many times since the war, including two teaching jobs. It is one of my favorite cities. I’m sorry to have missed Leonard Barkin’s talk at Labyrinth Books on Dec. 6.
He is quoted as saying, about his book on Berlin, “This is not a Holocaust book … By looking at Berlin as a place exclusive of horror from the Jewish perspective, one is able to take note of great moments of German and European culture.”
I find this puzzling, since it is quite impossible to look at Berlin today apart from the Holocaust. Indeed, his statement is belied by the photograph (not described in the article) showing him at one of hundreds if not thousands of memorials in Berlin dedicated to the many (not only Jewish) victims of the Nazi regime.
He is standing at Track 17, Gruenewald Station of the train system. (The track is inactive.) This is the point from which Berlin Jews, including some of my relatives, were deported to concentration camps. Mr. Barkan is looking at inscriptions created for the memorial alongside the track listing each shipment by date and camp destination.
Martin Oppenheimer
Franklin
