J EWISH NEWS
Kissinger's remarks avoided any men-
tion of the horrors that caused his fam-
ily to flee. When invited to tour the
neighborhood where he used to play soc-
cer and study the Torah and face beat-
ings by Hitler Youth members,
Kissinger politely declined.
At least 13 close relatives of Kissinger
were sent to the gas chambers or died
in concentration camps. One reason so
many of them perished is that, as
Kissinger has said, they considered
themselves loyal German citizens. His
grandfather David and granduncle Si-
mon both felt that the family should ride
out the Nazi era, that it would pass.
David did not flee until after Kristall-
nacht , when he joined his son Arno in
Sweden. But Simon, even after Kristail-
nacht , forbade his family to leave. Ger-
many, he said, had been good to the
Jews. They should stick with the coun-
try and be loyal to it as it went through
this phase. Simon was killed in a Ger-
man concentration camp. So, too, were
his sons Ferdinand and Julius. All three
of Kissinger's aunts also perished in the
Holocaust: Ida and her husband, Sieg-
bert Friedmann, who was a teacher in
Mainstocken, and one child; Sara and
her husband, Max Blattner, and their
daughter Selma; Fanny and her hus-
band, Jacob Ratt, and their son, Nor-
bert. Fanny's daughter, Lina Rau, who
had boarded with the Kissingers, man-
aged to escape to New York.
Louis Kissinger was 50 years old
when he arrived in New York with his
family. Even though he was well-
schooled in English, or perhaps becauie
of that, he was afraid of making a gram-
matical error and embarrassed by his
thick accent. After two years of only spo-
radic work, Louis got a low-paying job
as a bookkeeper at a factory owned by
friends from Germany.
It fell to Paula Kissinger to support
the family. For a while she worked with
a local caterer, preparing and serving
food at bar mitzvahs and weddings; then
she went into business for herself.
F
reed from the fear that per-
vaded Furth, Henry Kissinger
plunged into his new life in
Washington Heights with the
gusto of a paroled prisoner. Within days
he had found his way to Yankee Stadi-
um, mastering the intrica-
cies of a subtle sport he had
never before seen. And in
September of 1938, a
month after he arrived,
Kissinger enrolled in
George Washington High
School. "He was the most
serious and mature of the
German refugee students,"
his math teacher, Anne
Sindeband, later told the
New York Post, "and I think
those students were more
serious than our own."
The Kissingers belonged
to the Congregation K'hal
Adath Jeshurun, a
fledgling Orthodox syna-
gogue that was founded the
year they arrived. Kissin-
ger, wearing his prayer
shawl, was a faithful con-
gregant. His mother began
to sense, however, that he
was going to temple more
out of fealty to his father
than out of fidelity to his
faith.
Despite his stubborn re-
tention of his Bavarian ac-
cent, one trait
distinguished Henry Kis-
singer from his friends; he
was more directed, more Heinz Kissinger, who would later be known as Henry, with his father, Louis, in 1923.
ambitious, more serious
about assimilating and succeeding in and out. For young men seeking to es- with some of his relatives. "What the
America. The others were quite com- cape constricted lives, the army offered hell are they putting out?" he grumbled
fortable within their tight-knit German a perfect opportunity, all the more so be- to aides. "My relatives are soap."
Despite Kissinger's demurrals, the
Jewish world. Many of them, even as cause there was little choice involved.
they became successful in business, con- Kissinger's draft notice arrived shortly Nazi atrocities left a lasting imprint on
tinued to identify with their ethnic her- after his 19th birthday. In February him. "Kissinger is a strong man, but the
itage rather than break from their 1943, he left by train for Camp Croft Nazis were able to damage his soul,"
immigrant style. Not Kissinger. He was in Spartanburg, South Carolina — where said Fritz Kraemer, a non-Jewish Ger-
more eager to blend into society, more for the first time in his life he would not man who left to fight Hitler and became
adept at picking up the cultural cues be part of a German Jewish communi- Kissinger's mentor in the U.S. Army.
that marked one as an American.
"For the formative years of his youth, he
ty.
When Kissinger graduated from
Kissinger rarely spoke of the Holo- faced the horror of his world coming
George Washington, he had no prob- caust other than to protest now and then apart, of the father he loved being turned
lem getting into the City College of New that it did not leave a permanent scar into a helpless mouse. It made him seek
York, where he breezed through his on his personality. "It was not a life-long order, and it led him to hunger for ac-
classes. He got As in every course he trauma," he said. "But it had an impact: ceptance, even if it meant trying to
took, except for one B in history. With- having lived under totalitarianism, I please those he considered his intellec-
out great enthusiasm, he was heading know what it's like." Only once did he tual inferiors."
One of Kissinger's insecurities as an
toward becoming an accountant, which ever show any signs of anger about what
had become his father's field.
happened. During an early visit to Ger- adult was his feeling, sometimes half
He was, however, looking around for many as national security adviser, Bonn confessed through mordant humor, that
something more he could do, a way up announced that Kissinger might visit he would not fit in if he was too closely
a