metro
From Germany from page 12
"Her experience in Pittsburgh was
very motivating for me Richard says. "I
had a chance to visit her, and I'll never
forget the pride I felt seeing my 'kid'
sister addressing an audience of 400
students at the University of Pittsburgh.
Currently she is working on her bach-
elor's degree in Arabic studies at the
Philipps University Marburg, learning
Arabic and Hebrew and preparing to
spend two semesters in Cairo"
Richard's year in Detroit marks his
fourth extended visit to the U.S. In
September 2010, while still an under-
graduate, Richard participated in a
workshop at the Wende Museum in Los
Angeles. The project that he organized
with five friends from the University
of Leipzig brought him together with
students from Loyola Marymount
University to develop an online
exhibit focusing on everyday life in East
Germany between 1949 and 1990.
In 2011, he was awarded a Bachelor
Plus Fellowship from the Institute for
American Studies Leipzig and spent two
semesters at Ohio University in Athens,
Ohio, where he took courses in intel-
lectual history and was a fellow of the
Global Leadership Center.
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Sharing His Story
Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families
a service of Jewish Senior Life
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JEWISH SENIOR LIFE
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The Jah
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iliTITOPOSTATI DETROIT
Ask Richard what it's like to be part of
the third generation of Germans after
World War II and actively working for
an organization with the mission never
to forget the atrocities of the Holocaust,
and he shares both fond and troubling
memories of his grandparents, born in
1926 and 1928.
"They were just children when the
Nazis rose to power, and in their daily
school life they were educated in that
ideology. They were encouraged to join
the Nazis' youth organizations where
young German boys and girls would
learn their roles in society: to be good
Germans.
"My grandfather joined the army
and, in the summer of 1944, toward
the end of the war, was drafted into
the SS. Though he spoke little of what
happened to him during the war and
throughout his four-year imprisonment
in a Russian labor camp, I am doing
research in his Russian prisoner of war
records and am learning what he might
have been involved in.
"So, when I speak to school groups at
the Holocaust Center now, I tell them
about my grandparents, what their
generation went through and the way
they were educated and how their edu-
cation affected them even after the war.
I tell them that my grandmother is a
very loving, open and kind woman, but
sometimes some of the stereotypes she
has in mind — particularly about the
people of Poland — can be traced back
to her education"
Born after the war, now in their 40s,
Richard's parents are very supportive
of their children's graduate studies and
what they do through ARSP.
"But I don't think they fully under-
stand what we do:' Richard says. "I have
a degree in American studies, and I
wrote my thesis in English, a language
my parents only partially understand.
Their world experience, growing up in
East Germany during the Cold War, was
so different from mine. Even today, their
world is mainly centered around the
East German countryside. And to some
extent, they would be lost in my world"
On Detroit
How is Richard Bachmann, ARSP vol-
unteer for a year, finding life in Detroit?
"Inspiring," he says. "What people do
here is so exciting to me. I find there
are a lot of dreamers in the city. And,
not only do they dream, they also have
the drive to pursue their dreams. I
don't know if that spirit is distinctly an
American thing or entrepreneurial in
general.
"But in Germany, it seems to me that
even when people are more politically
radical, they ultimately steer to a very
traditional way of life. Here people have
the courage of their convictions.
"Being here today, having this expe-
rience at the Holocaust Center — and
meeting other young people who work
in the city — specifically in Downtown
Detroit with organizations like Repair
the World — and seeing how much
passion they put into their projects —
that's really left me questioning: Do I
want to be the guy who's always in the
library reading? And talking and talk-
ing? Why am I not doing this when I'm
in Germany?"
At 26, Richard has seen something
of the world. On an academic track, he
can envision himself as a professor, but
he, too, has a dream.
"There's theory and there's practice,"
he says. "My girlfriend and I are talking
about starting an educational insti-
tute — a new model of higher educa-
tion, which is not as formal or exclusive
as our system in Germany.
"In Germany, only about 30 percent
of all secondary school graduates have
the opportunity to enter a university.
We're talking about learning beyond
the classroom, about bridging the gaps
between academic life and the practi-
cal needs of people building personal
connections and the basis for deeper
understandings of one another. I guess
in many ways, we're talking about con-
tinuing the work at hand with Action
Reconciliation Service for Peace"
❑
Vivian Henoch is editor and writer at
myJewishDetroit.org where this story first
appeared.