STARTING 5/19 jews d in the continued from page 22 Get your tickets at: themapletheater.com HOST YOUR NEXT EVENT AT THE MAPLE! "SFZPVQMBOOJOHBTPDJBMPSDPSQPSBUF FWFOU ø5IF.BQMF5IFBUFSBOE,JUDIFOJT UIFQFSGFDUQMBDFGPSBVOJRVFFYQFSJFODFø 'VMMDBUFSJOHTFSWJDFTQMVTXPOEFSGVM BNCJFODF&WFSZUIJOHJTQPTTJCMFø $POUBDUSVUI!UIFNBQMFUIFBUFSDPNPSDBMM $PNFUBTUFXIBUFWFSZPOFJTUBMLJOHBCPVU 0QFOGPSMVODIBOEEJOOFSEBJMZ 'PS$BSSZPVUQMFBTFDBMMtUIFNBQMFUIFBUFSDPN Proudly Serving: 8.BQMF3PBEt#MPPNýFME)JMMTø 5IF"SUPG'JMNt5IF"SUPG'PPE 'PSUIF#&45-6963:NPWJFFYQFSJFODF DIFDLPVU THE RIVIERA. is This seat you! r waiting fo FILMS COMING SOON For showtimes and to purchase tickets, please visit therivieracinema.com (SBOE3JWFS"WFOVF 'BSNJOHUPO)JMMT (off of 9 mile, just West of Middlebelt) Have a FREE* POPCORN on us! Valid at The Maple & The Riviera Expires 6/30/17 *Small bag of popcorn 24 May 18 • 2017 jn share some of her feelings and expe- riences at Jewish Family Service’s Annual Event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 6, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. In reading her mother’s book, Teege learned her maternal grand- mother, Ruth Irene Kalder, with whom she’d had a loving relation- ship before she was adopted, was Goeth’s longtime mistress. They were introduced by Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who saved hun- dreds of Jews by giving them work in his factories. Before she was adopted, Teege enjoyed a warm relationship with Ruth Irene, who adopted Goeth’s last name after his death and never acknowledged his responsibility for the mass murders at Plaszow. Reading about Ruth Irene, Teege said she asked herself whether she would have been able to love such a man the way her grandmother did. Ruth Irene did not have a close relationship with her daughter, Monika, Jennifer’s mother. Ruth Irene died in 1983, long before Teege found the book. As an adult, Teege had a few meet- ings with Monika, but the relation- ship was strained and they haven’t met for many years. Teege also had several cordial meetings with her birth father, a Nigerian man who lives in Germany. At first, Teege hid her secret from her parents, brother and closest friends, two of whom are Israeli. After learning about her grandfa- ther, she broke off contact with her Israeli friends for more than two years. “I didn’t know exactly what my friends’ stories were,” she said. “Where were their relatives born? When were they killed and how did they die? Was there a connection to Poland, to Plaszow?” When she finally told them, they cried with her. SHARING HER STORY It was another quirk of fate that Teege has close ties with Israel, where she spent five years learning Hebrew and then earning her under- graduate degree in Middle Eastern and African studies at Tel Aviv University. After high school, Teege studied art in Paris and became friendly with an Israeli woman, Noa Berman- Herzberg, now a screenwriter. Several years later, she went to Israel for vacation, overslept and missed her plane back to Germany. She ended up staying. Noa and her roommate, Anat Ben Moshe, now a nurse, became her closest friends. Teege has also shared her history with her sons, now teenagers, so they wouldn’t have to experience the shock of discovery as she did. “Victims’ and perpetrators’ fami- lies are both bound by silence, by the desire to forget,” Teege said. “In Germany, the Holocaust is taught in detail at school but seldom dis- cussed within the family. Many people of my generation are afraid to ask exactly what their own grand- parents did during the war.” Teege took a Schindler’s List tour of Krakow and privately visited the villa where Amon Goth and Ruth Irene Kalder had lived, as a way of paying respect to Goeth’s victims. She said she wanted “to show that I will never forget them.” Three years later, she returned to Krakow with her Israeli friend Anat, Anat’s son and his Israeli high- school class. She told the class what it was like to be the granddaughter of a Nazi commandant. The stu- dents were spellbound — and also concerned about Teege’s emotional well-being. Together, they laid flow- ers at the memorial for the victims and sang Hatikvah. Teege now spends much of her time traveling to speaking engage- ments. She says many of her listen- ers can relate to her themes of iden- tity, history and family secrets. “Today, I am occupied with the concept of responsibility,” she said. “Everyone bears a responsibility to add value to their surroundings. I carry responsibility not only as a German woman or as Amon Goeth’s granddaughter, but simply as a per- son. People see that you can over- come obstacles, that you can come out on the other side.” She adds it’s important to share her story because of something she read years ago about Bettina Goering, another descendant of a Nazi perpetrator. Goering and her brother had themselves sterilized so as not to produce any more people like their grandfather. “I think that sends the wrong mes- sage,” Teege said. “There is no Nazi gene. We can decide for ourselves who and what we want to be.” • Jennifer Teege will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 6, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. $18 ($5 for students). Purchase tick- ets at jfsannualevent.org or at the door.