jews d
in
the
Sins Of
The Father
JULIE EDGAR CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Israel Bonds
speaker embarks
on Jewish journey
to repent his
German father’s
actions.
TOP: Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger
speaks at a Jewish event.
D
r. Bernd Wollschlaeger, M.D., has
spent half his life repenting for
the sins of his father.
Learning as a teenager that his dad
was a fascist sympathizer who was
proud of his role as a tank commander
in Hitler’s army turned Wollschlaeger’s
life around, leading him to convert to
Judaism, to make aliyah, marry a Jewish
woman and eventually write a memoir, A
German Life: Against All Odds Change Is
Possible, intended to explain his journey
to his own children.
On Sunday, Sept. 10, Wollschlaeger
will speak at a brunch for Israel Bonds
at Young Israel of Oak Park. He will tell
his extraordinary story, which took him
from Bamberg, Germany, to Israel, to the
U.S. He and Rose live in Miami, where he
practices family medicine. Their three
children — ages 18, 24 and 28 — live in
Florida.
“He’s a terrific speaker, very support-
ive of Israel and what we’re doing here
at Israel Bonds,” says Adam Grossman,
assistant director of Israel Bonds
Midwest Region. “People leave the room
very emotionally charged; his talk speaks
to a level of hope you cannot imagine.”
Wollschlaeger, 59, was part of the post-
World War II generation in Germany that
was just being taught about his country’s
extermination of Jews. In 1972, his teach-
ers talked about the murder of Israeli
athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich
that year. That triggered what would
become a radical personal transforma-
tion.
“I asked myself, ‘Why the Jews?’ I had
no idea what Jews were; I asked myself
intellectually who are they and then
approached them emotionally, became
a Shabbos goy. The spiritual march took
abouteight-nine years,” he says.
Wollschlaeger assumed the role of
“Shabbos goy” — the non-Jew who
performs tasks forbidden to Jews on
Shabbat — for the small surviving Jewish
communities of Bamberg, Frankfort and
Munich.
“I served Friday to Saturday night and,
in return, I was able to listen, learn and
understand what Jewish life was. I never
worked for money; it was a spiritual jour-
ney. I wanted to be one of them,” he says.
Wollschlaeger’s friends didn’t under-
stand why he identified so closely with
Jews, but they joined him on a Shabbos
to see what the Jewish community was
like. They were respectful. His father, on
the other hand, demanded that Bernd get
rid of the Jewish “paraphernalia” he had
brought in the house. He was combative
— and unrepentant until the end.
“He called me a traitor. He had no
remorse,” Wollschlaeger recalls. “It was
shocking, not only because of what he
did but also because he persisted in
believing it. When he was drunk, he
would say Germany did what everybody
wanted to do anyway.”
At age 28, Wollschlaeger left Germany
for Israel. Six months later, his father
died. He did not return for the funeral.
Nor did he come home for his mother’s
funeral a few years later. He is in touch
with his sister in Germany.
“I turned away from my father. He dis-
gusted me. He was a common criminal,”
Wollschlaeger says. His mother, who had
emigrated from Czechoslovakia as a girl,
didn’t understand why her son had gone
to such an extreme. Her attitude was that
she, too, had been a victim.
Wollschlaeger earned his medical
degree in Germany and moved to Israel
The neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville that resulted in the death
of a young counter-protester is a reminder of the menace that
can surface if we are not vigilant.
24
August 31 • 2017
jn
with one year of his residency remaining.
Before he could finish, he was drafted
into the IDF as a medical officer. He later
finished his training at Sackler School
of Medicine in Tel Aviv. He met Rose,
an American Jew, and they eventually
moved to Miami. He serves on the board
of the American Jewish Committee-
Broward County.
SPEAKING OUT
Speaking in front of Jewish groups in the
U.S. and for other organizations world-
wide provides a forum for Wollschlaeger
to talk not just about his personal his-
tory, but also to confront the ways we
confront hatred. The neo-Nazi march in
Charlottesville, Va., that resulted in the
death of a young counter-protester is a
reminder of the menace that can surface
if we are not vigilant.
“They don’t want discussion; they want
to kill you,” he says. “Our system will
be slowly destroyed by these people, no
matter what party we belong to. We need
to come together and protect our institu-
tions.”
Even as he decries the white national-
ists who probably won’t change their
minds — they’ll always hate blacks and
Jews — Wollschlaeger’s message is to
counter hatred with love.
“It sounds corny, but you need
to understand that the majority of
Americans are good, hardworking
people,” he says. “They reach out to
neighbors — black, white, Muslim —
and we need to support a framework of
living together, collaborating, visiting
mosques, synagogues and churches. With
the increasing fanaticism and religios-
ity, we have to stand up and say we live
together.” •
The Israel Bonds brunch is free, but make a reserva-
tion by emailing Israel Bonds at adamgrossman@
israelbonds.com or by calling (800) 969-3987.
Registration begins at 9:30 a.m., followed by a 10
a.m. program with Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger at Young
Israel of Oak Park, 15140 W. 10 Mile Road, east of
Greenfield.