Judith (chapter 1)
(Special edition) part of: Aviva Magazin, 'writing girls' project. For more: Aviva-Berlin
Do I feel hunted as a Jew in the streets of Berlin?
Or is it the Jewish identity that chases me while I`m running over the Berliner cobblestones.
These are the facts I got from Ori:
Judith Drumer (Abramovich), Ori`s mom, born in 1932 to Johanna Noebel (christian who converted to Judaism before the war), and to Dov Abramovich, a non-Orthodox Jew. Johanna and Dov got divorced.
Johanna and Judith ran away from Latvia to Germany and stayed in Berlin through the war and after.
Johanna remarried a German who didn`t want a Jewish girl in his house, so he sent Judith to Flensburg.
In 1948 Judith came to Israel. She died there 22 years ago from cancer. She had two children, one of them is Ori, my ex-teacher.
Ori never met Johanna, his grandmother.
Norma, Judith`s step sister from Johanna`s second husband, and Axel, their cousin, still live in Berlin.
I managed to trace Judith`s cousin, Axel.
I called him yesterday. Well, Hannes, my boyfriend, called, so he could talk to him in German. His wife answered.
Hannes introduced himself and told her we were calling regarding Judith Drumer, Axel`s cousin. She said:
"We are not interested" and hung up. Later, when we call again, we will understand that it was a misunderstanding. She thought he was a sales man.
Judith Abramovich died 22 years ago.
She had taken parts of her secrets with her in to the ground. They might still lie there, being digested peacefully.
The dead are dead, they wouldn`t discover or tell anything new. And even more, it is easier to distort facts, the dead cannot defend themselves, it becomes a one-sided trial.
Is the truth so important in these cases? When the subjective facts become the absolute truth?
If I will not open this story, maybe Judith Abramovich`s identity (with her son`s) is going to stay buried there, next to the rotten secrets, wrapped in white sheets.
Important questions to ask Axel, Judith Abramovich`s cousin:
What was the reason for Judith`s mother, Johanna, to convert?
Where did Johanna and Judith hide during the war?
What made Judith finally come to Israel, and why only at 1948?
We arranged a meeting with Axel. We are going to meet him this Sunday morning, in his Schrebergarten.
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