Unreal, unbelievable, touching, comforting, and perfect.

Unbelievable.... unreal... overwhelming... comforting.... Those words pretty much wrap up my day.

I started out later than expected, because I was up until 6am... I was too excited to sleep, because today was a huge day. 1. I was meeting THE Hannele 2. RebelTHON!!!!!

I woke up at 11 and quickly took a shower and mapped out my day. After talking to Colby and Martin, I decided to meet them at KaDeWe, a humongous store with 7 stories that sells everything. Look it up, it is unreal!!! My plan was to find something to take to Hannele's house.  I initially thought about buying "black bread," salami, and apples, since that is what Oma remembered eating at Hannele's house, but I decided to buy an "apple torte" instead.  After quickly making the purchase, we crossed the street where I bought some tissues (preparing for the the tears) and some lovely gerber daisies to take for Hannele.

Then... I took the train and made it to her house 45 minutes early.  But that was the plan, so I got a tea on the corner of her street and tried to calm my nerves.  I was mostly concerned with the chances that I would become a puddle of tears... At exactly 15:29, I rang the doorbell and a friendly voice told me to head up to the 2nd floor.  There waited Hannele with her door open.

She was the one the right with the big bow! This is circa 1934

It really was a strange feeling walking in.  I knew that if I started to cry I would never stop, so I convinced myself I could do it.  And I did!!! She was soooo sweet and quickly grabbed a vase for the flowers.  However, when I told her I had brought an "apple torte" she said, "why, my child! We have one too!"  So sweet! She had the table set for tea/coffee and had cut up strawberries and a delicious looking apple tort.  A few minutes after I walked in, her daughter Daphna came in.  She was born in 1964 I believe, and she looks very very young! She is an actress and is only living with Hanna until the end of this month, because she will be in Spain for two months with her boyfriend.  She was also very very nice.  Hanna and I quickly sat down and I showed her the picture above.  My grandmother is on the left, Hanna's sister Rina is the little one up front, Adi (Oma's cousin) is in the middle, and the other boy is Bubi (Oma's brother).  Hanna is of course the one with the big bow on the right.  She quickly started telling me that it was so strange that she remembered Oma and her family, because she has forgotten most of everything that happened before she immigrated.

Now I must let you all know now that I am not writing everything that we discussed, because I was there over six hours... and a lot of things were discussed!!!!

Hanna's living room where we sat

She started first telling me that last sunday they had a ceremony and placed the 2 stones (plaques) on the street of Berlin for both of her parents.  I asked her if it was in front of her house, and she replied that it was a few blocks away, because the place where she had actually lived was bombed.  She showed me pictures and told me that aside from families and friends, there were also a Jewish children's choir that sang.  She was so proud to show me the pictures that her nephew took.  He also stopped by at one point this afternoon.

That is Daphna holding up a picture of Hanna, Rina, and their parents Edith and Bernhard.
Bernhard was sent and killed in Auschwitz

After looking at the pictures, we moved on to the letters.  I showed her a few of my letters and she informed me that she would be happy to help me with the letters that are in Suetterlin.  That is music to my ears!!! I will definitely be needing her help! After that, she pulled out all of the letter that she found from Oma and some that her mother wrote to Oma and that Oma had sent her in the 2000s. I was delighted to see Oma's handwriting and also to find out that she wanted me to keep the letters.  

While we drank some tea and ate their delicious cake, I was able to hear a little bit of Hanna's story.  She was sent (by herself) to Palestine... her sister joined her shortly after.  Her mother, Edith, stayed hiding illegally in Berlin and survived, but her father was sent to Auschwitz and was killed. Hanna stayed in Israel for 17 years, got married, had Daphne, and then she moved back to Berlin, because life in Israel was incredibly hard on her.  Her sister, who is 5 years younger, still lives in Israel,  though she is quite sick.  Daphna also told me that on Monday, "Holocaust Remembrance Day,"there will be a reading for 24 hours of all of the names of those who were killed during the Holocaust.  She asked me if I would like to read out of it for some time, but since the times are early in the morning, it is nearly impossible.... since I know am living in Potsdam... Either way, she wrote down the names of some aunts and uncles that I haven't found, and she will look in the book for me to see if they are listed.

After tea, Hanna read the story that I shared with you guys last week... the story Oma sent me about Hanna and her family.  She could hardly believe the details that Oma remembered, but she also helped clean up a few blurry facts.  Then we read through Oma's 1961 travel journal entries from Berlin and she talked me through that time period in Berlin.  Oma visited just a month before the wall went up, and Hanna was able to point out specific stores and foods that Oma mentioned that would soon after disappear for good.  It was incredible and her daughter watched in awe as we spoke about memories that she couldn't believe I knew about.   I just kept telling them that I felt as if though I was meeting 2 characters out of a book I was reading.... Speaking of books, Hanna shared with me a published book that has her mother's story in it. I took pictures and plan on buying the book as soon as I find it!!! I shared with her the book on Prenzlauer Berg Jews, but she recognized only one name. She then reiterated that since she grew up in the Mitte (another part of Berlin), she rarely visited Prenzlauer Berg. She then went on to explain how much she dislikes reading books about this time or watching movies.... "they just keep me up at night, and I can't do it anymore" she said.  

The conversations touched many different subjects: Israel, German politics, my studies, my family, my plans, my sense of belonging, more things concerning meeeee, Daphna's acting career, their lives in Germany, and much more.  At one point, Hannele went to a little table where she has all of her phone numbers written down and grabbed a piece of paper to write mine, then... she pulled this out...

She still had Oma's number... She said, "I didn't know she had died... I really can't believe it has been 5 years since I got her last letter... she had even invited me to visit!"  At that point Daphna pointed out that she really wants to go to Uruguay, so if Marianne will have her... she wants to visit!!!! Unreal!

There really aren't enough words to describe what today was... It was six hours of a dream.  They were both so incredibly sweet, so eager to help me, so eager to meet again, and so eager to "carry on the tradition of being family friends." As Hanna pointed out, Oma and Hanna were friends because their moms were friends, and their moms were friends because their moms had been friends earlier... So I am just carrying on the tradition. It was really crazy to try to take everything in... but my iPhone recorded most of the conversations.... I am attaching the only video I took  (the rest is just voices), so you can get a visual of what sweet Hanna looks like (no one calls her Hannele anymore).

After hours of talking, Daphna prepared some delicious salads and some wonderful spaghetti and we talked until 9:30pm!!!! By then, I was exhausted (as was Hanna) and Daphna walked me to the subway station and I headed to Potsdam. It was truly an unbelievable day... I will be seeing a lot of Hannele I think! (next time I will have to get in a picture with her!!!) For now, I am beyond satisfied with the conversations we had today, and I look forward to many more to come!!!

 I got back very very quickly to my humble abode in Potsdam and I have been keeping up with RebelTHON from my bed since I got here.  I am sooo tired but anything FOR THE KIDS!  Well... this entry really doesn't do today justice, but I didn't want to let the days pass without recording something about today.