My German blog partner, Gert Krell, has responded to my entry below called My grandfather’s life and death. Here are some of his comments:
“Next time I go to Darmstadt to visit my grandparents’ grave (they are urn-buried), I will also visit the Jewish cemetery at Groß-Gerau and look for your grandfather’s tombstone. I deeply regret what my country has done to your family, that your grandfather was murdered and thus died long before his time, and that you never had a chance to get to know him. My grandfather died at the Elisabeth Hospital in Darmstadt in 1961 at the age of 75, from cancer. I loved him very much, and I am beginning to get a sense of what you missed and probably still do.”
A retired professor of international relations from the Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main, German, Dr. Gert Krell was a director of research and also the executive director at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). He briefly served as the assistant director for regional security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. Gert writes scholarly articles and is working on a book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
To read our ongoing conversation, please visit: www.shadowsoftheholocaust.com