Every year, Rabbi Levi Wolosow of Chabad-Lubavitch of Western Monmouth County organizes a lecture aimed at helping community members better relate to the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, a day of fasting and mourning commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples in Jerusalem that occurred on Sunday. But even he misjudged the response he’d get in booking Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger, the son of a highly-decorated World War II German tank commander who decided to convert to Judaism and served in the Israel Defense Force.
The New Jersey rabbi had to switch venues at the last minute in order to accommodate the more than 300 people who turned up to hear from Wollschlaeger.
“I’m not a son of a survivor,” the speaker told the crowd at the Shalom Torah Academy, a Jewish day school in Morganville. “But I’m a son of a perpetrator. And I have to live with that, and I have an ongoing living and struggling with that issue. But today I’m also a Jew. I’m an Israeli citizen and serve proudly in the IDF as an officer.”
Wollschlaeger spoke about building from destruction and reorientation as significant themes in his experience, and about the power people have to make a difference in their own lives. Having started studying Jewish religion and culture after finding out about the atrocities his father hid from him, he wound up going to Israel and visiting Yad Vashem. He grew close to a small Jewish community, people he referred to as a family of choice.
“My father gave me an ultimatum and said either them or us,” related Wollschlaeger. “You cannot be in both worlds. And I decided for them.”
It was the largest lecture that Wolosow’s adult education initiative has sponsored, and the rabbi emphasized that people should learn about the difficult times the Jewish people have experienced and emerged from.
“Education is very fundamental for living as a Jew, because when you’re educated it creates a culture of doing mitzvahs,” he said. “And we’re working on classes to continue the momentum.”
About 500 students attend 50 classes and lectures throughout the year, stated Wolosow, adding that he looks forward to seeing the new faces among the lecture crowd coming back.
“I hope that they’ll become regular students attending our weekly and monthly classes,” he said.
Linda Ross of Manalapan was fascinated by the subject matter and the speaker’s candid approach to the topic. The room leapt to their feet twice during Wollschlaeger’s address, applauding as he talked honestly about growing up close to his father until he found out about his role in the Holocaust. The audience bought out the copies of his book, A German Life, available at the event.
“It was unbelievable, just unbelievable,” said Ross, adding that she found it especially significant to see both Holocaust survivors and teens in the audience. “I think it was important for them especially; it made the situation real.”
Manalapan Mayor Susan Cohen, whose mother is a Holocaust survivor and introduced the speaker, said events like Sunday’s help cement the veracity of the Holocaust.
“When time passes by and there’s no one else to prove that it happened,” Cohen said, referring to the rapidly-decreasing population of Holocaust survivors, “there’ll still be people who are living proof that it happened, who can spread the word.”
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