Germany marks 80 years since rise of Hitler with 'project of remembrance'
As the German flag flew at half mast outside the Reichstag, Inge Deutschkron addressed rapt members of the Bundestag within. She recounted in vivid detail her experience of the day, 80 years before, that was to become a turning point not just for her but for the world.
The 90-year-old Jewish-German author recalled details of the two life-changing events of 30 January 1933, the day Hitler came to power. One was the torchlit parade of SA stormtroopers and SS detachments marching through Berlin to the cheers of thousands of Germans. The other was a poignant conversation with her mother, who was trying to prepare her for the difficult times that lay ahead. "My child, you are a Jew," she said. "You belong to a minority and you must defend yourself."
Deutschkron and her mother became so-called "U-Boote" – submarines – staying alive in Berlin throughout the war thanks to German families who hid and cared for them. "The guilt of having survived has persecuted me ever since," the author told German MPs, "and it has never let me go."
Deutschkron's account was one of hundreds of personal stories in Berlin on Wednesday as the city started a year of events to commemorate the Nazis' accession to power, in what the state secretary for culture, André Schmitz, described as "the biggest project of remembrance that has ever taken place in Germany".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/30/germany-rise-hitler-project-remembrance
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