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Episode 17
An outside staircase to the first floor, leads directly into, what would have been my grandparents apartment. Being able to go into the house where my father, Henner, was born and spent his early days, was the most significant aspect of my visit to Altenburg. It’s hard to explain the anticipation leading up to this event.
Seventy years had passed since the family had been permitted to flee Germany, on condition of signing the deeds of their home over to the Third Reich. The house, these days, is run by the Horizon Association, to provide supported accommodation to those needing help, after a stay in mental hospital.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of communist East Germany, the four surviving Levy-Bucky heirs gifted the house to the Protestant Magdalene Foundation in 1996. To mark the occasion, there was a stone-setting ceremony.
Henner, on behalf of the heirs, stipulated that the house must be named after his grandmother, Marianne Bucky. The stone is dedicated to her:
Marianne Bucky 1867 - 1943
The co-founder of the department store in Altenburg, M&S Cohn’s, who lived, together with her husband, children and grandchildren for decades in this house, until she was a victim of persecution under the National Socialists.
On my first visit to the house in March 2008, it had been running as a transitional house for nine years. It has to be said, the house had been in a terrible state, after years of communist ownership and neglect. A sizeable regional grant enabled the Foundation to renovate and repurpose the building, with twenty-two bedrooms.
It was a wonderful surprise, on stepping through the front door for the first time, to discover that the Levy family were remembered, with photographs and writings, posted on the lobby wall.
Here, I found the testimony of Lotte, Henner’s sister, about life under the Nazis, and professional photographs of the apartment in the Levy’s day. Most heart warming, were family snaps, I had never seen. This, my favourite, is of Franze with her girls.
I stood in the hallway overwhelmed, as my father’s stories coursed through my mind, competing for attention. Seeing a door to a toilet, off the hallway, I wondered if this was the location of the Levy’s one-and-only toilet.
Dad said, when the family returned home after outings, one of them would shout ‘bags I the toilet first’. I remembered how Henner was born in his grandmother’s bed, in the floor above in Marianne’s apartment; and how he and Gerhard made fun of Franze’s guests from Berlin, as they arrived in high fashion and furs.
The second floor, now, is divided into individual en-suite bedrooms, so it’s impossible to work out the original layout. I had worked for MIND, the National Institute for Mental Health, who had pioneered half-way houses, but never seen one as lovely as this, especially with the luxury of en-suite bedrooms.
The first floor includes the communal spaces, so it is still possible to imagine Franze’s rooms, even though walls have been knocked down.
The post is a good indicator of a removed wall, and it was possible to work out where Franze’s sitting circle had been. I imagine this is where many discussions took place, amongst her salon set.
It was easier to see where the music room had been, as the structure remained unaltered.
Next to this room is still the kitchen, where some residents had baked cakes for the occasion of this visit. One was like the crumbly cake Henner made, and was obviously still part of local tradition.
Reinhard Strecker, head of Horizons, led the welcome party A local historian, Eberhard Heinze, who had written a booklet about the family and house, was also present. Kirsten Hoppe, herself an artist, ran art therapy for the residents, and made copies of the photographs to take away. I was curious about how the house had obtained the photographs of Franze’s apartment. A woman had handed them into the house, shortly after its opening. Kirsten found the woman’s name and phone number, and I anticipated calling her, after returning home.
On getting back to the UK, it felt like Pandora’s box had been opened. I experienced an intensity of feeling, and thoughts, as never before. Writing helped, but I realised I needed to take action to move forward. With this in mind, I wrote to the mayor of Altenburg.
To be continued in two weeks, on Sunday April 17th…..when correspondence with the mayor leads to a plan……
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/laurelevy3O
So powerful, so overwhelming...reading it and being allowed into their story is a privilege and an honour.
I cannot start to imagine the mixed emotions you felt when entering the apartment. Lives led with integrity, compassion , laughter & sadness, terminated in a heartbeat. Thank goodness you are the product of this amazing family to inform this world of the atrocities of that time. Has humanity taken heed ? Sadly, I think not.