Keeping Alive the Memories
As we approach the tenth anniversary and the final notes of the 9/11 bagpipes at ground zero fade from our ears, I write of another memorial, thousands of miles and many more years away…another reminder of how, out of tragedy, we may keep alive the memories of those taken from us and the vows we make as we look back.
I had been searching for a way to remember three tragic victims of The Holocaust. Then an incredible message arrived from Germany. Was I related to the Kerz Family? My heart skipped a beat; my plea was answered by a young woman, Petra Frische whose work with The Stumblestones Group revealed a long history of investigation for the relatives of a lost generation.
Within several months, I learned about the organization, and the Artist Gunter Demnig. Their personal quest was to inform the German people about their Jewish neighbors and members of the Nazi resistance, who perished in concentration camps.
In August, weakened with emotion, I stood in front of a building to bid farewell to a family I never knew. Here are my thoughts of that day.
I flew from New York with my two sons Jonathan and Antony to attend a special ceremony…to honor the parents and sister of my first husband, Leo Kerz, who was a prominent stage designer on Broadway. He escaped the Nazi plague and fled to South Africa, but some of the family perished at Sobibor, a concentration camp in Poland…together with thousands of other Jews.
I was contacted by Petra Fritsche who represented a grassroots organization in Germany called “The Stumblingstones Group.” We exchanged e-mails and the Kerz family historical information. Finally a date was set for the dedication of three memorial stones to be placed in front of the last Kerz residence in Germany. It was an upscale neighborhood in Berlin, with beautifully restored apartment buildings on a tree lined street with garden court yards… similar to the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
A talented artist named Gunter Demnig created brass plates which were embedded in the sidewalk and documented the names of persecuted victims of the Nazi era. These were among the 24,000 stones he installed throughout Germany since 1993.
Dressed in worker’s clothes and pads around his knees, the artist delicately embedded three shiny plates in the sidewalk by hand… memorializing the long forgotten neighbors of Stierstrasse. The permanent markers had the following information:
Here lived Charlotte Kerz Born 1914 Fled 1934 Holland Deported 25.5.1943 Sobibor Murdered 28.5.1943
Here lived Nechuma Kerz Born Spira 1891 Fled 1934 Holland Deported 25.5.1943 Sobibor Murdered 28.5.1943
Here lived Nathan Kerz Born 1886 Fled 1934 Holland Tot 16.1.43 4
The ceremony attracted over 50 people. Members of the organization, neighbors of all ages, including a Social Democratic parliamentarian, and the renowned German playwright Rolf Hochhuth.
Leo Kerz had designed the Berlin world premiere of Hochhuth’s play “The Deputy” in 1963. The drama questioned Pope Pius’ silence during the Holocaust, and was a fine example of the German director Erwin Piscator’s documentary theatre. Very few plays broached the subject, and it created a resounding moment in world theatre.
As Leo’s wife, I was a young witness to the rehearsals, legal battles and the opening night performance. Despite ongoing protests and police barricades placed outside of the theatre, Mayor Willy Brandt assured Piscator that the controversial play would open. It was an unexpected and fitting surprise that Hochhuth the 80 year author was in the street with everyone else at the Kerz memorial event.
The ceremony at #4 Steirstrasse opened with a Brecht/Eisler song played on a lone trumpet…a welcome by Petra Fritsche followed by a spokes person for the group Sigrun Marks, about the artist Gunter Demnig from Cologne, and how memorial stones themselves are a visual appeal to the German’s responsibility that “Never Again” would such barbarous crimes be committed.
A history of the Kerz Family was read: Nathan, a successful fashion designer and manufacturer with over 30 employees conducted a very large business. A sister Charlotte whose dream to become a pianist, was doomed by Nazi edicts.
The family fled to Holland where Nathan died. Nechruma and Charlotte died several months later at Sobibor concentration camp. Leo the only surviving member of the family fled to South Africa. He married twice, once to a famous German Jewish athlete, Martel Jacob. Years later, he had two children Paul and Leonora with his second wife Rosa Resi Kerz. He designed sets in the “Pioneer Theater” of Johannesburg until 1941 when the family immigrated to New York City. His mentor from Berlin, Erwin Piscator and The New School for Social Research launched his career in America. Eventually he designed for Broadway, opera, film and television.
Leo and I met in 1961 when he produced the legendary play by Ionesco, “Rhinoceros,” on Broadway. I became his assistant; we later married and had two sons Jonathan and Antony. When he died in 1976, the New York Times art critic John Russell wrote in his obit…”he was one of the last links of the golden age of German Theatre that is associated with Reinhardt and Piscator.”
My remarks at the event were very difficult for me to express… “I read The Kerz family letters from Holland that described their arduous wait for visas to leave the country. They waited in vain for documents that never arrived; it was like a death sentence. Leo lived in anguish for the rest of his life. Yes, he had a successful career in the arts, but he was a depressed man haunted by his family’s experience and his inability to help them escape.
Today we honor three people that, because of their ethnic background, were killed with millions of other civilians. The souls of those innocent victims will live on, so shall the Kerz Family with these permanent markers which display the horrors of war.
As an American of German/Austrian heritage and a Christian, I am emotionally touched by this effort by an artist and his supporters to keep the words “Never Again” in focus for new generations of Germans.”
With tears streaming down our faces, we ended the ceremony at # 4 Stiertsrasse. (c) 2010
Written exclusively for "The Soul of the American Actor" Printed with
the permission of the author. 2011
LOUISE KERZ HIRSCHFELD Al Hirschfeld, the most famous and respected caricaturist of the past century, left a treasure trove of art work that defined not only the theatre and film world, but also gave a personal and insightful view of the culture of a constantly evolving society. This treasure trove of inspired work is now entrusted to the loving care of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. Ms. Hirschfeld, as current President of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, has taken over the task of overseeing new exhibitions, (over a dozen since 2004), supervising publications, directing educational programs and spearheading philanthropic endeavors. One of the most exciting and rewarding ventures under the Foundation’s guidance, is the 2008 collaboration with the New York City Board of Education, to produce “The Al Hirschfeld Project,” a curriculum for teaching the arts in New York public schools. Most recently, Ms. Hirschfeld has organized “Hirschfeld on Shaw” for Canada’s “The Shaw Festival,” “Hirschfeld at The Metropolitan Opera – 2009,” and “Hirschfeld on Tennessee Williams,” a centenary exhibition in New Orleans in 2010. During her earlier career as a theatre historian, Louise Kerz Hirschfeld created exhibitions presenting the movie and Broadway legacy of the DeMille family, “The DeMille Dynasty”, a study of one hundred years of one family’s creativity. She also organized and created exhibits featuring individual European directors and designers who were exiles in America, such as Max Reinhardt and Leo Kerz. For twenty years, she has worked in television production as research consultant for major networks, museums and award winning producers. Ms. Hirschfeld has served as picture editor and essayist for several publications, including, “Hirschfeld On Line,” and “Hirschfeld’s British Aisles.” As a photographer, her works have been exhibited at New York’s Leica Gallery in 2002 and 2008. In 2003, in collaboration with her co-chair, Arthur Gelb of The New York Times, and producer Roccco Landesman, she was instrumental in securing the ultimate Broadway tribute for her late husband…the re-naming of the Martin Beck Theatre to The Al Hirschfeld Theatre. www.louisehirschfeld.com lhirschfeld@verizon.net.
