Salzwedel

On Friday, the six of us took the train to Salzwedel, where my dad had lived with his mother, father and two brothers. Salzwedel is a hamlet of approximately 20,000 citizens located in the north of Germany, near Hamburg. Upon our arrival, the town archivest, Mr. Langusch, who had been corresponding with Gina, took us on a walking/dragging-our-luggage tour of the 750 year old city. It's easy to imagine that Salzwedel looks that same as it did 100 years ago: the streets and sidewalks are cobblestone, the building façades are old-fashioned and there are few cars to be seen. The clothes and shoes in the storefront windows seem to be throwbacks to the 70s. (OK, they're not 100 years old, but could be.)

Salzwedel is famous for its baumkuchen, a cake shaped like a tree (which I liked a lot). Our quaint, but newly-remodeled hotel is across the street from the Bachenheimers' last apartment/store (although the building had been demolished and replaced). At dinner in a local restaurant we lit shabbat candles, recited the blessing and said the kiddush over German wine.

The next morning we met a woman who had owned and run a bookstore across the street for over 50 years. She remembered playing with my dad and two uncles and also remembered seeing their store windows shattered and contents plundered the day after Kristallnacht. We then took a more comprehensive walking tour with Herr Kaiser (the vice-mayor) and his English/German speaking daughter, Pia, which included the actual apartment where my dad and his family had lived in the late 1920s and early 1930s.