Monday, April 05, 2010
Subject: letter to Stuttgart,

Dear Dr. Schuster,   There  is an Inscription----From The French Republic:
In homage to the victims of racist and anti-Semitic persecution, and of
crimes against humanity committed under the defacto authority of the
so-called "government of the French state"  1940-1944.
                                              "Never Forget!"
This plaque has been installed, in the form of a statue, of parents and
their children at the site of  Vel'd'Hiv,'  the  site of the round-up of
Jews by the French police.  Instead of tearing down the site, it has become
a memorial to the Jews who were herded together, and sent to concentration
camps where they were killed. Certainly Stuttgart has more reason to
remember its citizens.
      My name is Hannah Sondheimer Fleeter. I was born in Stuttgart in 1929.
My Father, Martin Sondheimer, was a physician in Stuttgart from the 1920s
until our departure in 1938.  He was the private physician of the mayor of
Stuttgart. When Jewish doctors could no longer practice medicine, the mayor
sent his limousine in the middle of the night, to bring my Father to his
side.
      I attended the Evangelische  Toechter Institut.  The Sisters , the
teachers, and my fellow students were exceptionally good to me.  My biggest
fears were walking back and forth to school.  One never knew what would
happen.  My younger sister was not as lucky.  She had to attend Jewish
school.  On her walk to and from school, she was regularly beaten, and
abused.
     We were forced to move from our home, attached to my Father's office,
to a very small basement apartment.  My childhood memories are filled with
hearing the black boots above us.  They would stomp above us as we listened
in terror. We learned not to play outside as the Gestapo would kick and
abuse our beloved dolls and us.
     Why do I write to you?  I am pleading with the Stuttgart government not
to destroy the memories of a humanity that only asked to be part of
humanity.  The Stuttgart government was very kind to us much later in time.
My Mother (my Father had passed away by then) and I were invited by the
Stuttgart government, then under the leadership of Mayor Rommel, to spend
two weeks as their guests.
     We were treated like honored guests, entertained with music, taken on
excursions, enjoyed having guides and programs. The hospitality could not
have been kinder.  Since then, we have received every year an update of
Stuttgart's progress.  It is unfathomable to me that this same government
refuses to remember the tragedy that once occurred .
We can only redeem our sins by acknowledging that they occurred, not
by erasing them but by our future good deeds.  The Jews that were
rounded up and destroyed were part of the human race.  They must be
acknowledged and remembered in any way we can.  We can not have more
humanity by destroying the past, but by honoring those that sacrificed, for
a better world for future peoples.

      Sincerely,
Hannah Sondheimer Fleeter