Gerda Kümmel mit Ilona Kümmel - Kette der Menschlichkeit
From Gerd Abeldt:
National Socialism in Germany came to an end in 1945. Over 80 years ago. War, extermination camps, murder and manslaughter, expropriation, expulsion, and denunciation of people have since then become an irrevocable part of German history. A people in racial frenzy. The neighbor quickly becomes a leper, the friend a state enemy.
All over? The vast majority of the perpetrators have been tried or have since died. And there are only very, very few victims left who survived concentration camps and persecution, who could directly report on their fate.
… But for the descendants who have grown up in peace, democracy, and the rule of law, the question remains as urgent as ever: “How could it come to this?" How could something so unfathomable happen? Why did no one resist?
It will not become easier to find explanations without the cautionary voices of eyewitnesses. Gerda Kümmel's autobiographical family novel does not provide a definitive answer but closes an important gap. It raises awareness of the arrogance of stupidity and violence, of exclusion and dehumanization, of abuse of power by those in authority under the guise of supposed rights and bent laws.
… The strength of the narrative lies in its closeness to the protagonists, the father, the mother, the brother, the work colleague at the shipyard, the Jewish employer, the fugitive lover, and so on. The path to catastrophe leads through well-known sites in the city of Wilhelmshaven and the neighboring district of Friesland. It is precisely the familiarity of the local environment and the many, partly recognizable characters that creates an atmosphere of closeness, which admonishes not to push the horrors of the past into the realm of forgetfulness.
Especially at a time when autocratic forces are shaking our worldview and far-right extremist ideologies threaten to become socially acceptable again, this sensitization is immensely important. The question “How could this happen?” has long since become the mandate: “Such a thing must never happen again!”
… The resistance of the “Chain of Humanity,” which has hardly been appreciated in local historical consideration until now, shows that there were also upright individuals during the Nazi dictatorship who were willing to stand up for their moral beliefs by helping people threatened with death and bodily harm to escape. Uncompromisingly. Without regard for danger to their own existence.
Gerda Kümmel honors this inconceivable courage for civil courage in her novel, the core of all humanity. And inevitably, she confronts her readership with the question: “How would I have acted then?” This paves the way for the unspoken appeal: “Act humanely, today and tomorrow!”
FROM THE FOREWORD:
It is a Wilhelmshaven family story that could not be more closely linked to the fate of the city. The historical rise of the city envelops the people who have come there with hopes for a better life. The better life and the obligation to work towards it characterize the people. All, whether workers or civil servants, whether soldiers or employees, whether women or men, shape this city through their actions, their lives, and their constantly growing identification, solidarity, as well as the disappointments and also love.
That many dramatic family stories reflect in the ever-repeating historical rise and fall of a city is probably self-evident.
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
