Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>>JOHN GODFREY: Good evening. My name is John Godfrey, and I'm the Dean for International
Education at the Rackham School of Graduate Studies. I'm pleased to welcome you to Rackham
Auditorium in this October eve. On behalf of the members of the Wallenberg Committee
I would like to open the 14th Annual Wallenberg Lecture of the University of Michigan.
This evening we are delighted to honor Heinz Drossel, who has travelled from his home in
Simonswald, Germany with his daughter Reuth to receive the Wallenberg Medal, and to speak
with us about his experiences. We also gathered this evening to honor the memory of Raoul
Wallenberg, a graduate of this University for whom this event is named. I would like
to take a few minutes to talk with you about Raoul Wallenberg, and to remind of who he
was and how he is connected to this place. Raoul Wallenberg was born into an accomplished
and socially prominent Swedish family of bankers, diplomats, and politicians. In the 1920s,
his youth unfolded within a world of wealth and privilege, in a corner of Europe that
had escaped the devastation of World War I. Raoul's interest, even as a young man lay
beyond the comfortable circle of Stockholm's elite, and pointed him outward toward the
wider world. His family fostered in him honesty, compassion, and regard for others, and imbued
in him an interest in the wider world, and a commitment to purposeful activity.
His family was determined not to spoil him. They raised him in an environment of books
and learning, and fed his acute and curious intellect. They gave him a boyhood that prepared
him for life beyond the cozy salons and idyllic summerhouses of Sweden's grand society.
Those around him recognized that Raoul possessed an unusual independence of spirit, a calm
and resolute self confidence, and a deep interest in the world and its people. In 1931, already
proficient in German, French, Russian, and English, as well as Swedish, Raoul arrived
in Ann Arbor to take up study, the study of architecture at this university.
Why Michigan? Why did he choose this place over the great universities of Europe? Because,
on the advice of his grandfather, who had been a leading Swedish diplomat, Wallenberg
saw that a great public university, in the heart of North America, could open to him
the world and its enormous diversity. Here in Ann Arbor, unencumbered by the reputation
of his distinguished family, he was taken as an ordinary student. He quickly made many
friends who admired his modesty, his intelligence and his aptitude for finding practical solutions
to seemingly complex problems. Wallenberg's education also took him beyond
this campus. He spent his vacation, his many vacations three and a half years he was here,
he didn't go home hitchhiking across North America, and he traveled as far as Mexico.
He journeyed amid the dislocations of the great depression as people gave up home and
farm in search of work, and traveled with him. But it was here at Michigan, and on this
vacation travels that he deepened his insight into human needs and motivations. It was in
this place, and through these travels that he discovered his skills as someone who could
nimbly cross the borders of language, social class, culture and experience.
Yet it was through these experiences that Wallenberg voiced a clear headed recognition
of the hard limits to the openness that he saw in the world. In one of the papers he
wrote as a student he noted that "the open mindedness of humanity, even in our generation
is a myth. Maybe the individual is open minded on one question, but on this question he generally
belongs to the minority, in most other things he generally is extremely reactionary."
The Europe to which Wallenberg returned after leaving Ann Arbor confirmed his insight. In
a continent beset by growing danger, he entered into business with a partner who is a Hungarian
Jew. Wallenberg made frequent trips to Budapest during the 1930s, where with his characteristic
skill with languages he learned Hungarian. But the outbreak of World War II interrupted
his business. In 1944, his life took a new turn when his
government accorded Wallenberg the protected status of a diplomat. He was sent as the emissary
of a neutral country, and he embarked on an extraordinary final journey, with turning
to Budapest to try to save one of the few remaining pockets of surviving Jews in Europe.
Wallenberg threw himself into his desperate mission with characteristic determination
and ingenuity. With a cool eyed fearlessness, and by force of persuasion personality and
well-chosen moments of intimidation, Wallenberg developed an operation built on artifice and
nerve to achieve the impossible. He recruited a band of Jewish volunteers, told them to
remove the yellow star that marked them for death, and placed them under his diplomatic
protection to shield them from arrest. He designed official looking documents that extended
Sweden's protection to the bearer, and had his accomplices distribute these throughout
Nazi occupied Budapest to Jews awaiting deportation. Wallenberg sheltered thousands in buildings
that he rented and declared to be under the diplomatic authority in protection of the
Swedish government. Through his ingenuity and audacity Wallenberg saved the lives of
at least 20,000 persons. In the last days of the German occupation he confronted the
Nazi commandant who was poised to liquidate the Budapest ghetto and saved another 70,000
lives. But terribly within days of the arrival of
the Russian army in Budapest Soviet agents abducted Raoul Wallenberg, and he disappeared
into the Gulag of Joseph Stalin. The journey he had set for himself out into the world
ended in enigma and darkness. Tonight is the 14 occasion for us to remember and to celebrate
Raoul Wallenberg's uncommon courage and humanity. Previous recipients of the Wallenberg Medal
remind us how valor and dedication to these values find expression in people from all
walks of life who face extraordinary challenges. Past recipients of this medal include Elie
Wiesel, the Dalai Lama, Jan Karski, a Polish military officer who brought the first word
of the Holocaust of the allies. Miep Gies who hid the family of Anne Frank in Amsterdam,
Helen Suzman, an anti apartheid activist from South Africa and John Lewis, a congressman
from Georgia who organized the March on Washington back in 1963. Last year we welcomed here Bill
Basch, who survived the war in Budapest thanks to the intrepid activities of Raoul Wallenberg
himself. From the stories of these remarkable individuals
we are reminded how difficult and important the struggles are for freedom, human dignity,
social justice and peace, and how fragile is, in Wallenberg's words, "The open mindedness
of humanity." I am pleased to introduce to you, Paul Courant
to start this evening. Paul Courant is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic
Affairs at the University of Michigan. Provost Courant will introduce to you Heinz Drossel,
our honored guest and present the Wallenberg Medal.
[APPLAUSE]
>>PAUL COURANT: Thank you, John. It is a privilege
to be with you all this evening, and join you and conferring the Raoul Wallenberg Medal
on Heinz Drossel. I must say it is really one of the happy accidents of my life that
I have this privilege, for Wallenberg has been a hero of mine since before I can remember,
and here I get to hand out a medal in his name.
This evening ceremony is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the courageous lives
of Mr. Wallenberg, and the individuals, now numbering 14, who've received the medal named
in his honor. His work against the Nazis and their allies, to assist Jews has just been
discussed in detail by John, so I won't go into it.
The University of Michigan is proud of its connection to Raoul Wallenberg. He was a 1935
graduate in the architecture program. I am fortunate to have my faculty office in the
building now called Lorch Hall, for many called Old Architecture, for many before that called
Architecture, in which he studied, and which has a plaque in his honor.
We are grateful tonight for the opportunity to recognize the courage and commitment to
human dignity that he represented. I am deeply honored to introduce this year's Wallenberg
medal recipient Heinz Drossel. Mr. Drossel is a remarkable man. He has lived by, and
acted upon his convictions throughout his life, fully understanding the risks he took
in doing so, yet persevering in what he believed was right.
I suspect, indeed I am confident that Mr. Drossel learned the importance of principle,
beliefs and actions from his parents Paul and Alfreida Drossel, individuals who also
lived courageously. This family living in Germany during the Nazi era demonstrated the
difference individual actions can make in the world.
Heinz Drossel's life is rich with examples of simple actions that have had a profound
impact on others. Trained as a lawyer in 1930s Germany, he refused on principles during the
Nazi party because he abhorred ideas. He was immediately drafted into the German army.
Here, too, he acted upon his belief in the fundamental value of all human life. His refusal
to order the execution of a captured Russian is but one example of his principle behavior
in the midst of the chaos of inhumanity and war. There are many others. It's a story of
generosity, coupled with that of his parents that I want to recount briefly here.
It's known to some of you, but well worth hearing again. In 1945 the Drossel family
offered lifesaving protection to Jack and Lucie Hass, their daughter Margot, and her
fiancé, Ernst Fontheim. They stored the Hass family's belongings and provided immediate
shelter, and food for the family. Jews in fear for their lives, as their identity
had been discovered and reported to the German authorities. The Drossels risked severe punishment
if their assistance was uncovered, but they believed that the Nazis were wrong, and that
the brutal persecution, and *** of Jews must stop. They did what it is in their power
to do, and they saved the lives of the Hass Fontheim family. That Margot and Ernst Fontheim
would eventually settle in Ann Arbor, and be part of the University of Michigan community
was, of course, unknown in 1945. Heinz Drossel and his parents acted on the
belief that each human life has meaning, that each individual has a contribution to make
to the world. We can appreciate through the Fontheims, the importance of that belief.
Mr. Drossel, we thank you, and we honor you for living a life, that values are shared
humanity and that demonstrates for all of us, how important individual actions can be.
It is my great privilege to confer upon you, the Raoul Wallenberg Medal.
[APPLAUSE]
>>HEINZ DROSSEL: Ladies and Gentleman, I feel
deeply moved about the great honor you have shown to me. I thank you, dear Mr. Godfrey,
and all the members of the University Wallenberg executive committee to present the Raoul Wallenberg
Medal to me, in memory of one of the greatest rescuers, whose mission ended so tragically.
Hearing about the destiny of Raoul Wallenberg shortly after World War II, I felt a deep
harmony with this great man. The feeling some time ago when I could hold Margot's and Ernst's
daughter, Eve, in my arms long time after World War II, and who as well as her brother
and his children, probably never had been born, makes me overjoyed.
I also feel a strong desire to express my thankfulness for my mother, my dad, and my
grandfather. Each of them has been a shining example for a life of dignity of men. Not
only by talking about, but also by acting, even when they had to make sacrifices and
disappointments. In this spirit, the word of my dad in his
address to me, in the evening of my first holy communion is to understand, "Be ever
a human being in your life, my boy, also when times are bad, even if you have to make sacrifices."
This word became my guide of life when I was 13, and I hope I have been successful in fulfilling
the wish of my dad. The problem of Anti Semitism in Germany has an early history. Unfortunately,
the followers of that idea, that odious idea, have a relative great basis in Germany. But
this is an analysis, it's not my turn. It is a subject for an historian. My point of
view, there's a certain danger also today. My experience is, a dictatorship must be prevented.
To eliminate them, having also the power in their hands, is quite impossible.
Ladies and gentleman, it is very difficult to imagine a life in a dictatorship for everybody
who never has experienced a dictatorship. You are able to live, and also to over life,
it's possible, but you have to pay a high price. You have to sell yourself completely,
your mind, your character, your belief, your soul, and perhaps most important, your personal
freedom. I'm sorry many of the German people at that
time have sold themselves, although they could know what would happen. Shortly before the
last free election in 1932 I asked my father, "Dad, which is the right party out of 36 parties"?
His answer was, "Go to their meetings, the marching ups, read the papers, inform yourself,
my boy." I did so. When hearing the refrain of one of their songs
in the Nazi meeting, "And we shall go on marching until the Jews' blood splashes from our knives."
My decision against this party was clear. Besides, I have read Hitler's Mein Kampf,
"My Fight," carefully, and was absolutely convinced that at the end of the rule of the
National Socialists would be war. As a result I have been an opponent, yes, an enemy of
this government already on January 13th, 1933 the day of the taking over of the power by
the National Socialists. Exactly 10 days after January 13th, I woke up about four o'clock
in the morning because of noise in the backyard of the house. I looked out, and saw two SA
men. Let me explain some terms, SA and SS men, are the members of the Nazi storm troops
uniformed and trained in arms, Gestapo, the Direct Secret Service.
I saw two SA men dragging along young man, rumor in the house behind them, beating the
young man with heavy sticks. They disappeared behind the front door. Two days later the
father of this young man didn't come back from his job. Both of them have never been
seen again from this day on. 10 days after the 13th of January people disappeared over
and over again, forever. Most people did not care for their vanish. The time of concentration
camps had begun. Neighbors remained silent or looked away. The further development of
dictatorship went very quickly. My father had opened a lingerie shop after World War
I, a family business I had in my free time. One morning a female customer entered the
shop, I myself was present. She was in tears, and said to my dad, "Mr. Drossel, yesterday
evening my husband didn't come home from his job." Dad calmed her down saying to her, "Be
here tomorrow, madam, if he isn't home." In the afternoon my father asked in all neighboring
hospitals, nothing. Early next morning she waited already before the shop was opened,
"My husband isn't home." I was present again. To tell the truth I had waited for her. I
said spontaneously, "Be quiet, madam, I will try to trace him." I went to the Central Berlin
Police Center at the Alexander Square. No result.
After leaving the office I went down a corridor, when the office employee and the policemen
I had spoken with passed me whispering, "Go to the second floor, if you are courageous,
but don't betray me." I did so and stood before a wall of steel bars, a name plate told me
"Gestapo Berlin." Instantly, I rang the bell, an SS man led me into an office. Some minutes
later a Gestapo officer came in, gave no attention to me. Suddenly, he asked, "Is the man who
you're looking for a subversive"? Without waiting for an answer he dazzled me by a very
strong light for perhaps half an hour. No word was changed between us. Finally the officer
said to me, "You can go now, but you never return here. It might be you wouldn't come
out." In the evening, ladies and gentlemen, the
husband of the lady was home. When we saw first time again he said to me, "Heinz, I
thank you." We have not been far away from another that morning. Some weeks later I told
a faithful friend of mine the story. He replied that some weeks ago he himself had been brought
from the same room directly into the cellar of the Berlin Police Center, the most cruel
torture cellar in Berlin. He opens his shirt, and I saw his breast studded with scars that
the Gestapo men had stopped out their burning cigarettes during the interrogation.
From 1936 to 1938 I studied Jurisprudence at the Berlin University. With great preservation
for this department was known as the most brown in Germany. Every student had to take
part in a six week camp for Political Education. In these camps students were tuned up to good
National Socialists. That meant political education, and military training in the spirit
of the SS. I myself and some others bought illegal certificate that we had taken part.
The whole atmosphere was brown, but never the less we had a professor, Professor [indecipherable
28:57]. His subject was Adolf Hitler in the International Caricature with slides. This
lecturer had to be transferred to the Auditorium Maximum, the greatest lecture room in the
university. Remember the sister Scholl, "The White Rose."
There was some resistance, but only sporadic. In addition to Jurisprudence I studied Russian
language, don't ask me why. [LIGHT LAUGHTER]
On November 9th 1938, I think the events of this day are known as "Reichskristallnacht."
My professor changed the subject of the day saying, "Today we will speak about arson."
A crime they're just training outside, there were people with courage. An attempt of mine
to immigrate failed in 1938. My studies ended on November 27th, 1939, with an attribute.
Next morning I met with a friendly reception by the presiding judge. He said, "Mr. Drossel,
is everything alright with you? We'll exempt you from military service till today, and
tomorrow you will hear at which court you will start as junior lawyer." Then, seeing
a little stick on my file he continued, "By the way, in which national organization are
you"? I replied, "Sorry, Sir, in no one." After this answer, he pushed my file away
saying, "Refused." Next morning I got my draft, and on next Monday
I marched into the next barracks instead of junior lawyer into my court, and this meant
a decision for my life. First I had to take part in war at once, and second, in the case
Hitler would have won the war, I had a ban on pursuing my career for the rest of my life.
After short training I took part in the campaign "Towards France." When crossing the French
border I made a vow, "Never to kill a human being." I am very, very grateful that I could
keep my promise up to date, several times on the risk of my own life.
On June 22nd, 1941, the war of aggression towards Russia began. My company leader had
shown me, I had been couriered. "The order for the attack," and I read the sentence,
"No prisoners are to be made." In the first battle I refused this order, and helped some
Russian soldiers to escape. My company leader ignored my action.
On July 9th, 1941, we had a long stop on the march after we had passed a little Latvian
town [indecipherable 33:55]. I made, with permission of my officer a little wall, and
came to a little hill surrounded by dense wood. Suddenly, a German soldier stood just
before me staring into a small valley below him. I also looked down, and saw on the ground
of the valley, a mass grave filled with dead men, around the grave, kneeling, Jewish men,
behind them German soldiers. Just below me stood a boy, perhaps six year
old, reaching for the man beside him, perhaps his father. The soldier behind him gave him
a shot in the neck, and kicked the child into the grave down to his [indecipherable 35:23]
fellow believers. In this moment the soldier before me heads his machine gun on my breast
crying, "What are you doing here? Beat it and shut up." When I came weeping back to
my comrades, one of them asked me, "Is it true what we are believing?" I only could
nod my head. "Then we are really soldiers of a killer."
Six days later we came into heavy fights. After some minutes two of our men came from
the front leading a Russian prisoner with them. I saw at once that was the Russian Commissioner.
My company leader looked around and said to me, "Bring him to the battalion." I knew that
this order meant a sentence to death. The so called commission order, signed by Hitler
himself, reads as follows, "Every captured commissioner has to be brought to the next
higher commander, there to be examined and afterwards instantly to be shot dead."
I took him with me. Let him go before me, hands up. In the first moment we couldn't
be observed I ordered him to go into a small path in the woods, and now I knew why I had
learned Russian language. No deaths. I am not a killer. I am a human being. Then I showed
him the way back to the Russian side of the front saying, "Run away." [RUSSIAN], that
means "Peace with you," but he didn't run immediately, and he came nearer to me, gave
me his hand replying, " [RUSSIAN]." "I thank you, peace with you, too." After these words
he ran away. This was one of my happy hours in that terrible war.
I have never been inquired about the commissioner, and after the advance we reached the village
[indecipherable 38:51] between Moscow and Leningrad. Here we should stay over the winter.
Some weeks later, after our arrival, our battalion with 360 men was surrounded by great number
of Russian units. Three inquiries of my battalion commander to breakthrough backwards were refused
by Hitler's headquarter. Then our commander ordered a breakthrough at his own risk. Unfortunately,
it was too late. On January 13th, 1942, early in the morning
we tried to breakthrough. We had 47 degree Celsius below. 16 men including my commander
and myself, we had been the last to go, came out of the pocket. 344 remained dead in a
small valley. As I was knowing the secret path backwards,
I got the order to lead these 16 men back to our back path unit. I brought them through
safely. Next morning I was called to my commander. He informed me that he had proposed me for
officer without my consent. Three hours later I had to leave my unit. The whole army with
80,000 soldiers, German soldiers had been encircled. I left the [indecipherable 41:15]
with the last plane. At the end of May, 1942, I was appointed officer
and promoted lieutenant. I never had wanted to become officer, but now being one I quickly
learned that it was much easier to help people, in many cases in consequence of the Old Prussian
principle, "Order is order." Back at the front I was transferred to a staff of an infantry
battalion. In the last days of October, 1942 I got my first vacation as officer to Berlin.
Before leaving I had to sign an order which just had come from Berlin headquarters.
The order ended with the following words, "Every connection between an officer and the
member of the Jewish race is forbidden. Otherwise he has to be disgraceful, dismissed from the
army." This ended in most cases in a concentration camp. I undersigned. On the last day of my
vacation I made a walk to Old Berlin. I loved it, then still existing. On my way back to
our Tempelhof apartment I had to cross a bridge over a river spread. I choose a so called
[indecipherable 43:40], old made bridge, the last drawbridge in Berlin.
On the bridge a person stood restless at the railing, when seeing my uniform she got into
a panic, and tried to jump into the water. I just could seize her. Seeing her excited
eyes, I asked instinctively, "Are you Jewish?" She collapsed. I could calm her down and brought
her to our Tempelhof apartment. Next morning I took off all my bank balance
that were 6,000 mark, and gave it to her. With this money she found another illegal
quarters. She survived with her six-year-old boy. In the evening I had to return to the
front. This was my answer to the order from Berlin headquarters. I was content with myself.
Two very hard years of war followed, from [indecipherable 45:18] 1941 in January, we
only marched westward. But I have no intentions to tell you war stories. In January 1945,
I was in Berlin again. After my fourth wound, I stayed there with my parents in their little
house in the Berlin, village near Berlin, the village Senzig.
Nearly every evening we got the visit of four persons, a married couple, her daughter, they
called themselves Hasses, and a young man to hear the news of British broadcasting company,
together from the Nazi regime forbidden on penalty of death and thousands of Germans
had been killed because of this crime. My last day home, the four persons were present,
the [indecipherable 46:36] asked me to come with them, and they started home. They lived
in the primitive broken old summer house, perhaps 150 yards away from my parents' house.
Just indoor he said to me, "We are Jewish people living illegally here. I've heard this
morning that we've been betrayed. The Gestapo can be here every moment. We don't know what
to do? Can you help us in some way?" After informing my parents I gave them the
keys of our Tempelhof apartment, some instructions about the way, how to behave in Tempelhof.
Besides, I gave the man a pistol with ammunition, and showed them briefly how to handle it,
shortly after they left in direction to Berlin. They arrived safely at the apartment in Tempelhof.
The reaction of my parents, my father only said, "Heinz, have you already a plan?"
My mum said to me, "Heinz, I don't know how to live without you, but do what you have
to do." I myself observed the house in Senzig. About one hour later two men, typically dressed
for a Gestapo men came, searched the house, and left it perhaps one hour later.
Then, I felt it would be high time to disappear myself. I made a short a short visit to Hasses
in Tempelhof, found everything OK, and started again to the front. The young men stayed in
Tempelhof until the end of the war, and the two women and the elder men soon found another
illegal possibility. All of them survived. Back at the front I got immediately the order
to fight again against advancing Russian troops together with 80 men of my unit.
On May 4th, 1945, that means four days before the German capitulation, an SS officer gave
me the order to go with my 80 men on a suicide mission. I refused the order. Then he threatens,
he lets his men shoot at us. I ordered my men to open fire against the SS. My men obeyed.
But shortly after, I gave up, for the SS was armed with most modern weapons, and my men
only had some old guns. I was taken to court and sentenced to death
by order of a Court Marshall, but the verdict could not be executed, because meanwhile Russian
troops had taken the village. This way I had been saved from execution and simultaneously
taken prisoner of war. The Russian troops released me in August 1945. I soon contacted
my friends who had bought an apartment in Tempelhof not far away from the shop of my
father, whose shop had been closed for political reasons. I often visited them.
One evening at the end of 1945, I entered the living room of the then family Hass, and
who was standing before me? The woman of the old main bridge. She had survived with her,
then, 10 year old son. We embraced at once, and married on my day of destiny, on May 4th,
1946. The family Hass became the witnesses of our marriage. My wife has survived the
Shoa, and we still had 35 good years together. She passed away in 1981.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you ask, "Why did you as you did"? I thought it over ever and
ever again, and I think there are three reasons. There were shining examples in my own family
for dignity of man, a strong human spirit and a good faith. Finally, I myself was not
ready to live in an inhuman dictatorship and therefore I had decided, in the case of a
German victory to die myself. If you ask, "Why did so many look away?" I
believe I can say, in most cases, there had been fear to lose their career, or not to be promoted
at the first opportunity. Only two hours, I saw the movie Der Untergang. I had feared
that Hitler would be shown as a pity worthy old man, but that was not the case. I think
a very good actor has shown him correctly. Remarkable for me, the officers around him
remained good Nazis. They went out with this fascist greet "Heil mein Fuhrer!" only hours
before the end of the Fuhrer. Their hypocrisy, their submissive cowardice, I am convinced
that this description was true. There were exceptions, also among the officers, but those
officers long been before, had been eliminated. The house of cinema was full, the auditorium
predominating young people. When the movie was over, there were groups in the street
discussing the movie, the time of National Socialism, and many of them went home very
thoughtfully. It's the same impression during my speeches. Since the year 2000, I had begun
to speak about the time of National Socialism in schools, before people, communities.
I think there is hope, but that's a very, very great task. Look around. Children are
weeping for hunger in the world, for abuse, for child labor, and worst of all, children
being trained for war. This thing of dignity of man, not only far away, ladies and gentlemen,
but all over the world, in this case, it's for each of us to act. I do appreciate the
efforts of many young Germans today, to work against hate and inhumanity. I believe this
is a good way for international understanding. I, myself, had an American pen friend here
in the United States, when I was 13. I still have contact with the brother of my then girlfriend,
in spite of war and National Socialism. Youth must be brought to youth. Each of us must
be engaged in this task, women and men. It is still a little flame burning.
We need many more women and men like Raoul Wallenberg. The hope that time will come that
everybody will realize that peace will be the greatest chance for each of themselves.
I'm aware that this is still a dream, but without dreams, there will be no promise in
the world. Humanity is the way to peace. I thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
>>JOHN: I think we have time for perhaps a
very few questions and answers. I'd like Ernst Fontheim, Emeritus Faculty from the Department
of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences to join us on stage, to help his lifelong,
his good friend, Heinz Drossel, to answer these questions. Ernst, can you come up?
[APPLAUSE]
Do we have a microphone in the audience? I
am not sure if we do. We don't. If anyone has a question for Mr. Drossel or for Professor
Fontheim, you may ask it, and I'll repeat it so we can all hear it. Yes.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER 1: During the war, Mr. Drossel, did you ever meet any other soldiers or officers
in your army who went out of their way to save Russians or Jewish?
[WHISPERING]
>>HEINZ: No I didn't make this experience.
There were some, only very little part of the German officers. We had thousands of officers
in the German army, but the numbers of known officers who tried to help or save the victims,
who were persecuted, have been very little. Among the thousands of German officers, 10,000
of them there are known, perhaps, 100 acting in this direction. I think some of them wanted
to help, but, how I said, the "order is order" hindered them to do that. I am convinced up
today, my company leader, when I saved Russian soldiers, and when I let go the Russian commissioner
wanted... >>ERNST FONTHEIM: [WHISPERING] Commissar. Not commissioner.
>>HEINZ:...Russian Commissar. I'm convinced
he wanted to do something. I saw him when the prisoners stood around him... [GERMAN]
>>ERNST: Shaking. >>JOHN: Trembling.
>>HEINZ: ...trembling. He hadn't the courage to stay to his character. I think in the case
of the commissar, he chose me to act instead of him. But we were only little in number.
>>JOHN: I think we can take one more question, if anyone has a question. Yes, I can. Please.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: I wonder [inaudible 01:06:00] Nazi regime is being portrayed in German schools
[WHISPERING]
>>JOHN: The question is how the Nazi regime is being portrayed in German public schools
today? [CONSULTING IN GERMAN]
>>ERNST: Silence. >>HEINZ: In the last 50 years, between the
end of the war and perhaps 1990, there was silence, let me say, total silence about every
question, about Holocaust, about cruelties and the [indecipherable 01:07:12], the military
services. In the beginning of the last years of the
last century, 1990 perhaps, they began to teach about this cruel time, but only sporadic,
and in a very short way. Today it has been better, but it is still too small, too little.
Still today many German pupils, students, didn't know anything about that cruel time.
Is your question answered? That depends very strongly on the teachers,
and I've spoken, meanwhile, before more than 5,000 students at high schools. I've found
a great interest among the young men and women to hear about those things. I ever and ever
again become letters, emails asking me more about this time.
[WHISPERING]
>>JOHN: There is a question here.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER 3: Did you ever meet the Commissar again?
[WHISPERING] >>JOHN: The question is, whether he
ever met the Commissar again? >>HEINZ: He was. He disappeared forever for
me. [LAUGHTER]
[WHISPERING]
>>JOHN: I'd like to thank you, and thank
Mr. Drossel for sharing his story and thoughts of his this evening. I'm pleased to chair
a truly dynamic and dedicated group of individuals, the Wallenberg Committee which has provided
the energy and the organizational imagination to make this annual event one of the most
important of the University's calendar. One way to learn about Raoul Wallenberg and
his Michigan experience and to learn about other recipients of the Wallenberg Medal is
to read the book, Remembering Raoul Wallenberg. I believe we have it available for purchase
in the lobby this evening. I've been asked to read one announcement and
I'm pleased to do so. The University of Michigan's conference in the Holocaust is going to hold
a Kristallnacht commemoration on Tuesday, November 9th, at 7 PM in the League's Vandenberg
room. The event will comprise a panel of scholars who will discuss the topic of state sanctioned
violation of human rights, and the entire University of Michigan and Ann Arbor Community
is welcome to attend. Thank you very much, and I invite you to please
join us in the lobby for our reception and honor of Mr. Drossel. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]