Uncertainty

You are right. This blog is about the German physicist and Nobel Prize winner Werner Heisenberg, not his Uncertainty Principle, but his (?) bomb. Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project, 1939-1945: A Study in German Culture is the title of a 2002 book by Paul Lawrence Rose, whose concoction fills my bookshelf with other literature on the subject.

The German bomb has haunted me since I listened to a lecture series at Göttingen University in the winter of 56/57 on Atomtechnik, ihre Voraussetzungen und Folgen. 

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, a former assistant to Heisenberg and a former physics professor at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg, discussed atomic engineering, its prerequisites, and its consequences.

For a modest semester fee of 12 marks, the master himself lectured on Quantenmechanik mit Übungen (Quantum mechanics with exercises) at the University of Munich during the summer of 59. You had to come early at the start of the series to get a seat. Later, listeners of other faculties had satisfied their curiosity, especially since it was all mathematics, and Heisenberg was not a gifted speaker.


There are two extreme positions on the German atomic bomb:

According to Rose, "Heisenberg was a Nazi; otherwise, he would have joined other German physicists who went abroad following Hitler's takeover in 1933," as there were Hans Bethe, Max Born, Albert Einstein, Paul Peter Ewald, James Franck, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Walter Heitler, Heinrich Gerhard Kuhn, Karl Meissner, Lise Meitner, Rudolf Peierls, Fritz Reiche, Otto Stern, and many others. 

They were Hitler's Gift, as Jean Medawar & David Pyke called those scientists who fled Nazi Germany in their book. Hitler commented, "If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of German science, then we shall do without science for a few years."

What a brain drain! The exodus of German scientists was so great that by 1935, one-third of the members of the German Physical Society lived abroad.

Rose's subtitle, A Study in German Culture, spouts an irreconcilable hatred of Heisenberg and his German colleagues. He and other historians accuse Heisenberg of hypocrisy, untruthfulness, and incompetence in his field, for he had miscalculated the critical mass. In particular:

"Since Heisenberg did not know how to build a bomb, he could not have withheld that knowledge, and Heisenberg did not want Germany to lose the war. There is no evidence whatsoever that he pretended to support the war effort while secretly trying to undermine it."


The other, the German Lesart (interpretation), is presented by Heisenberg and seconded by von Weizsäcker, who writes, "While I do indeed think that we thought about the moral problem of atomic bombs very early on and that we did nothing during the war that we would have to reproach ourselves for today, I think that we as a nation and generally also as individuals have mastered the moral problem of National Socialism too little to get on our high horse now."

"The realization of our technical inability to produce atomic bombs in wartime has indeed spared us the real moral decision. How we would have behaved if we had really been able to make the bomb, I dare not say. I suspect we would have been at odds with ourselves as American physicists have become. That is why Heisenberg and I always chose the form of saying publicly that we could not make the bomb and that we were glad of it."

Already in 1956, Robert Jungk had forwarded the above narrative in his book Brighter than a Thousand Suns: "The German physicists had failed to build an atomic bomb for Hitler not because they couldn't, but because they wouldn't." Later, Heisenberg scolded Jungk for glorifying him as a "resister."

In 1993, Thomas Powers gave an extra twist to the German Lesart in his book Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb. Powers argues that Heisenberg basically knew all along exactly how to build the bomb, deliberately withheld and obscured that knowledge from the Nazis, and went to Copenhagen to let Bohr in on what the Nazis were up to.


In his 1998 drama Copenhagen, which deals with Werner Heisenberg's 1941 visit to his mentor Niels Bohr, Michael Frayn sought to shed light on the question, "Did German scientists under Heisenberg's leadership work on an atomic bomb?" by revisiting the known arguments. Red Baron saw the successful play on stage, in both English and German.

Elisabeth Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg
 at a conference in Copenhagen in 1937 (©William Sweet)

There is more to the photo. Red Baron recognizes Victor Weisskopf, then dark-haired, standing to the left in the background. As an Austrian Jew, Weisskopf left the Mecca of quantum physics, Göttingen, in 1933 for Zürich to work with Wolfgang Pauli. From 1936 on, he stayed with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen until he emigrated to the States in 1937. There, he worked on the Manhattan Project, the American atomic bomb program. From 1961 to 1966, Weisskopf served as director-general of CERN, the European Center for High-Energy Physics, which Red Baron joined in 1968.

Here is Heisenberg's recollection of the Copenhagen meeting in a letter to Jungk, 

"Being aware that Bohr was under the surveillance of the German political authorities and that his assertions about me would probably be reported to Germany, I tried to conduct this talk in such a way as to preclude putting my life in immediate danger. This talk probably started with my question as to whether it was right for physicists to devote themselves in wartime to the uranium problem, as there was the possibility that progress in this sphere could lead to grave consequences for the technique of war. Bohr immediately understood the meaning of this question, as I realized from his slightly frightened reaction. He replied, as far as I can remember, with a counter-question: 'Do you really think that uranium fission could be utilized for the construction of weapons?' I may have replied: 'I know this is in principle possible, but it would require a terrific technical effort, which, one can only hope, cannot be realized in this war.' Bohr was shocked by my reply, obviously assuming that I had intended to convey to him that Germany had made great progress in the direction of manufacturing atomic weapons."

The corresponding passage in Heisenberg's autobiography, Der Teil und das Ganze, is practically identical to the text above.

Von Weizsäcker's later statement is not supported by Heisenberg's narrative, "The true goal of the visit by Heisenberg with Bohr was . . . to discuss with Bohr whether physicists all over the world might not be able to join together so that the bomb would not be built."

Therefore, Rose's comment is relevant to von Weizsäcker but not to Heisenberg: "If Heisenberg went to Copenhagen with the notion of proposing a mutual non-aggression pact between physicists, there is no evidence that he or any other wartime visitors to Bohr ever made such a proposal (sic!)."

Rose's conclusions, "Although memories fade and Heisenberg and von Weizsäcker surely talked themselves into believing that what they said after the war about Copenhagen was really true, just about everything either one of them ever said on the subject - right down to von Weizsäcker's latest comments upon release of the draft Bohr letters - has been flatly untrue."

I must admit that I only recently became aware of the drafts Bohr wrote in 1960. They are discussed in a 2002 paper by William Sweet, "No More Uncertainty." This is why I revisited the subject of the German atomic bomb while scrutinizing the original citations of the protagonists, conveniently embedded in Sweet's paper.

 
Bohr drafted letters to send to Heisenberg, but he never did. Bohr's family released the drafts in 2002. At the time of their publication, they were regarded as a sensation, solving the enigma of the Copenhagen meeting. Here are Bohr's salient lines:

"However, what I am thinking of in particular is the conversation we had in my office at the Institute, during which, because of the subject you raised, I carefully fixed in my mind every word that was uttered. It had to make a very strong impression on me that at the very outset, you stated that you felt certain that the war, if it lasted sufficiently long, would be decided with atomic weapons. I had, at that time, no knowledge at all of the preparations that were underway in England and America. When I perhaps looked doubtful, you added that I had to understand that you had occupied yourself almost exclusively with this question in recent years and did not doubt that it could be done. It is, therefore, quite incomprehensible to me that you should think that you hinted to me that the German physicists would do all they could to prevent such an application of atomic science. During the very brief conversation, I was naturally very cautious. Nevertheless, I thought a lot about its content, and my alarm was not lessened by hearing from the others at the Institute that Weizsäcker had stated how fortunate it would be for the position of science in Germany after the victory that you could help so significantly towards this end."

"In your letter to Jungk, you also mention Jensen's* visits to Copenhagen in 1943 during his journeys to Norway to participate in the efforts to increase the production of heavy water. Jensen indeed emphasized that this work was intended solely to produce energy for industrial purposes. Still, although we were inclined to trust his sincerity, we felt in no way certain regarding how much he knew about the whole effort in Germany."
*Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1951

Are the differences between Heisenberg's and Bohr's presentation of the actual meeting so great to forward a dramatically new "Copenhagen interpretation*? "
*My physics colleagues may forgive me

The bold statements about a possible German victory that young Carl Friedrich apparently made to others at the Institute are new to me.

Bohr's remarks about the Jensen visit should have reinforced the "old man's" belief that German physicists worked on a deuterium-moderated reactor. Still, after Heisenberg's unfortunate visit, Bohr no longer believed anyone.

At the time of the Copenhagen visit, there was indeed the twist of a plutonium bomb because von Weizsäcker and Fritz Houtermans had shown that a reactor could be used to produce plutonium, which in turn could be used to make an atomic bomb, bypassing the much more challenging problem of separating uranium 235 from 238 to obtain the requisite fissionable material.

Splitting atoms (seen on Facebook)

In a talk to German science leaders in February 1942, five months after the Copenhagen visit, Heisenberg spelled out the plutonium route as an open, although a very long, road to the bomb.

Heisenberg's position on building a reactor is supported by a drawing he allegedly left behind with Bohr in Copenhagen, who later took it to the States.

Sweet ends his paper on No More Uncertainty, "Had the decision gone the other way in 1941/42 - had the Nazis launched an all-out bomb development program - there is absolutely no reason to think Heisenberg would not have dutifully contributed. Then, had the war gone on long enough and the Manhattan Project failed, a German atomic bomb might indeed have been the deciding factor in the war, just as Heisenberg told Bohr it would be at Copenhagen."

There are too many "woulds" and "mights." Sweet's statement and the Bohr letters did not change my conclusion made in 2004 in a lecture on The Myth of the German Atomic Bomb. My German-speaking followers may like to read the text of that talk on my website.

Here is the English translation of my conclusion, "The position of the German researchers on the construction of the atomic bomb ultimately remains ambivalent: Could they and did they not want to make the bomb, as Robert Jungk claims, or did they not and could they not, a position roughly held by Thomas Powers, or did they want and couldn't, as Paul Lawrence Rose imputes to them in his book."

For Red Baron, uncertainty still prevails.

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Twenty Years Already

Two pages in last week's Freiburger Wochenbericht were devoted to a jubilee.

In front of Toni's place on Münsterplatz (©Freiburger Wochenbericht)

The Ganterbrauereiausschank (Ganter Brewery taproom) on Münsterplatz turns 20. Red Baron is a regular there and was one of the last guests on November 1, 2020, before all pubs in Germany were closed due to Corona.

This weekend was celebrated with various events. Today at 11:30 a.m. Red Baron was at the Weißwurst Frühschoppen, where the Red House Hot Six played old-time jazz. I had a pair of veal sausages with sweet mustard and a crusty pretzel, including 0.5 l Ganter wheat beer for a jubilee price.

The Red House Hot Six in action

It was a trip back in time for me. As students, we danced to Dixieland music at the Winterhuder Fährhaus in Hamburg. At that time, the Magnolia Band played, and the uncle of one of my classmates, "Pops" Schittek, blew the trombone.

Outside, you look at the Münster church. The Ukrainian flag hoisted by Toni at the entrance of the Ganterbrauereiausschank is visible through the window on the left.

The pint of wheat beer and old-time jazz was pure nostalgia, only that we drank Coke instead back then.

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America‘s Holy Warriors

Amerikas Gotteskrieger was the title of a book presentation and conference by Annicka Brockschmidt and sponsored by the Carl-Schurz-Haus.

Red Baron is still in shock because the picture Annika painted was grim and pessimistic such that she feared for democracy in America. Was January 6 a precursor?

The Evangelical movement has long been deeply rooted in the States and is driven by white supremacy. Apparently, it has more political influence than I had assumed so far.

For me, it is incomprehensible how in the 21st century, people are so religiously indoctrinated and react accordingly. However, when I look at our anti-vaxxer demonstrations, I understand that these erratic movements are dangerous to democratic structures.

I was brought up in a middle-class family. In my early days during the war, my father was absent, and my mother gave my education in the hands of the State and Church. I do not remember that I was directly influenced by the Nazi regime, but religion played a decisive role for my mother. She originated from a Catholic farm in Westphalia with one sister and seven brothers. Being nine years old at the end of the war, I was greatly influenced by Nazi news in the press and radio, but I understood only roughly what was going on,

After the war, my family moved to Hamburg, where I attended secondary school. We kids were re-educated and gently introduced to democratic thinking and structures. Living in an essentially Protestant city, my religious affiliation suffered quite naturally. Still, during my first years of studying physics, I pledged to address the spiritual issue seriously when I had time.

And indeed, I did it with the help of my father-in-law. I read Hans Küng, Karl Rahner, Joseph Ratzinger, Edward Schillebeeckx, and other intelligent books and concluded that I am not an atheist but agnostic in my thinking. As such, I follow - and only here - Frederick the Great, “Jeder soll nach seiner Façon selig werden (Let every man/woman seek heaven in his own fashion).”

Coming back to Annika’s conference. She insisted that white supremacy was one of the driving forces of those Evangelicals resulting in racism.

Starting the discussion, I asked what racism had to do with Christian ethics and whether Christian fundamentalists interpret the Bible nach Gutsherrenart (in the fashion of a lord of a manor, i.e., in their own autocratic way).

I understood from Annika’s reply that a lot of individualism was involved, but I didn’t get a clear-cut answer.

There were still many points I wanted to make, but I let the other participants ask their questions.

Is this the outcome of education, of which Annika said that the formation of young Evangelicals is strongly guided, e.g., in a clear creationist direction? Frequently, our tolerant society not only accepts both creationist and scientific explanations as a compromise but teaches them on equal footing.

This makes me ache as a scientist because scientifically-based facts cannot be replaced by alternative facts.

For me, in the end, it all boils down to education. Don’t indoctrinate the children with Bible stories; encourage their thinking capabilities instead.

Resist the seducers of the people!

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Freedom Day

While the war in Ukraine rages, headlines in Germany address the exploding energy prices.

But what is really exploding are Corona incidence rates in Europe, breaking new records every day in Germany.

Everything seemed normal when the fourth wave came down at the beginning of March. But since then, incidence rates have been on the rise again, while the government had planned to ease Corana restrictions on March 20, a date some people erroneously named Freedom Day.

There is something strange with the word freedom. Remember Freedom Fries instead of Frech fries when the French and the Germans in 2003 refused to join Operation Iraqi Freedom?

Poor Colin Powell, when he tried to justify the toppling of Saddam Hussein by playing at the UN Security Council with some test tubes allegedly containing a poisonous substance. The victorious war and Saddam's demise created a power vacuum in the region that led to widespread civil war between the Shias and Sunnis.

Given the flaming energy prices, our Liberal finance minister and head of the Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner, called solar and wind-energies Freedom Energies. They free Germany from dependence on Russian gas.

And there are those anti-vaxxers who demonstrate in Freiburg every Saturday trying yesterday to advance the "Freedom Day "date to March 19.

©BZ/Rita Rggenstein

They were only 1000 at the Square of the Old Synagogue when the organizer told the crowd that there would be no procession through the city center, "We have music, and the weather is nice." Then he called on the applauding protesters to remove their masks, "We're moving up our Freedom Day by one day."

Although the police protect any announced demonstration in Germany, this action was against the still existing regulations. The police repeatedly appealed to the rally participants to pull up their masks. Without response. After the third announcement, the police declared the gathering over, "You have fifteen minutes to leave the Square of the Old Synagogue."

But a hardcore remained, chanting and drumming incessantly. "שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם (Shalom aleichem, i.e., Peace be with you)" and "We shall overcome." The police loosely surrounded the small group - those who wanted to could leave without any problems. Still, not everyone left the square voluntarily.

The freedom of the anti-vaxxers is an individual and thus egoistic freedom. It restricts the freedom of the large community of the vaccinated (75% of the people living in Germany).

I do not want to bother you again with Goethe's citation from his drama Egmont:

"Freedom is a beautiful word. Who understands it correctly?"

Here is a poem by Max von Schenkendorf instead:

©Wikipedia

Freedom that I mean,
That fills my heart,
Come with your glow
Sweet angel image.
Don't you never like to show yourself to the hard-pressed world?
Do you lead your dance only among the stars?

Schenkendorf wrote this patriotic poem in 1813 under the impression of the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon, in which he took an active part.

Did the concept of freedom become any more apparent to you now?

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Poutine

Red Baron learned about Poutine by reading Jerry Coyne's blog*: 

"Poutine is a Candian dish that originated in the French-speaking areas of the country; when and where it came to be, are mysteries. The dish consists, au minimum, of french fries (frites), gravy, and cheese curds. But it's often supplemented with other things; in fact, you can add almost anything to a poutine. I was first introduced to it by my friend Barb in Ottawa about ten years ago …."
*The only blog I follow

Jerry munching his Poutine (©Jerry Coyne)

"I've had it twice on this visit (2016), the first time at the Elgin Street Diner in Ottawa. But there is no substitute for going to a place that should be called Le Roi de Poutine, otherwise known as La Banquise in Montréal, which claims it has the best Poutine in Quebec."

©Jerry Coyne

"Well, I haven't tried them all, which would be a herculean task, but it certainly was the best Poutine I've had to date."

Why do I write about Poutine? It happens that in French, the Russian SMO*-criminal is transcribed as Poutine because Putin, pronounced in Molière's language, sounds like putain, i.e., a slut. The interjection Fuck! is best translated as Putain!

*Putin's Special Military Operation (found on Facebook)

A short notice in the Badische Zeitung informed that the French fry chain "Frites Alors!" based in the Canadian province of Quebec renamed one of their poutine specialties.

 

Formerly named Vladimir after the Russian President's first name, they now serve it as Volodymyr after Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Customers had complained after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and boycotted the dish. 

Volodymyr is now the bestseller, and please don't remind those eaters that they are still munching Poutine.

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Carrots

Red Baron likes to stroll around the Münstermarkt, the market around Freiburg's minster church.

Here he discovers rare food items like homemade redcurrant jam. 

Red Baron loves carrots and likes to eat them raw, while he detests them cooked. My mother used to dice potatoes and carrots and cook them together,  calling the dish Möhren und Kartoffeln durcheinander (muddled up) gekocht.

She served the meal once a week, and as a boy, I devoured it until one day, I had overeaten. I felt sick; I had to throw up. Since then, I have felt sick whenever I only perceive the smell of that dish. 

It is not as bad as with the Swiss celebrity, chef Meta Hiltebrand, who suffers from a banana phobia. During a cooking show on television, she said, "If someone near me unwraps a banana, I leave the room. I can't stand the smell and can no longer speak. If things go badly, I even collapse." She will definitely never serve a banana split.

Red Baron eats his carrots raw.

Last Saturday, I became electrified when I spotted dark red and yellow carrots at one of the organic market stalls*.

*Only God knows whether they are all organic these days

The lady at the stand answered whether the exotic carrots could also be eaten raw in the affirmative. I bought one of each, and here is my verdict. 

The dark red variety tasted not like a carrot but more like kohlrabi. The yellow variety tasted like a carrot, but the flavor was less intense. So in the future, I will stick with the classic carrot, although there are differences in taste even with those.

The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) called Möhre in high German has many regional names mainly derived from Rübe (turnip) as there are Mohrrübe, Gelbrübe, Gelbe Rübe, Rüebli, Riebli, and simply Wurzel (root). The Daucus carota within the Umbelliferae family is only known in cultivation. Wikipedia adds, "Different colored carrots are descended from different clans of origin: the white ones come from the Mediterranean area, the yellow ones from Afghanistan, as well as the red-purple forms."

©Wikipedia/ARS

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers have selectively bred carrots with pigments that reflect almost all rainbow colors, "More importantly, though, they're perfect for your health."

 
Long live the carrot! 

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Ukraine Splinters

At the age of seven, Red Baron survived the bombing of Essen, horrified by the burning houses around. Aged nine, low-flying Mustangs strafed him, but they missed. 

The Kiyv Post: On March 9, the Russian occupants launched an airstrike
against a maternity hospital in Mariupol, where there were
pregnant women and medical staff at that moment (©dpa).

I am appalled by destroyed houses, people on the run, and the genocide in Ukraine. "Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days (Matthew 24:19)."

 

Freiburg

Ukrainian colors at Freiburg's townhall (©BZ)

On Sunday, February 26, with other Freiburgers, Red Baron protested against Putin's war at the Square of the Old Synagogue.

Putin doesn't just want Ukraine. He wants to kill democracy.

Freiburg's mayor for social and cultural affairs,
Ulrich von Kirchbach, at the rostrum.

F**k you, Putin and Putin murderer

In the first move on March 3, Freiburg welcomed children evacuated from an orphanage near Kyiv. In the meantime, more families separated from their husbands arrived in the city's refugee center. The situation is entirely different from 2015 when young men from Syria made up the bulk of the refugees. 

The Ukrainians are welcome; the readiness to help is enormous in the bordering countries of the war-stricken country but also all over Germany. The job market is wide open for those who fled the war and speak modest English. Gastronomy and nursing are desperately looking for workers, although the wish of those arriving is to return home as quickly as possible, again different from Syrian males.

Special Military Operation or War?

Western experts estimate that 95% of the Russian forces are operating in Ukraine, losing equipment and "bleeding out" as time goes by. With his war objectives lacking behind, will Putin ultimately fall back to nuclear weapons locally and globally?

A Russian military expert should have said, "The situation is like Germany in 1943/44. Except that this is the starting point for us. One had prepared for a 100-meter race - and finds oneself running a marathon in rough terrain."

Losers And Winners

The bull at the Frankfurt stock market looks weak. The Russian bear has taken over.

The Rubel is in free fall.

There is a winner of the war:
Rheinmetall, the maker of gun barrels for German Leopard tanks

Russian Bashing, Cancel Culture

Besides Putin's tanks, there is another Russia,
and we extend a hand of friendship to this other Russia.

Everybody knows it is Putin's war, not that of the Russian people. Still, Russian citizens living in countries of the Alliance are discriminated against. Vodka vendors pour the liquid into the gutter, and borsht-serving restaurants are boycotted.

Cancel Putin and his faithful, not Russian culture and its citizens.

The text reads: I can't believe it, but it's a fact! Just now, in Milan, at Universita di Bicocca, they canceled Dostoevsky's course! And this is just the beginning of the abolition of Russian culture! So it becomes just a war against everything Russian!

хуй

In 1944 Red Baron lived in a Westphalian village where Russian POWs were building accommodations for us bombed-out townfolks. We children playing around the building site liked those gentle and kind men, and they were child-friendly. While working, they often said хуй that we boys eventually interpreted as a dick.

Now 77 years later, I learned a more direct meaning from a road sign in Odessa greeting incoming Russians:

Straight on: fuck off
Left: fuck off again
Right: fuck off to Russia

Stephen Colbert

On his Late Show, Stephen Colbert commented on the above press release, "Take that, Putin. We are not going to buy our oil from a war criminal. We are buying it from the good guys -- Saudi Arabia."

The laugh got stuck in my throat.

Show Your Colors

A lady in the Moscow Metro wears Ukrainian colors.

This is not new. 150 years ago, three bold ladies promenaded the French colors, blue-blanc-rouge, in occupied Alsace in front of a smoking Prussian constable. Olala!

All Over Germany

Ulm's Minster church

Freiburg: On the banks of the Dreisam River
Graffiti by artist Zoolo (©Carolinc Johannson)

Hamburg: Public transport: Stop the war

Cologne: In place of the 2022 carnival parade: Choke on it !!!

Berlin: Brandenburg Gate; where else?

For the benefit of the war-stricken people:
Ukrainer for € 2.50 instead of Berliner for € 1.50.

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We! Are! Here!

The 15 chairs of the Schreibtischtäter (armchair perpetrators) around the breakfast table have been empty for long, but we, the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Jewish victims, are here, and we are many!

Last year, January 20, marked the 80th anniversary of the infamous conference at which fifteen men in a villa at Wannsee near Berlin decided the fate of 11 million European Jews. More than half of them perished in the holocaust.

Of 3 Million Ukrainian Jews, the SS-Einsatzkommandos (task forces)
 exterminated 1.5 Million

The infamous Wannsee Protocol gives a 16-page account of the one-and-a-quarter-hour deliberation.

Since then, many books and films have been made about the unimaginable Besprechung mit anschließendem Frühstück (meeting followed by breakfast).

The program of the exhibition opening

The exhibition entitled Wir! Sind! Hier! gives a different perspective, looking at the event of January 1942 from a different angle. The focus is not on the perpetrators but those persecuted because Wir sind viele!

The installation opened in the Berlin Reichstag (House of Representatives) on January 20, 2022, the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference. It can now be seen at Freiburg's New Synagogue from March 7 to 27. 

Red Baron attended the exhibition's opening yesterday.

Lord Mayor Martin Horn, in discussion with
Dr. Felix Klein, Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany

Irina Katz, Chairwoman of the Freiburg Jewish Community,
welcomes the audience

Lord Mayor Martin Horn

Son, granddaughter, great-grandchild

Daughter, granddaughter, great-grandchild

In closing: Cantor Moshe Hayoun is singing Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth ...

Afterward, the installation will travel around the world. As the organizers of Hier! Sind! Wir! write on their website:

"In the process, further survivors will be portrayed, and the installation will thus be continuously supplemented. At the end of the journey, Wir! Sind! Hier! will return to Berlin and be on permanent display there from May 8, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the war's end."

Red Baron blogged about the anti-Judaism in Germany and the Endlösung before. This exhibition gives a face to the Holocaust survivors: We! Are! Here! showing their children and grandchildren as the hope.

Freiburg citizens visit this exceptional installation that reminds us of the darkest days in German history.

An article in the Badische Zeitung paid tribute to the inaugural event (click to enlarge).

Masked Red Baron was caught in the act of taking photos.

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