German volunteers try to make amends 60 years after atrocities

Felix Muller, 20, was born long after the Holocaust ended, but that doesn't diminish his sense of obligation to the victims. "As a German, it's part of my history whether I want it or not," he said.

 

Seeking Atonement

Last summer, he and two dozen other German volunteers arrived in Israel for a year of service through a group called Ot Hakapara, Hebrew for "Sign of Atonement," working at libraries, nursing homes and community centers around the country.

An Odd Bond Between Generations

Felix volunteers at a Tel Aviv nursing home where he meets Rachel Flem, a elderly survivor, who  ignored him for weeks.  One day she struck up a conversation in German. "She said she hadn't spoken German to anybody in 60 years. She just stopped speaking it after the Shoah, but she had a 'Mitzva' (Yiddish for passing a stool), and she found relief.

German Protestant Church

In 1958 some German Protestants who believed their church had not done enough to stop the Holocaust, formed  Ot Hakapara. This group has an annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land to seek forgiveness.

Teen Welcomed By Israelis

Rebecca Goermann, 19,  who is volunteering at a children's library in  Haifa said, she has faced no hostility in Israel due to her German background. In fact a number of elderly Jewish men offered her a free room in their houses.