Interview with Katrin Balaban
“I have faith in the future”

In February 1943, the Gestapo arrested roughly 1,800 Berlin Jews and brought them to a detainment center on Berlin’s Rosenstrasse. Among those arrested was Jaques Abraham. Anni, Jaques’s non-Jewish wife, was one of the first people to show up on Berlin’s Rosenstrasse in protest. The wives and relatives of other men detained on Rosenstrasse soon followed suit, leading to the largest public demonstration against the deportation of Jews in the Third Reich. Katrin Balaban, Jaques and Anni’s daughter, tells their story.

By Savannah Beck

You were a young child living in Berlin during the Rosenstrasse Protest. Do you have any memories of the war from your childhood? What were the early years of your life like?

I was very young during the war but do have some memories. I remember the sound of air-raid sirens and the “Christmas tree lights” illuminating the sky before the bombs would fall. We had to go to a closet-sized room in the basement of our apartment building, where we were separated from all the other neighbors. We hid under a small table down there and stayed very quiet. After the war, I started school, made a best friend, and was given a puppy. I also remember watching American planes land and take off during the Berlin Blockade with my brother.

Your mother was one of the first protesters to show up on Rosenstrasse. How did she come to the decision to stand up to the Nazi Party? Where were you and your brother while your father was detained and your mother protested?

I found out about the Rosenstrasse uprising from a newspaper article that my brother Peter framed for me. Peter told me that he was there with my mother one of the days. He was ten years old during the uprising. I don’t know who took care of my brother and me while my father was picked up and my mother protested... My mother never talked about anything that would upset us about the war or what she and my father had endured.

You immigrated to the United States in 1949. What was that transition like for your family? What kind of a life did you build in Brooklyn?

It was very difficult for my parents and my brother. They had left their family and friends. My father had left a successful business behind too. My parents and I didn’t speak English, and my brother only spoke a little bit. My brother was 16, which is a difficult age to fit in under the best of circumstances. Despite all of the hardships, my parents managed to take over a tiny grocery store. They both worked very long hours. It was different and easier for me. At age eight, I made a new best friend, learned the language quickly, and became a Dodger fan. I loved growing up in Brooklyn.

Not only did your mother participate in the demonstration, but she also played a pivotal role as one of the first protesters. Looking back, can you remember other examples of your mother’s bravery?

My mother was incredibly brave. At one point during the war, a soldier came for my brother, and my mother opened the window and threatened to jump if he came closer. Unbelievably, he closed the door and left. There were many other incidents…

You mentioned to me how important it is to you to share your family’s history, especially with your grandchildren. In your opinion, what is the most important takeaway from the Rosenstrasse Protest for younger generations?

From the time I was 12, especially after watching the McCarthy hearings on TV, I thought what happened under Hitler could happen again, could happen here. Recent political events, incredible amounts of misinformation, the rise of white supremacy groups, the increase in anti-Semitism, the distrust of the “other,” the distrust of science, the increase in voting restrictions in many of our states, book banning, orchestrated attacks on our public school education, and the January 6th Insurrection show me that our democracy is fragile and that we all have to pay attention. We have to be brave and protest against hate, as my mother and all of those brave women did on Rosenstrasse in Berlin 80 years ago.

Is there anything else you’d like to add? 
 
I have faith in the future because I have seen my wonderful children and my amazing grandchildren stand up and speak out — even protest — against injustice. I hope that the story of the Rosenstrasse uprising will help us all to do the same. 

Savannah Beck, the editor at the Goethe-Institut Washington, conducted this interview.