"I am alive! It is a miracle from G'd"
START Origin Home Discrimination Emigration SS St Louis Camp Odyssey New Life
Mina
Markus
Jakob and Frieda
Oskar
Salo
Leon
 Salo and Leon with friends at a lake. Picture taken early 1950's. The four brothers and their wives at the wedding of Jerry, Leon and Gina's son%2C to Freddie in the USA%2C 15th October 1961. The four brothers with their sons at the wedding of Miriam, Salo and Toby's daughter%2C December 1972. Jakob, Salo and Oskar 1974/75. Wedding of Allen and Miriam, Salo and Toby's daughter%2C Boston 17th December 1972.
Salo in his former seat in the Synaogogue at Reichenbachstrasse Munich, 1994.
Confirmation by the International Refugee Organisation of the status of Jakob's family as refugees.
Salo in front of the memorial for the destroyed synagogue in Munich 1994.
Salo in front of the memorial for the destroyed synagogue in Munich 1994.
Confirmation by the International Refugee Organisation of the status of Jakob's family as refugees. Late recognition of refugee status for Jakob Blechner by the Swiss Aliens' Office%2C 1974.

Post War

"Even after all those years, I still cannot forget what happened to us in Munich and the fate of our extended family in the Holocaust " is how Alex Blumenberg commented about his relationship today towards Germany. Alex, a nephew of Markus Blechner, has only returned to Munich once since he fled Germany, when he came to visit the grave of his grandmother who died in 1942. Other members of the family describe their attitude towards Munich and Germany in similar vein. None of the family lives today in Munich or Germany. Germany is no longer their home but only the place from where the family came.

Many of the younger members of the family from the second and third generation have never been to Munich. However they do expect the city to take responsibility for its history, because it is only in this way that a repetition of the racism and violence, the terror and murder as in the Nazi period can be prevented.

The overriding view of the family is that, even allowing for the necessary interest in the past, it must not be allowed to obstruct our view into the future. The family, although scattered all over the world, does enjoy an extraordinary sense of belonging together. All have a strong association to Israel. No matter which country they now live in, they live in a Jewish community but with an open mind to the non-Jewish world around.

The Munich exhibition on the fate of the family was initiated and encouraged by Anthony Blechner and supported by the entire family from all over the world.