Tuesday, November 25th, 2008, 6 p.m.
Saturday, December 13th, 2008, noon Only on 88.5 WFDD
70 years ago, Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich targeted Jews, Gypsies, Blacks and others for extermination. Soldiers terrorized their Jewish neighbors in Germany and swiftly invaded neighboring countries, seizing control.
Hitler's brutal tyranny killed an estimated 6 million Jews and brutalized countless others. Miki Felsenburg's family, originally from from Austria, was one of the millions shattered by this violence. Only her parents, Kurt and Gertrud, survived the Holocaust.
Helga Welsh
In 1938, the Felsenburgs immigrated to New York City and finally settled in Denver. Miki's father seemed light-hearted and happy upon landing in the U.S.A. He was drafted into the United States Army, fought in World War II, earned a masters degree in accounting and became chief accountant for the Colorado State Patrol. He also taught German at the University of Denver and hosted a Sunday afternoon German music show on KVOD radio.
Miki's mother remained very bitter toward Germans. She had a PhD in Psychology from the University of Vienna but in the United States she could only work as a maid because she didn't speak English. Years later, Gertrud was a founding member of the Colorado Psychological Association and enjoyed a successful career - but neither she nor her husband spoke about the Holocaust. Nor did they speak with Miki about her grandparents.
Now - more than 50 years later - Miki is a lawyer and teaches legal writing at Wake Forest University. After her mother's death in 1994, she found three letters hidden in the red wallet her mother always carried. The letters were written on onion skin paper, fragile and falling apart. But Miki couldn't read them.
In 1999, Miki met Helga Welsh, an associate professor of political science at Wake Forest University. Helga grew up in Germany after World War II. Her father, Josef Hundegger, served in Hitler's army and her mother, Emma, washed laundry for American soldiers occupying post-war Germany. The Hundeggers later opened a clothing store where her father tailored and her mother managed the business.
Helga was eager to translate the letters. Thus began an emotional journey for both women as they unlocked the family secret of Miki's grandparents and discovered they have a lot in common.
88.5 WFDD · Your NPR News & Triad Arts Station from
Wake Forest University · wfdd@wfu.edu #8850 · 1834 Wake Forest Road · Winston-Salem, NC 27109 · 336-758-8850
88.5 WFDD, the NPR® news and Triad Arts station broadcasting from Wake Forest University, is the only public radio station of its kind located in the Piedmont Triad. It broadcasts news, information, and public affairs programming covering the arts, people, and institutions in the area from both its Winston-Salem and Greensboro studios.
The state's charter NPR® member, 88.5 WFDD is the longest continuously broadcasting public radio station in North Carolina. It is a member of the North Carolina Public Radio Association.
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