WERN E R L EO L OE WEN ST EIN , M . D .

Schwartzen oder Juden" (We have blood only from Blacks or Jews). Miriam The centrality of Hitler's racial purity myths in Nazi ideology required the extermination of Jews. Thus, you will appreciate the irony of the unanimous response of those wounded S.S. officers, the epitome of the Aryan ideal, in need of blood: "Das macht nichts" (It doesn't matter). Blood is blood after all, and its common denominator is always red, despite the race of the donor. Rebecca There isn't much humor to be found in the Holocaust. Perhaps this is it: a Jewish doctor who was denied the nationality of his birth, telling wounded S.S. officers they are about to receive blood from Untermenschen (sub­ humans). Leah And, 76 years later, his daughter and two granddaughters are standing here this evening to tell you this story after regaining our German citizenship, a right passed along to us because it was denied to him. [End of Yom HaShoah reading.]

When people ask me why I became a German citizen and encouraged my children to obtain their citizenship papers (Einbiirgerungsurkunde), I cite my father. In the 1970s, the German Consulate placed an announcement in the A ujbau, a weekly German­ Jewish newspaper for the emigre community, to which we subscribed. I used to love to try to read it, but since it was half auf Deutsch (in German), it was a challenge. The ad declared that if anyone had been denied a professional license during the Third Reich, upon submission of proper documentation, they could receive their license (medical, legal, teaching, etc.). When people asked Dad why he would want his German license to practice medicine, he replied, "I earned it; it's mine by right. They took it away from me; I want it."

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