Posted on social media by Rabbi Zalmen Wishedski, Director of Chabad in Basel, Switzerland:
Sitting in the window seat on this flight to Israel is Roland. Who is Roland? A 54-year-old blue-collar worker from the south of Germany, Roland is a professional house painter by trade. He travels to Israel once or twice a year.
When Roland gets off the flight he will not go to the beach or to eat hummus. He will meet up with several other professional German friends and together they will go wherever they are needed and renovate the homes of Holocaust survivors.
According to Roland, the work is extremely rewarding and redeeming because at some point he usually sees through the project that the Holocaust survivor’s heart fills with joy. Some even speak to him in German, a language they haven’t spoken and have despised for the last 70 years.
And most importantly, Roland claims that he’s there to show Holocaust survivors in Israel and around the world that the Germans are not the same people they were 70 years ago.
Thank you, Roland.
Yidden do thing for other yidden the whole time, whether there are problems or no problems. The chiddush here is that it’s a German….German = nation who weren’t so nice to most of the previous generation of Jews….to put it mildly… (not so friendly nowadays too…).
This German is trying to make amends for something he may feel guilty about. Good for him. And yes BH there are thousands of beautiful yidden out there making differences in many peoples lives. Look out for it and you will see it.
There is an organization here in Israel that does similar for families that suffered through a tragedy – and need home renovations. They send the family away for 2-3 days, renovate what is needed (often replacing furniture and even adding happy touches i.e., a bulletin board, framed pics, etc) and the family returns to a home as if Mary Poppins had been there.
I have not heard of a group of yidden doing the same thing for yidden who went through world War two
Roland’s chessed is beautiful. They’re the same Germans. Don’t let them fool you.
i glad that kids of the nazis trying to take care of what their fathers did .
I have read articles in the papers (some before the internet as we have it today, existed) articles that said that 70% of those interviewed, who remembers what is was like living under their “fuhrer” Yemach Shmo, said they thought it was better under him then during any other time.
Roland looks to young to have lived during that time, and he may before form the 30% that would not have liked it back then.
I wish he was right
Thanks for posting.
Wow how inspiring
May Hashem bentch him with revealed health and joy
but the Rebbe implied in his Igros that they really haven’t changed. I do believe there are individuals though, such as this one that are righteous gentiles. And this does help to bolster one’s faith in humanity.
righteous gentiles.