Returning to Germany: Reflections on My Jewish Roots
From September 2025
By Michelle Edgar,
As the High Holidays are approaching, I wanted to take this moment to reflect on my trip to Germany two weeks ago.
On September 2, my grandfather, great-uncle, great-grandparents, and great-grandfather's siblings were honored at a Stolpersteine commemoration in Borken, Germany. Gunter Demnig, the world-renowned artist who started this effort to remember the Jews persecuted during the Shoah, installed the stones. Students from the town high school documented the event and are putting a video together. The students also laid flowers down for each stone that was placed. It was truly a moving experience. Attendees were emotional and supportive as we stood together shoulder to shoulder in strength to acknowledge the past and repair the ties that now bonded us, the descendants of this legacy.
I had family from different parts of the U.S. and Israel in attendance. From our visit, I realized just how large my family was in this little town and how close they were in proximity to each other and their synagogue, which was burned to the ground during Kristallnacht; now, a memorial stands in its place. We gathered and prayed at the monument the first morning upon our arrival. A Yiskor service at a synagogue followed the Stolpersteine event, which was recently rebuilt in a town 20 minutes away. The synagogue was lovely, and the cantor and congregants were welcoming. We shared a kosher meal before heading back to Borken.
During our stay, we visited the Jewish cemeteries near and in Borken. The visit to the Jewish cemetery in Borken was profound. Noticing the locked gate that protected it, the large open grassy space that had been intended for the Jewish community but would never be utilized, the gravestones that listed one spouse, and, to its side, the headstone was blank, and the gravestones that were chiseled in German words and not Hebrew during the time of the Nazi regime. This cemetery reflects the reality of the Jewish experience before the Third Reich, during the Shoah, and the results from this era that reverberate to this day.
As an educator at the Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Raritan Valley Community College, I look forward to sharing my story and the story of my paternal grandfather and those he preceded; may their memories be a blessing. There is so much more to tell. However, now I am back to reality here in the U.S., and as we enter 5786, my focus remains on empowering our students to embrace the values of Tikkun Olam and actively repair the world.
We’ll teach you how to share your grandparent’s story.