Second generation of immigrants from German speaking countries ("Yekkes")

Miriam Heim was born in 1940 in Ramat Gan. At the age of 14 years she emigrated to Australia together with her mother. She worked as a secretary and attended evening classes. She married and got three children. In 1973 she returned to Israel with her family, in 1987 she divorced. ; MH tells about her parents' professions, her father was a dentist, and about how they met in Israel. She talks about her father's origin, his life in Germany and her parents' emigration. When her parents divorced, when she was three years old, she moved into her grandmother's house for a while. MH spoke German with her grandmother and with a friend of her father, Iwan Lilienfeld, whose sister in law Ilse became her stepmother. She felt uncomfortable about speaking German in public, though she knew it was the language of many Yekkish families. Her mother learned Hebrew very well. MH tells about the time with her grandmother, she heard German songs, stories and fairytales from her. ; MH's father died from cancer when she was 14 years old. Her stepmother had a nervous breakdown and was sent to Switzerland by her sister. During this time MH lived with her mother's sisters. When her mother married a second time and emigrated to Australia, MH joined her. She explains why her father wanted her to live with her mother after his death. She found it difficult to have a stepmother with her father and a stepfather with her mother. MH met her future husband in Australia, his father was Jewish and he had his roots in Berlin. He fled from the SS during the last years of World War II. His family stayed in Berlin during the war and only emigrated to Australia in 1955. His mother was a Christian German and lost one of her brothers, later she suffered from psychological problems. MH spoke German with her father in law, but English with her husband. Her mother and her stepfather spoke English. MH tells about an Australian friend who was persecuted in Germany during the war. MH's stepfather's parents died in Theresienstadt. Her stepfather went to Iran and later to Israel as engineer of an oil company. MH did not like her stepfather very much. She tells about her husband's best friend, who worked for the Jewish Agency in Haifa, and the Holocaust fate of his wife. MH could not attend school, she had to work. Her future husband was introduced to her by a friend from her evening classes. She stayed in contact with her stepmother in Israel, their relationship was good. ; During the 1950's MH returned to Israel for one year, her first son was born in a kibbutz. In 1961 she went back to Canberra. MH worked as a secretary of Medicopharm, of course she spoke English at work. MH was employed because her boss fought in the War of Independence and liked Israelis very much. When MH returned to Israel in 1973 it was very difficult for her children to get used to the country. Her mother also returned to Israel in 1973, after her husbands' death; she often looked after MH's youngest son and learned biblical Hebrew. MH divorced in 1987. ; MH continued to speak German with her stepmother. The Yekkish obsession of punctuality was a burden to her, she would have liked to have less strict parents. She did have friends from other ethnic backgrounds. In 1973 MH visited Germany for the first time together with her stepmother and her stepmother's sister and brother in law (Lilienfeld), with whom she had very close contacts. During later stays in Germany she made new acquaintances, e.g. in Heidelberg and in the Black Forest. She was also looking for her parents' roots. She would like to travel throughout Europe, mainly to Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland), because her father's family came from there. Her feelings towards Germany and towards her family are rather mixed. Her mother did not want to see Germany again. When asked about her identity, MH answers she thinks she was educated and formed in a very German way. Her children are mainly formed by the Australian way of life, but they also know about their German roots. MH thinks the Yekkish character traits in her family vary for each individual character. Her aunts on her mother's side were not as typically Yekkish as her stepmother. Her stepmother considered a bad treatment by a waiter as anti-Semitism already. MH always saw the contrast between Yekkish and East European families in Israel. Modern Germany is a strange country to her, nevertheless she sometimes felt at home in Germany. MH gives a final analysis of the complicated network of relationships in her patchwork family.