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

Irit Ovadia grew up and attended high school in Jerusalem. After serving in the military she studied English and worked as a teacher in Be'er Sheva. In 1984 she became the manager of the local conservatory and organized students' exchanges. She is married and has 3 children. ; IO's parents immigrated in 1939, her father studied and her mother worked as a nurse. Later her father fought in the War of Independence, in those years, IO's grandparents took care of her. IO's brother was killed in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. ; IO is afraid she will make many grammatical mistakes when speaking German in the current interview, and thinks she will probably switch to English often. She has never learned German systematically. She thinks it was unusual in her generation that Yekkish parents spoke German with their children. Some of their friends were therefore angry with IO's mother. Her cousins don't know German at all. Today German is useful for IO's profession. ; After she finished her military service, IO went to Paderborn together with the first German-Israeli student's group after an invitation by the Foreign Office because she spoke German. Not all of the members were Yekkish. After IO came back from this trip, she went to the US for 8 months. On her return to Israel she started to study at Be'er Sheva university and met her future husband, a sports teacher. IO's parents had nothing to object, i.e. with respect to his background; her parents in law came from Iraq and all of her husband's siblings are university graduates. IO became an English teacher at the new university of Be'er Sheva. After two years in Be'er Sheva, IO and her husband took their private residence in Omer. Some years ago her parents also moved from Jerusalem to Omer. ; IO went to Germany for the first time when she was 15 years old in order to see some aunts in Dortmund. Her parents had gone there before. Before their journey her parents hardly ever spoke about Germany, her grandparents sometimes wanted to return. IO tells an episode how her father went pale from fright, when they were queuing in a post office in Cologne, and he all of a sudden recognized the horrible loud voice of a KZ-official from Buchenwald. Only then she understood what it meant to her father to be back in Germany., she had never asked him before. IO and AB discuss the fear of asking questions or telling about the past. ; IO describes how she has slowly noticed the differences between Yekkish, East European and oriental culture in Israel. Her parents did not appreciate Yekkish virtues more than those of others. Even though they lived in Yekkish Rehavia, they sent IO and her brother to high schools with children from various ethnic backgrounds. IO describes the strict rules in other Yekkish homes, her parents were more “relaxed”. Her grandparents hardly knew Hebrew, her parents learned it well but still prefer to read German books. IO does not have negative feelings towards one of the languages. She tells about her father's professional career in Israel as professor and head of the Israeli State Archives. ; IO's personal contacts in Germany and her knowledge of the language became useful during her work at the conservatory: she organized a students' exchange program. IO always takes the Israeli students to concentration camps when they visit Germany. She describes their discussions about coming to terms with the Holocaust. IO's parents did not have negative feelings towards young students from Germany. IO has never given up her personal contacts in Germany, she thinks that a general interest for interpersonal relationships is another reason for official international partnerships. IO's conservatory has partnerships with Wuppertal and Rosenheim, and furthermore IO has contacts with France and Belgium. IO is especially interested to organize common visits of young Germans and Israelis to concentration camps, she considers it as important for both sides. She would be interested to visit Buchenwald because her father was a prisoner there, but she is afraid to go. She has been to the 60-years-commemoration-ceremony of the “Kristallnacht” in Dachau. She felt proud of being there as an Israeli and she could understand the feelings of her students coming there with the Israeli flag. IO tells that staying in Wuppertal, the hometown of her father, is always exciting for her, her heart is pounding. Nevertheless she loves to be there with her parents. Staying in Bavaria is different, she remains a stranger though she has good friends. The mentality of the people is not familiar to her. IO thinks that her mentality is more similar to the mentality in North-West-Germany, because her family came from there and some of her relatives live there.