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The Star Witness Project by Caren Garfen. The past week saw the 80th anniversary of Liberation Day in my native Netherlands. However, I live in Germany and am of German descent. As Fascism is on the rise again in many countries, I have an important family story to tell—a story that is not often told and that many will find disturbing to read. It is a stark reminder that, although you think you are safe and not ‘one of them’, you can quickly lose your life in a totalitarian regime that dehumanises parts of its population, through no fault of your own. When will you rise? When they deport people from your town? When it’s a neighbour? Or when they kill your child? Isn’t it too late by then?
This is the story of Christa Bamberg. She was not a soldier, nor Jewish, nor Roma, nor an enemy of the state. She was a little German girl killed by the Nazis. I am very grateful to textile artist Caren Garfen for including Christa’s story in her powerful Star Witness project. My original blog post was published in May 2020.
I’ve been following Caren Garfen for a while and have always been greatly moved by her art. Some of you might know her project with all the little beds. It is called ‘Room for improvement` and draws attention to the fact that there are not enough beds in the UK to help all young people who suffer from eating disorders. Although this is a growing, horrible condition in the Western world with all its pressures. Several months ago, Caren started to post updates on her latest installation. Hand-sewn yellow cloth badges in the form of the infamous Judenstern. Each star features a story. From the past, but maybe even more chilling: from the present. Anti-semitism isn’t dead.
In her post on the 25th of February 2020, Caren shared stars on the stories of the 1,5 million Jewish children that the Nazis murdered. It called to mind Christa’s story, and I asked Caren if she would be willing to include it in her Star Witness project. Even though Christa was not Jewish. My family and I are very grateful that Caren said yes.
Christa Bamberg was born on the 8th of January 1938 in Erfurt, Germany. She contracted meningitis at the age of three and, as a result, became mentally disabled. The Nazis had very strong opinions on who was ‘fit’ for life. Mentally disabled people were not. At some point after June 1941, Chista was taken by force from her family and sent to Uchtspringe mental asylum.
From 1940 onwards, this asylum was used for research on the genetics of mental disability. It had a special ward for children. Tötungsärtzte (=killing doctors) Hermann Wesse, his wife Hildegard Wesse and Gerhard Wenzel actively killed many children or ordered the nurses to do so, either by mixing their food with phenobarbital, a common drug used in the treatment of epilepsy in children, but fatal when given an overdose. Or children were given an overdose of morphine by lethal injection.
Hermann Wesse spent 20 years in jail and repented, his wife Hildegard only about two years. She continued to work as a doctor and did not think she had done anything wrong by killing mentally disabled children and women. Gerhard Wenzel was not in jail, never repented and continued to work as a doctor. Christa was killed on the 18th of January 1945, ten days after her seventh birthday. Was it Hermann? Hildegard? Gerhard? or an unnamed nurse?
How is Christa related to me? Christa is my father’s niece, and my grandfather was her uncle. That might sound far, far away and long ago. However, I know Christa’s brother quite well, and Klaus-Dieter and his wife Doris have regular contact with my parents. After all, Klaus-Dieter is my father’s cousin. Klaus-Dieter was born on the 2nd of December 1944 and never knew his sister. We have not told him about Christa being included in Caren’s Star Witness Project, as we fear he will be unable to cope.
And the young man in the picture on the right in his Wehrmacht uniform? That’s my grandfather’s youngest brother, Erwin. He was a radio operator with the Wehrmacht. As a result of being shot, he died on the 30th of July 1945, aged only 21. And he was Christa’s uncle, too.
6 responses to “The Star Witness Project by textile Artist Caren Garfen”
So sad . I wept on reading this . So sorry for that poor little girl . So sorry for such a terrible thing to happen in your family ….. and so many other little ones and their families too . 🤍🌹🕊️
Thank you for sharing this, Jessica. We must be vigilant and never let this happen again.
I was in the middle of a long screed, and deleted it all. I don’t like to think of the damage the USAF planes did towards the end of the war, some of which were navigated by my uncle to their destination over Germany. No war is just, but it’s a world away from the intentional and amoral aspirations characteristic of fascist regimes, where brutality becomes commonplace and murder is no longer recognised as evil in itself. Your poor, poor family. Fascism and communism (as practiced) are two ends of the same string, and all people of good will must resist both. Our democratic systems are far from perfect, but so long as we are able, we must continue to do the difficult and thankless work of holding power to account.
Thank you for sharing.
We all have been touched by war and yet we often tend to ignore the sanctified version in the history books due to overwhelm or uncomfortableness.
We need to know others are here with us, crying out too, so we don’t drown in the flood of overwhelm; and we should be uncomfortable as hate should never be common and we must teach, stand, proclaim… so as not to continue to repeat history but ignite peace and tolerance.
Thank you for remembering Christa and for calling attention to the atrocities of fascism. I hope and pray that one day humans will realize that all life, even « imperfect « life is precious and irreplaceable. I applaud your courage in sharing such a painful part of your family history.
It’s horrific. And, now we are dealing with the beginnings of this here in the United States. It’s crazy that RFK Jr has so much power now…. He recently said:
“Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. They’ll never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
Basically, he is demonizing them and he wants to set up a national database listing who is on the spectrum. Why? This is very scary, coupled with all the data breaches that have already been done by Musk’s DOGE.
My sister has two adult autistic children who will probably always live with her. It is a challenge, but they are also gifted in other ways. And, I have many other friends with autistic children or who are on the spectrum. Some are geniuses. RFK Jr’s father must be spinning in his grave.
Scary times here in the US and in other places around the world. I don’t understand why people keep choosing this darkness…. And, what short memories they have! That’s why projects like this one are so important! Thank you for sharing it….
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