A Visit from Friends, John and Susan Leonard

When we served our first mission in Bosnia, we had some fantastic Area Welfare Specialists.  They were John and Susan Leonard.  They helped us so much when we were "newbies".  Whenever we had a problem (and we had plenty) all we had to do was call Frankfurt and they would offer suggestions on how to solve the problem.

I received a phone call at work one day from Susan Leonard, she told me they were in Germany and we set up a time to get together.  We chose May 1st (Labour Day).  They arrived at 10:00 and it was so exciting to see them.  They were the first couple to live in the apartment where we are now living.  We went for a walk down the street to see some things we had never seen.  We walked down the street to the home where Anne Frank lived as a young child.  There is a sign in front, we took a picture and then John who speaks excellent German translated the sign for us.

On the way Susan pointed out different markers on the sidewalk.  They were the same size as the sidewalk stones, but these markers were brass.  They had the name and date of the (Jewish) person who had lived in that home.  Later we googled these markers and learned that they are called stumble stones.  We also learned that walking over the stones, helps "shine the brass" which makes them brighter to honor the memory of those who died. Since 1992 there have been over 70,000 of these stones placed throughout Europe by a man named Gunther Demnig.  

The sign says that "She was born the 12th of June 1929 and lived with her parents and an older sister, Margot.

After we returned to our apartment we got into our car and drove to Friedridishof,  Scholsshotel Kronberg.  This castle was built by Victoria, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of England.  She was the wife of Frederick III and the mother of William II, known to the world as the Kaiser.  The castle has now been made into a hotel.  Following WWII it served as the headquarters for General Eisenhower.  We learned that they give tours and plan to return and learn more about this amazing place.  We wandered around and then walked the grounds which include a golf course and driving range.

Victoria's chair

We had a wonderful day with the Leonards.  Shortly after the Leonards left to go to another appointment we received a call from the sister missionaries.  They wanted us to go see if we could find a person they had been asked to contact.  We were not able to find the person, but we tried.

  

"One day after this terrible war will be over.  The time will come when we will people again, and not just Jews!  We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well.  But then we will want to be."  11 April 1944 Anne Frank