Esther Bejarano is sometimes a bit breathless. Yes, she would like to give an interview. Only: "I have barely time, when should I still do that?" She asks on the phone. It's no coquetting: Bejarano is in mid-December 95, her appointment book is always full.
Esther Bejarano
Because she tirelessly tells her life story as a witness in schools. How she survived with the tattooed number 41948 Auschwitz. How she lied for that and claimed to play the accordion - though she had never played before. Bejarano came to the girls' orchestra Auschwitz. She did not have to lug heavy stones anymore. Her musicality protected her from the murder.
With music she is now fighting against forgetting and is regularly on stage with the Microphone Mafia. The Cologne hip hop band was founded in 1989 to rap against xenophobia. The next appearance is in Siegburg, says Bejarano and leafs through the calendar. After that? "Somewhere in the Rhineland."
In addition to the tour stress Bejarano currently has other problems: she is also honorary chairman of the "Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and Antifascists" (VVN-BdA). The responsible tax office Berlin has now withdrawn the charitable status from the organization. The association, founded after 1945 by Holocaust survivors, sees its existence endangered, because it threatens sensitive tax disadvantages and additional payments of tens of thousands of euros.
One day: Mrs Bejarano, you have been fighting against fascism and right-wing radicalism for years. In the Bavarian constitution protection report from 2018 the VVN-BdA classified as "left-wing extremist influenced organization". Are you close to left-wing extremists?
Bejarano: What does that have to do with anything left? If you fight something you once experienced, then it does not matter if you are left or right. I can not understand that people always think in such categories.
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Holocaust survivor Bejarano: "We live anyway, we're here!"one day: The classification has serious consequences for the VVN-BdA. A tax office in Berlin has deprived the organization of charitable status. What went through your mind when you heard about it?
Bejarano: What should have crossed my mind? That's a big impudence. I'm really wondering: where is Germany heading? I do not know what will happen in Germany, but I must try to prevent the shift to the right here. This is my work. And I do that as long as I live.
One day: You wrote a very emotional open letter to Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD). It says: "The house is burning - and you lock out the fire department!" Has Mr. Scholz already contacted you?
Bejarano: No, I do not expect that either. But I know that many people think like me.
one day: The Berlin tax office has made the controversial decision based on a report by the constitutional protection of Bavaria, who argues with the Communists in the VVN ...
Bejarano (interrupts upset) : Yes, why are communists in this club? Because they were the first to be persecuted by the NSDAP! Many have been killed in prisons and concentration camps. They were among the few who fought the Nazis. Of course, Communists are in the VVN, but that should not be the reason to withdraw our charitable status. What can be more non-profit than anti-fascism? It's a job for society.
One day: The protection of the Constitution criticizes especially the proximity to the German Communist Party (DKP). Thus, the VVN national spokesman appeared in 2018 as a guest of honor at the DKP party congress. The report assumes that the VVN is fighting against all "non-Marxist systems" - including parliamentary democracy.
Bejarano: What has that got to do with the DKP? We are impartial. What is in the minds of the people? In NRW they confirmed our non-profit status in October. Now she tells us the tax office in Berlin. That's a scandal. And that's why I did not write to the tax office in Berlin, but to Federal Finance Minister Scholz, who stands above these offices.
One day: Not only the Bavarian constitutional protectors have been listing the VVN in their reports for years. Even the political scientist Rudolf van Hüllen, once a constitutionalist, suspects that the VVN pursues a "Stalinist" variant of socialism.
Bejarano: That's really big nonsense. It's all used to discredit our work.
one day: For your commitment, you have received several awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit. In the first vexation over the current dispute, did you think of giving such a tribute in protest?
Bejarano: No. Only on my first award did I still think about not accepting her. But then friends told me, "Why would you do that? You did such a good job." And I'm really happy that my work is appreciated.
one day: To this work belongs the music, without which you probably would not have survived the Nazi era. Also at your upcoming performances you will again sing the hit "Bel Ami", which you had to recite in Auschwitz. How did that feel when you sang this song for the first time after the war?
Bejarano: I just did not want to sing "Bel Ami" anymore. But with this song, I have also saved my life. So every time I explain why I sing that song. The song is not the most important thing for me.
one day: but?
Bejarano: That we stand together on the stage, people of three generations and three religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. We sing in different languages, Turkish, Yiddish, German, Italian. We get along wonderfully. You can work well with all people - if you want.
One day: How many appearances at schools and with your band Microphone Mafia did you have this year alone?
Esther Bejarano: I really do not know. Countless. Concerts in the year about 150, in addition to the many visits to the schools.
one day: Does not it make you tired to tell your life story again and again? Do the Germans still need so much information and remembrance work?
Bejarano: You can see for yourself that there must be memory work! This political shift to the right in Germany and elsewhere is simply unspeakable. The right-wing parties want to destroy our democracy. This scares me as a witness. That's why you have to tell people what happened back then. Because there was no proper education and denazification after 1945. Adenauer brought many former Nazis into the government. There was silence and no telling what terrible crimes the Nazis committed against us.
one day: So you fear that the story could be repeated?
Bejarano: Yes, I'm afraid it will happen again. Because I had to see the crimes myself. I have seen how many people have been killed. My parents and sister have been murdered. So you have to tell people today: Do not shut up, do something! I see black if our government does nothing about racism and anti-Semitism.
One day: In the end, you always perform a Yiddish song at your concerts, which was composed in 1943 in the Vilnius ghetto: " I'm really happy". Out of your mouth the text sounds enormously defiant and life-affirming.
Bejarano: Yeah, that's my favorite song too: "We live anyway, we'll live and live and survive bad times." On the one hand, although I am pessimistic and black for Germany. On the other hand, I still have not lost my optimism, because I see how many positive people respond to our performances. That gives me hope.
