Monday, January 31, 2005

Stickies!

I got lil stickers all over the house... almost 150 of them, labeling the walls, doors, rooms... even stuff inside most of the cupboards and drawers. hehe.

I threw Denis a surprise b-day party and he was extrememly happy about it. I spent quite a bit of time reading about cultural stuff and I learned a lot about b-day traditions and sum related vocabulary. cool! but nothing beats having 150 labels all over the house. hehe.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Auschwitz

This week is the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII and the liberation of Auschwitz. I have discovered that while in Germany, the Holocaust memorial in Berlin is to open, or something, i'm not sure... I should tho. PBS has an extensive documentary series on Auschwitz of which I watched tonite. horrendous. I plan to make it a point to visit a camp b4 I come home. A mojor issue that world leaders have been stressing is that at the next anniversary, the 70th, most of the remaining 1 million survivors will not be alive anymore. The reason is because children were systematically killed unless they were used for medical experiments or escaped. That makes older teens and 20 somethings the youngest gerneration to survive. I am amazed that these victims are still alive because the whole situation seems so remote yet I am disapointed by the fact that I will see a headline in my lifetime that claims the last holocaust survivor has passed away. Very strange concept indeed. It's a tough issue that I know I will have to face. Germany is forced to face it as this year being a whole string of 60th's which means that I won't have to confront it, it will confront me. My country and Germany were at war. Volzer's fought on both sides. its horrendous.

Genealogy

I just found all my dad's genealogy research. I knew that we are descended from Germany, but I didn't understand anything about it before. Now, I am shocked at the letters and the amount of information that is simply so jumbled that I wonder how I will sort thru it. It was my father's dream to put a genealogy together, inspired by when he visited Germany in '91. But also, he wanted to have a "reunion" in 2010, similar to one held in 1910, 'cept with the whole family, German and American branches. Although I had decided years ago to take up the project and lost interest due to time and no motivation.... I am realizing that my trip to germany and a thorough understanding of both sides of the family could prove invaluable towards the compliation of the records. And since I will know the language, I will be able to comunicate with more of my family. Plus, there are rumors that we come from southern france a bit... not sure about that, but I would certainly be thrilled to get to the bottom of that. I know a bit of french too.. so that would prove invaluable as well.

Although the task is immense, I feel that it is necessary to complete these records before my departure. Perhaps not extrememly comprehensive, but at least an accurate list. An ultimate goal would be to get letters and photographs of as many family memebers and a complete enough list to orgaize the "family reunion". A lot of work has already been done but a language and cultural barrier between the fatherland and "Amerika" has created an immense gap beyond the mid 1800's. My first problem is to either locate our old genealogy computer program, or to get a new one. Perhaps if possible, I can get these records online and linked to my blog.