Karolina's Story
by Leonard L Dreifuss
An Epilogue (Draft in Progress)
Pete Dreifuss
It is September 2023 and a new generation of descendants of Carrie travelled to honor her once again. It is now about 60 years after her passing and 43 years after my father wrote Karolina's Story.
After a two year delay caused by the 2019 Pandemic, eight of us fly to Frankfurt, Germany and take the 63 mile journey to Fulda by car and train. Most of us had not flown overseas for 2 years since the outbreak of the Pandemic. We likely would have delayed even further had I not received a letter from the Lord Mayor of Fulda that he would be hosting a international gathering of descendants of the former Jews of Fulda. The lettter was forwarded to me by Frau Anja Listmann, who would organize a week of activities. Anja was a retired teacher and activist for the memory of the former Jewish community of Fulda who was working in the Mayor's office and as a volunteer leader of Fulda student groups studying the Holocaust. She had previously agreed to lead our ill-fated 2020 visit that was cancelled at the last minute because of the Pandemic. She was recommended to me by cousin Steve Hess who had previously visited Fulda.
The most important site in Fulda to me was the forner home of my grandmother from which she departed. Here, as if by destiny, a new revised history of the story was taking shape as revealed by my cousin Myrna Schechter.
Myrna insisted that her mother-in-law had revealed that dad's version of the Karolina's family good-bye had to be fictionalized. Myrna claimed that my father's sister, Bea Dreifuss Schechter had told her that Carrie and her cousin Fanny left Fulda unannounced since they knew they would be stopped.