PEOPLE IN THE BERGISCH REGION

The Story We Carry Within Us

Terry Mandel, descendant of a Holocaust survivor, tells students about her family’s escape from the Nazis

By Oliver Wahl

She is the daughter of a woman who, at just 14 years old, fled from Cologne to England and later to the United States shortly after the November Pogroms of 1938: Terry Mandel, an American and founder of the Unerasure Project, visited the Rheinisch-Bergisch district. According to district officials, she spoke to 50 students from the comprehensive schools in Kürten and Rösrath about an escape during the Nazi era that permanently changed her family’s life.

Under the title “Secrets/Silence,” Mandel explained to eighth-grade and upper-level students how profoundly the past can shape the present. She emphasized that international family histories often remain unspoken, even though they continue to influence later generations.

“We are all descendants and carry stories within us that we did not personally experience,” Mandel said.

According to the district, the students’ response was remarkable. After the discussion with the American visitor, they wrote down their thoughts on numerous small notes.

One student wrote:

“It was interesting to see how many people do not know what happened to their relatives during World War II.”

Another added:

“It makes me think about what happened to my own family in the past. Now I want to ask my family where I actually come from.”

Both schools belong to the network School Without Racism – School With Courage. According to the district, the students were enthusiastic about their exchange with Mandel.

One conclusion was:

“It was great that we could speak openly and ask questions.”

A female student summarized:

“Terry is an impressive woman with such an interesting story. It is so important that we learn more about this.”

The event was organized by the district’s Municipal Integration Center. According to district officials, the conversation with Mandel was part of ongoing anti-discrimination efforts in the Rheinisch-Bergisch district. The goal is to strengthen diversity and democratic participation by making abstract history come alive through personal encounters.

The Unerasure Project

According to its own description, the Unerasure Project focuses on reclaiming “hidden treasures within ourselves, our communities, and the world.”

While that may sound somewhat abstract, the idea is straightforward: the project seeks to build communities across cultures and generations in order to confront inherited history together and speak openly about it. Its focus is therefore on family legacy and remembrance.

The project’s work centers on creating opportunities for dialogue and learning in settings such as schools, government agencies, and businesses. It also emphasizes education and the recovery of stories whose transmission was often interrupted by oppressors, particularly stories related to the Holocaust, making them visible once again.

The project was founded by Terry Mandel, whose mother successfully escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager in 1938. In 2022, Terry traveled from California to Cologne to install Stolpersteine (memorial “stumbling stones”) for her mother. According to the project’s website, she met the current owners of her family’s former home as well as students interested in exploring their own family heritage.

There, Mandel encountered what she described as an “ongoing erasure” of heritage, occurring both openly and unconsciously. This experience inspired her to establish the organization behind the project.

More information is available at:

Unerasure Project Website