TORONTO - For Lore Dreyfuss Cymbalist, 90, it was a chance to show her children their German heritage.
But for Christiane Walesch-Schneller, a psychoanalyst and one of the organizers of a grass-roots German organization (the Förderverein), it was an opportunity for Jewish and non-Jewish survivors to mourn together in a way that has never happened before.
Lore, who was born in Breisach, Germany, travelled back to Germany with her two sons, Gil and Mark, and their wives, Ginny and Judy. The family was headed to the 60th anniversary of the deportation of the Jews from Breisach.
The trip was organized by the Förderverein, a group founded in November 1999 to commemorate the Jewish community by rebuilding Jewish sites. The group now has 150 European members and about 30 overseas members, most of them non-Jews.
While their first goal is to rebuild Jewish sites, "Our second goal is to establish new relations for survivors and their families," Walesch-Schneller said in an interview. "This is a big step forward.
"The aim is to commemorate the Jewish community, the families, and the murdered. We want to start with research - to collect memories, pictures and objects to put together the history and make it as vivid as possible."
The artifacts are to be eventually housed in a planned museum in the Gemeindehaus (Community House) in Breisach, which has recently been restored.
While the Cymbalists were in Breisach, they went to services at the Gemeindehaus, where Ralph Eisenman led the prayers.
Before Kristallnacht, the cantor of the Breisach synagogue was Michael Eisemann. After the synagogue was burned down, Michael continued to conduct services in his home, the Gemeindehaus, until he was eventually deported to Dachau.
After, Michael's son, Ralph, led the services until he managed to escape to Palestine at the age of 15 with the Kladovo-Transport, Ginny said.
"When Ralph led the services once again, in the same room, using the same old tunes, there wasn't a dry eye in the place," Gil said.
"In so many ways, it was a very emotional trip for my mother."
At night, Lore said that she would wake up and see things that weren't there anymore. The people and the city of Breisach Lore was born in were mostly destroyed.
Lore, who now lives in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., lost 17 close family members in the Holocaust. She escaped Germany with her husband, Leonard, when they made their way to England by ship.
Lore and Leonard were in England during the Blitz, and by September 1939, they arrived in the United States and settled in Philadelphia, Pa. Not long after their arrival, Leonard served in the armed forces. Later, their two sons served.
Gil, who got married and settled in Sault Ste. Marie where he was stationed with the air force, said that for 60 years his mother

never even bought a German product, let alone expressed any desire to go back to Germany.
But she changed her mind when they found out about this trip while exploring the family's genealogy.
"Yvonne Hill, the daughter of mom's first cousin, found us on the Internet," Gil said.
In less than a month, the Cymbalists found themselves in Breisach with other survivors and their memories.
One of the things Lore brought with her was a napkin ring. Lore's cousin, Else Dreyfuss, was a child who couldn't immigrate because she had TB. She and her mother were deported to Gurs where Else died in 1941.
During the war, Else learned to do beadwork and among the things she made was a napkin ring for Lore's mother, Bertha Loewenthal Dreyfuss.
When Bertha immigrated to the United States, she brought the napkin ring with her and it has been used for many years at the Cymbalist home. Lore brought the napkin ring and presented it to the Förderverein to be displayed in the planned museum.
The Cymbalists also spoke to high school students in Breisach.
"At first, I had a bad feeling towards all of them," Lore said. "You never know which one of their parents killed someone from my family. But really, these children had nothing to do with it. You can't blame them."
By the end of the meeting, Lore was impressed by the young people - their interest and their sincerity.
"They have a collective guilt about what their country did. They are dealing with their own survivor's guilt," Ginny said.
"So many initiatives, single people and groups, are getting together here in something we hope to develop as a model to be practised in other parts of the country," Walesch-Schneller said.
"We want to create language out of the silence that is common in German families. For us it is important to show that the [Jewish] families are not forgotten.
"We cannot change the past. But for our self-respect we want to open the house and our town for the survivors and their descendants so that they can feel welcome, explore their bitter past - and maybe the lighter moments as well."