Esslingen 2005 - Interview with Jutta Fahrion
“Georg and Wilma have been known to us since 1989 through the invitation brochure to former Jewish citizens. Not only did I come to appreciate them personally, but so do many others, institutions and organizations. And whenever it comes to the subject of “Jewish fellow citizens” or “Commemoration of the victims of the Nazi regime”, the Iggers were our first point of contact.
The invitation programs ran from 1984 to 1990. However, the city of Esslingen dealt with the fate much earlier, namely in 1963 the mayor at the time had extensive documentation drawn up of addresses of former Jewish citizens who were still alive. They have been working on it for a long time, but the decision to invite them back to their old homeland was not made until 1984.
After all, I was born after 1945 and was, so to speak, an unencumbered person for the people and therefore I [got] a lot of contacts from both sides very easily. I have to say: At the beginning we tried to handle the contacts through another person who was much older. It didn’t work that way. And then, when this person who organized and supervised these visiting programs and came into direct contact with the people was younger, everything went very pleasantly and in a really friendly atmosphere and it was much easier for the people to transition to talk about the past.”