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In his memoir, Wieck muses on human nature and speculates on ultimate causes and the nature of the deity. Although he retained a strong emotional attachment to
Judaism, he ultimately espoused a kind of deism, alluding to "a definite feeling of something 'lying behind it all' that always resists being
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on April 9, 1945 – one month before the end of World War II – the city had become a vast graveyard of rubble. Of the 316,000 people who lived there before the war, perhaps 100,000 remained, and Wieck estimated that about half of these were to die of hunger, disease, or maltreatment before the last
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pogrom of
November 1938. During the pogrom perpetrators vandalized the interior of the Orthodox synagogue hall, but spared it from arson because it was housed in a residential building. Later the congregation restored a prayer hall in the building and used it until the few remaining Königsberg
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All people, be they musicians or politicians, Germans or New
Zealanders, Jews or Christians, the persecutors or the persecuted, are frighteningly the same irrespective of different temperaments, ideals and conventions. In all of us resides the potential for every possible
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discrimination and oppression. First
Michael and Miriam were ejected from public schools and sent to Jewish schools. Later they were forbidden to attend classes at all. In 1938 Miriam was sent to a boarding school in Scotland in a
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Germans were allowed (or forced) to leave in 1949-50. The Soviet authorities declined to recognize the few surviving German Jews in Königsberg as victims of the Nazis, and initially treated all German-speakers as enemies.
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After consultation with a local rabbi, his Jewish mother and his nominally
Protestant, but in religious matters indifferent, father decided to bring up their children, Michael and his sister, Miriam (born 1925), as
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said that, in his life and work, "Wieck combines cultural, social, political and musical commitment. His commitment to an open, tolerant and equitable society is impressive."
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The Wieck family experienced the pain of parting with emigrating Jewish relatives and friends – most acutely when the Nazi regime in
October 1941 began systematic
82:, Kurt Wieck and Hedwig Wieck-Hulisch. They were founders of the popular Königsberger Streichquartett (Königsberg String Quartet). Wieck was a grand-nephew of
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272:(1885-1941), a German-Jewish lawyer and politician from Stuttgart who was imprisoned by the Nazis and ultimately tortured to death at
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Shortly thereafter, young
Michael Wieck was compelled to work in factories. In mid-1941 Wieck celebrated his
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a person born from a Jewish mother is Jewish by birth. Following promulgation of the 1935 anti-Jewish
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in truncated and divided
Germany. Wieck left the Soviet zone as soon as possible and lived first in
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38:), was published in 1989. In it he relates his and his partly Jewish family's sufferings under the
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put into words." Regarding human nature and humankind’s potential for good and evil, he said:
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78:, Russia). He was the son of two Königsberg musicians who were widely known before the
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Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the
Federal Republic of Germany
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came to power in
January 1933, the Wiecks experienced the gradual ramping-up of
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to ghettos and concentration camps. However, because Wieck's parents were in a
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and enrolled them with the Jewish congregation in Königsberg. According to
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58:(Sunset of Königsberg). A revised Russian edition was published in 2015.
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372:(1990), Munich: Beck, 2005, (Beck'sche Reihe; vol. 1608), pp. 84seqq.
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A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew,"
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A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew"
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Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs: Ein "Geltungsjude" berichtet,
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Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs: Ein «Geltungsjude» berichtet
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417:"OB Kuhn überreicht Bundesverdienstkreuz an Michael Wieck"
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283:. In presenting the award on behalf of German President
347:. Jews in East Prussia. History and Culture Society
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279:On 17 November 2016 Wieck was awarded Germany's
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22:(19 July 1928 – 27 February 2021) was a German
234:On his return to Germany Wieck settled in
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16:German violinist and author (1928–2021)
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319:University of Wisconsin Press, 2003,
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172:In late August 1944, Königsberg was
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512:21st-century German male musicians
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36:Witness to the fall of Königsberg
32:Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs
141:in the small Orthodox synagogue
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264:In 2005, Wieck was awarded the
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397:. 18 November 1961. p. 10
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274:Mauthausen Concentration Camp
167:Königsberg's Jewish community
419:. Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart
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492:Musicians from East Prussia
345:"Obituary of Michael Wieck"
276:in German-annexed Austria.
240:Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
199:Wieck's incarceration in a
155:deportations of German Jews
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443:Jews in East Prussia, 2021
487:Writers from East Prussia
482:Musicians from Königsberg
441:Obituary of Michael Wieck
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213:Soviet Zone of occupation
165:, unlike most members of
517:Musicians from Stuttgart
467:20th-century German Jews
150:synagogues were banned.
50:in 2003 under the title
522:Writers from Königsberg
507:21st-century violinists
405:– via PapersPast.
477:German male violinists
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229:University of Auckland
205:Königsberg-Rothenstein
174:repeatedly fire-bombed
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106:(mixed race), but as
266:Otto Hirsch Medaille
193:conquered Königsberg
182:Königsberg Cathedral
96:Jewish religious law
497:German male writers
287:, Stuttgart Mayor
201:Soviet prison camp
66:Wieck was born in
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472:German violinists
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56:Закат Кёнигсберга
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421:. Retrieved
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401:25 September
399:. Retrieved
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295:Bibliography
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125:anti-Semitic
121:Adolf Hitler
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462:2021 deaths
457:1928 births
270:Otto Hirsch
225:New Zealand
217:West Berlin
209:Kaliningrad
76:Kaliningrad
451:Categories
332:References
289:Fritz Kuhn
139:Bar Mitzva
104:Mischlinge
68:Königsberg
236:Stuttgart
219:, where "
187:When the
114:Holocaust
62:Biography
24:violinist
189:Red Army
163:genocide
80:Nazi era
423:7 March
255:action.
221:Gentile
48:English
44:Soviets
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351:3 June
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260:Awards
119:After
28:author
395:Press
203:near
74:(now
40:Nazis
425:2018
403:2021
374:ISBN
353:2021
321:ISBN
306:ISBN
92:Jews
26:and
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