Category Archives: family stories

Gifts of Summer Guests

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Suzanne Loebl

Summer homes, especially when located in spectacular places, usually attract guests laden with gifts and improvements. This year, now that I am old, handicapped, car-less, and recently widowed, both were plentiful. Walter was the first guest. His contributions were novel … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories | Tagged echo lake, family, maine, mount desert island, refugees, summer homes, summer houses | 6 Comments

Vati

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Suzanne Loebl

I had my father for a relatively short time: 24 minus 6 years. When he died suddenly, more than half a century ago, I was distracted by both the immense joy and relief of having recently met my life partner … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories | Tagged family, family stories, german jewish history, german jews, hidden children, jewish history, nazi germany | 6 Comments

Lockdown 1942, Lockdown 2020

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Suzanne Loebl

For me, the current lockdown is a vivid reminder of the two years I spent as a “hidden child” in Belgium during World War II. Actually, I was neither a child nor confined to my quarters like that other, very … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories, history | Tagged coronavirus, covid-19, german jews, hidden children, holocaust, quarantine, world war ii | 4 Comments

Raising a Gay Child Before Stonewall

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Suzanne Loebl

I regret to say that I barely remember the riots at Stonewall, the bar in Greenwich Village where on June 26, 1969, a group of gay patrons successfully resisted harassment by the New York City police. The event would play … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories, politics | Tagged gay pride, lgbt, lgbt family, lgbtq, nazi germany, parenting, stonewall | 2 Comments

My Guardian Angel

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Suzanne Loebl

I have a guardian angel. I think he is male, though you could not tell by looking at him. He has golden wings and wears a plain white gown. He does not concern himself with politics or other important things, … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories | 4 Comments

Three Family Bar Mitzvahs

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Suzanne Loebl

To the memory of David Loebl (1956-1993) on his 63rd birthday and the 50th anniversary of his bar mitzvah. I was eight years old when my mother and I attended the bar mitzvah of my cousin Ernst Wertheimer (later Worth). … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories | 5 Comments

The Disastrous Consequences of Separating Parents and Children

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Suzanne Loebl

More than fifty years ago, my three-year-old son David and I went grocery shopping in our smallish neighborhood supermarket. I concentrated on the week’s bargains while he immersed himself in the comics rack. Suddenly I felt a small hand tugging … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories, history, politics | 2 Comments

At Home on Echo Lake

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Suzanne Loebl

For the past half-century, my husband of 67 years and I have spent our summers on Echo Lake in Somesville, Maine. This year we wondered whether we would make it. My spouse is not well, and I too have medical … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories | 10 Comments

An Announcement

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Suzanne Loebl

As many readers of this blog know, I have written two memoirs. One of them, At the Mercy of Strangers: Growing Up on the Edge of the Holocaust, is an account of my experience as a hidden Jewish teenager during World War … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories, history | 1 Comment

On Ice Cream

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Suzanne Loebl

All of us have foods that unleash floods of memories. For Marcel Proust it was Madeleine cakes. For me, one of those foods is ice cream. I simply love ice cream. In my birth town of Hanover, it was only … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories, history | 2 Comments