Overview
- Herder Verlag, working with Yad Vashem, the Freundeskreis Yad Vashem and the Alfred Landecker Foundation published Nach so viel Schmerz und Pein as the first German-language edition of a 2016 Yad Vashem collection.
- The book gathers private letters written by survivors in 1945–46 from camps, displaced persons sites and hiding places that record survival, loss, searches for relatives and plans to emigrate.
- The Berlin launch on Monday, September 14 featured readings by actors Iris Berben and Oliver Masucci, was moderated by Tanit Koch, and included a speech by Federal Education Minister Karin Prien urging use of the letters in schools.
- Selected letters highlighted in coverage illustrate the collection’s tone and range, including Arthur Feige’s 1946 account of wanting to leave for Palestine and feeling an ‘‘entsetzliche seelische Leere’’ and Richard Fleischer’s report of weighing about 32 kilograms at liberation.
- Editors and historians stress the book’s archival and pedagogical value as eyewitness numbers fall and public antisemitism rises, and they say the letters’ multilingual, pan‑European scope can deepen empathy and preserve testimony for future generations.