German teen honors Holocaust victims by living in American shelter

Just 18 and in a foreign county, Linus Jansen is living in a homeless shelter -- by choice.

Jansen, of Frankfurt, Germany, is living in a shelter with 14 Jewish men and women, all aged 60 or older, as part of his own faith's quest to atone for the Holocaust. The shelter is run by Dorot, a social service agency that provides services for older people, and is located in an old brownstone on Manhattan’s upper west side. According to Sara Peller, associate director of programs, Dorot strives to end social isolation and bring the generations together for their mutual benefit. Finding permanent housing for seniors who are homeless, or face eviction, is one of the services Dorot provides.

The lanky Jansen was assigned to work at Dorot’s shelter as a volunteer with Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, a German non-profit organization established by the German Lutheran Church to make amends for the Holocaust.

Jansen is one of this year’s 25 German secondary school graduates that Action Reconciliation has sent to the United States to work in agencies that help the poor, the mentally and physically challenged, and Holocaust survivors.

[pullquote]

The literal translation of the organization’s German name refers to atonement, said Jansen, who says he does not feel a need to atone for what his grandparent’s generation did. “I don’t think that is my responsibility,” he said. But he says he will strive to do his share to bring the German and Jewish communities closer.

Jansen makes dinner for shelter residents, varying the menu. “I make a different salad each night, adding nuts or herbs to the greens,” he said.

Jansen also monitors clients who have been placed in permanent housing and invites them to join Dorot programs that make them feel part of a larger family. “Recently, we took a group to the circus,” he said. “We offer people things to see that are hard to afford in New York if you don’t have much money.”

Working in the homeless shelter has been a challenging learning experience for Jansen. “It’s made me appreciate what I have,” he said.

Jansen first learned he was being assigned to a homeless shelter on September 9, the day he arrived in the United States with the 24 other Action Reconciliation volunteers.

He says his experience in the homeless shelter has helped him realize how vulnerable people are.

“A woman resident who used to volunteer to work with the poor ended up in the shelter because of a series of unlucky events in her life,” he wrote in a recent diary entry. “It can happen to any one of us.”

Jansen’s room at the shelter reveals he’s still a teenager. A cardboard collage of the city skyline hangs over his bed. It contains tickets from all the New York events he’s attended. His books stand on the windowsill, among them “The Great Gatsby,” a guide to New York, and the history of an apple cider drink that’s popular in Frankfurt.

He spends some of his spare time listening to music that ranges from the upbeat sounds of a German folk band called Beirut to the melancholy works of Gustav Mahler.

In addition to his responsibilities in the shelter, Jansen has an equally important responsibility, which is to visit Hadassah (Dasha) Rittenberg every Wednesday. Rittenberg, an 85-year old Holocaust survivor, is an energetic woman who still works three days a week at a local pharmacy.

“I was scared that she would say, 'I don’t want a German in my home,'” said Jansen.

His anxiety disappeared when the diminutive woman greeted him and offered to make tea and give him cake. Jansen said he admires Rittenberg for not turning him away because of Germany’s genocide in her native Poland.

Rittenberg was 9-years old when World War II began on September 1, 1939, with Germany’s invasion of Poland. She was shuttled to several concentration camps during the war. The Germans murdered most of her family.

The petite elderly woman and the six-foot tall young German, an odd couple, learn from one another. He organizes her computer files, a formidable challenge for her. “He tells me something about the computer, and I forget most of it the next day,” she says, joking about her technical ineptitude.

Jansen says he learned about the Holocaust from schoolbooks. “It became real when I met Dasha and heard her story,” he said. “It has changed me.”

Rittenberg wants Jansen to learn about Jewish history. She asks him to read about Jewish scholars like Maimonides and tell her what he’s learned. She’s told him about Jan Karski, the Polish patriot who escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe to tell the world about the mass murder of Jews.

Rittenberg says Jansen’s curious and has learned much about Jewish history.

“I know where I came from,” she said, with sadness. “I don’t keep reminding him where he comes from, but I don’t let him forget either.”