It was a story the Journal first told a couple of years back. Alan Hoffstadter, a longtime Oak Parker, had been on a quest to find the story of his mother, Charlotte Goldberg. When she was 15, living in small-town Germany, one of a handful of Jewish families in Datteln, Goldberg was sent with other unaccompanied children on a voyage to America. Nazi Germany was rising, antisemitism was real and for Goldberg her idyllic childhood was over. She never spoke to her children about that experience.
Hoffstadter’s research led him to Andre Dora, the current mayor of Datteln. They formed a profound friendship, honors for Hoffstadter as the German town works to actively confront its history, and last week a visit to Oak Park by both Dora and Rosemari Schlosser, his aide.
They were welcomed by Vicki Scaman, Oak Park’s village president and a first generation German-American. Altogether remarkable as these two towns aligned around shared values of inclusion and active participation in the international Mayors for Peace group.