By Nance Ebert, Contributing Writer
Photo/Submitted
WAYLAND – It’s an unlikely union between a Holocaust survivor and the daughter of a Nazi soldier. But Werner and Martha Salinger, 79 years after V-E Day took place on May 8, 1945, have written the ultimate love story that has prevailed for almost 70 years.
Fleeing Germany
Werner was born in Berlin in 1932, the year before Hitler came into power. He was a young boy of only six years old when his family fled Germany. He has vivid memories of glass shattered all over the street from local Jewish businesses that had been vandalized. He can also recall the smell of smoke that came from a burning synagogue nearby. He personally witnessed the horrible night known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass, a pogrom carried out against Germany’s Jews by the Nazis.
“My parents and I left Berlin shortly afterwards” said Salinger. “First staying for a short time in London and then we ultimately traveled to New York and stepped onto U.S. soil on February 12, 1939.”
As a young boy who did not speak English, life was challenging for Werner. Then his mother contracted tuberculosis and died. Werner was sent to live with relatives in New Jersey where he was one of eight children in the house. He started to learn the English language and began to thrive.
“Down the street I became friends with a man named Albert Einstein,” Salinger explained. “The physicist was very kind to me. He would play his violin and walk me through his beautiful garden.”
Several years later, Werner moved to Maryland to live, once again, with his father, who had gotten remarried to a German woman. He graduated high school and enlisted in the United States Air Force, eager to repay the country that he now calls home.
A fateful decision
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This decision played a major role in the trajectory of his life. Werner was deployed to Germany and stationed in the small town of Hof on the Saale River. There, because of his fluency in German, he interviewed former prisoners of war to obtain information about the Soviet Union. Martha was working there as a statistician. Their paths would cross at a dance held at the Castle Theresienstein, where many soldiers and local women went on Saturday nights.
“I wasn’t looking for a serious relationship,” Salinger noted. “I was simply looking for a pretty young German woman to see Europe with. I saw Martha and felt an instant connection. Because I spoke fluent German, we could converse easily. She had walked almost two miles in high heels in winter to get to this dance.”
“I had a car and offered to drive her home. She was reluctant and said that she would only go if her friend could come as well,” said Salinger.
That evening was the beginning of a lifetime commitment and partnership. Werner and Martha spent a lot of time together and fell deeply in love. Even when he disclosed the fact that he was Jewish, she did not seem to care, nor did her parents. They were extremely liberal.
Her father fought in the German army during World War II. He had been drafted and served a couple of years with the occupation forces in France prior to being sent to the Russian front. He joined the party to simply keep his job. He did not support Hitler.
“My position always was, you know that she was twelve years old when the war ended so how could she have possibly had anything to do with the Nazi times,” said Salinger.
A challenging situation
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They knew their situation would be challenging and not without some angst. Religious counselors were sent by the U.S. military. They tried to talk Werner out of this union.
“The rabbis were asking me how I could possibly consider doing this to my family,” Salinger explained. “From my perspective, that’s exactly what we should be doing. I thought this to be a good thing. We’ll help them find closure for what happened in Nazi Germany.”
Werner and Martha were married at City Hall with her father as their witness. They soon found out they were expecting a baby and hoped his family would warm up to the fact that this would be their grandchild and Martha would be their daughter-in-law. It did take a while, but his family grew to love Martha immensely.
Today, Werner and Martha celebrate their beautiful family with four adult children, six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren with one more on the way.
Public speaker and author
Werner continues to be invited to speak publicly about the Holocaust. He was recently invited to speak in Marblehead as well as an annual event on May 5 with the Concord/Carlisle Human Rights Council.
He is the author of several books, including “Close to the Wind,” an autobiography, “Counterclockwise,” “Tugboats and Tow Lines” and “Toward a More Equal World.”
Salinger attributes his successful marriage, against all odds, to be the result of love, mutual respect, even if your opinions differ, and the willingness to do the work.
Werner and Martha Salinger, after nearly seventy years as husband and wife, feel truly blessed.
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