Wewelsburg Memorial – In commemoration of Hans Drach

Jessica Dennis liest ihren Text in einem Video zum 76. Gedenktag der Befreiung des Konzentrationslagers Niederhagen März 2021

Our Grandma Rosa Drach was a hugely influential part of all of our lives and her escape from Germany to the UK in 1934, following 22 months in prison for plot to treason, were always subjects of fascination and discussion.
We knew that she had been lucky.
We knew her mother, an outspoken Jewish Communist, had survived the war in hiding in Germany. With the help of the British Red Cross, they were reunited in London in the late 1940s.
We knew of her brother Thomas (also known as Gideon) and his work with the Westerweel Group in Holland, protecting Jewish children from the Nazis. We knew of his capture and imprisonment and that of his wife Margot and of their subsequent flight to Israel, where his family remain to this day.
We discovered, as late as the 1980s that her father Fritz had joined the French resistance under the pseudonym Francois Denis, that he died in prison and now lies in a war heroes’ graveyard in Nimes.
But questions always remained around her youngest brother Hans.
It has always been vital to our family to remember the experiences of our relatives in the Holocaust, so that we can keep their memories alive, to pass this memory on to our own children, so as to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.
Having grown up to be an actor and singer myself, and being raised in a family where music is extremely important, I feel a powerful connection to Hans.
Whilst studying to be an actor, one of my tutors, fascinated by the story, unearthed a song, “Mein Vater wird gesucht”, convinced it was penned by my Great Uncle.
It seemed an incredible and tenuous link.
When I showed the lyrics to my Grandma, she was astonished and entirely convinced that the Hans Drach that had written this song, was indeed her brother.
Sadly, for us, we lost my Grandma in 2017 before discovering any more information on what had become of Hans.
It was only in the last 18 months, with the help of Kirsten John-Stucke at Wewelsburg, that we started to fully understand his fate.
Learning that he travelled to the Soviet Union to make theatre and that his song, is remembered by the people of Wewelsburg to this day, touches us all deeply.

Jessica und Tom Dennis, grandniece and grandnephew, England