Testimonial von Ernst Löschner für Asher Ben Natan
Following the first Alpine Peace Crossing at the end of June 2007, our new Israeli friends who had come to Austria as survivors, invited a group of us for to visit Israel for a reunion in early December 2007. We accepted this invitation with great anticipation, hoping for the opportunity to meet Asher Ben Natan at this occasion and also Aba Gefen, who both were the key Bricha personalities in Austria.
When our group called on Asher Ben Natan and his wife Erika at their retirement home outside Tel Aviv on Dec 8, 2007, he opened his arms and embraced me while saying (in German): “You founded Alpine Peace Crossing in Krimml. I thank you sincerely for this.” I was totally stunned. I had done what I felt was right, never expecting anything in return, least from this giant of a man.
Having read his “Bricha” book, I was full of admiration for this man who had brought freedom and the perspective of a new homeland for thousands of Holocaust survivors.
Lateron in 1965 he was the “chosen” one to be the first ambassador of the new state of Israel in Germany. Meeting him now in person, I felt the subtle irony in this appointment even stronger: a man from Vienna (Asher was born there in 1921 as Artur Piernikarz) - the hometown of Theodor Herzl - as the top representative of the new state, resembling the height and good looks of Curd Jürgens, blond hair and blue eyes in a 6‘3 foot broad-shouldered frame, the picture-book model of “Aryan race”.
He excelled, with his resolve, charm, perseverance and organizational networking skills also in this assignment and his preceding and subsequent functions for the nascent nation.
At the 50th commemoration of the Krimml Exodus he came, together with Aba Gefen, to be reunited with Marko Feingold in 1997.
When we installed the Grove of Flight in the Krimml valley in October 2007 at the 70th commemoration, it was in a beautiful inter-religious ceremony that Asher Ben Natan was honored: the tree # 1 was dedicated to this great, wonderful man. My actor-friend Daniel Keberly cited haunting passages from „The Bricha”.
When I met Asher Ben Natan ‘s daughter Miri Ben Rafael only a few weeks later in Israel at the occasion of our presentation of APC memorial sites in Tel Aviv, I felt honored to reiterate my vote of gratitude to her father.
