At 21 years old, Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow, compelled by her family’s history, went to Germany for a year. To most people, the grandparents and great-aunts and great-uncles she met are historical heroes, but to Paasche-Orlow, they were just “normal people,” her elders. The descendant of Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, a German general involved in the resistance movement against Adolf Hitler, and his resistance fighter sons involved in the July 20 attempted assassination of Hitler, Paasche-Orlow carries the torch for a history of resistance that has taken on new importance as authoritarian regimes gain traction globally.
“I’ve been realizing as I’ve been thinking about tonight that resistance wasn’t just something my family historically did,” Paasche-Orlow said during a panel discussion of a documentary made about her family history at Northeastern University. “It was something they practiced as a way of thinking and living, and this meant they were also passing it forward.”
