Stefan Lippmann celebrated his bar mitzvah at 91, nearly eight decades after he had hoped to mark the Jewish coming-of-age rite at the traditional age of 13. The ceremony took place on October 15 at the Holocaust Memorial in São Paulo, where he now lives.
“I recovered something I had lost,” Lippmann said, describing the event as a reconnection with his roots and a way to restore family traditions. He added that he believed his mother would have been happy.
Born in Plauen, Germany, in 1935, Lippmann was three when his family decided to leave the country after the November 1938 pogrom known as Kristallnacht. He recalled civilians entering their home and destroying its contents. His mother took him to Belgium, while his father stayed behind to deal with the family’s curtain factory.
In Brussels, Lippmann’s mother worked as a domestic worker for a family that knew she was Jewish and helped her hide. Lippmann used a false identity, taking the name Etiene Campenhout, and was sent to a Catholic convent. He later considered converting, but a priest advised him to wait until he was older before making that decision.
After the war, Lippmann and his mother were expelled from Belgium because their status in the country had not been regularized. They traveled to Brazil in the hold of a cargo ship and arrived with few possessions. Lippmann said the Jewish community in Brazil helped them with medical care and clothing.
He began learning about Judaism at 12, but a teacher concluded he could not prepare for the bar mitzvah. Having spent time in the convent, Lippmann had not learned enough Hebrew for the ceremony, and he spoke only French when he reached Brazil. His mother had brought gifts to give him after the rite, but never handed them over.
Lippmann’s father was arrested, and his son initially thought he had been killed in France. Years later, after visiting Auschwitz as a tourist, he learned through records held by Yad Vashem that his father had died there.
Lippmann said he identifies as Brazilian today and remembers being welcomed in the country. He also expressed concern about the resurgence of far-right politics in Germany, recounting that memorial plaques honoring victims of Nazism were removed in a town where neo-Nazis had won an election.
Sources: Folha Mundo.