We are in Passau. The water level on the Danube River is so low that we exited our ship from the top deck, which is not customary. The water level is so low that the ship can’t go to Nuremberg. Passau has experienced dramatic floods and droughts this year. A month ago, the lower part of the town was flooded. Not an unusual occurrence in this town. But only a month later, there is a drought and water levels are very low.

Passau is a beautifully preserved model of a 15th century town. The houses are low-rise. Only the churches rise above the skyline. The streets are paved with cobblestones.

What you see in this photo is the high-water marks of historic floods. The marks are recorded on the City Hall, which fronts the Danube. You can see the marks in comparison to a lofty front door, about 10-12 feet high. The worst flood, it is believed, occurred in 1501. The second worst flood was in 2013, when the water level reached about 15′.

Our guide, a law student, said that all higher education in Germany is tuition-free. But you can’t be admitted without passing an exam. You pass more exams to check your progress. If you don’t pass the exam, you get booted out. Students who are committed to their education are likely to retain their places. Those who are not keeping up are at risk of being kicked out.

I learned that Germans put a high value on education. Parents can send their children to religious and private schools, but such schools must follow the same standards and curriculum as public schools. Home schooling is not permitted.

I asked about Jews in Passau, and our guide–a law student–said the Jews left Passau 500 years ago. Later, I googled and learned that in the fifteenth century, a petty thief confessed that he stole the Host and sold it to Jews. Ten Jews were accused of stabbing the Host until it bled. The Jews were tortured until they confessed, and they were put to death along with their accuser. In the aftermath, the synagogue and Jewish homes were burned. A few dozen Jews converted to Christianity, and the rest of the small Jewish community packed up and left Passau. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/passau

We visited the main church in town. It was stunning, a magnificent combination of gothic and baroque styles.

In the evening, back on our ship, an oompah band played, and it was delightful. I feel a keen sense of double identity, first, as an American enjoying their performance and singing along with familiar songs and polkas. (“I love to go a wandering, along the mountain track, and as I go, I love to sing, my knapsack on my back.”)

Yet as a Jew, I can’t help looking at these friendly, jovial faces and wondering whose grandfather was a Nazi. None of them? Maybe.

Mary says I’m obsessed with the Holocaust. I don’t think so. But to be in Germany and Austria is to be constantly reminded of the horrors that befell people whose only crime was to be Jewish.

Friday we visit the infamous Treblinka concentration camp in the Czech Republic. I will go there to honor the dead and to pray, “Never again.”

These are measures of how high the flood rose and the year in which it happened. The worst flood occurred in 1501. The second worst was 2013.