Seite - 24 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 1/2015

24 Mobile culture Studies. The Journal 1 2o15 Joachim Schlör | The sea voyage as a transitory experience I had the impression that for many of the emigrants – who were expected, to use a phrase by Ernst freudenheim, „to become immigrants“ – the memory of the sea voyage represented an element of in-between-ness that should be studied very carefully. While traditionally research on these German-Jewish migrants had been conducted from two different perspectives – a German narrative of departure and a lost past on the one hand, and an Israeli narrative of arri- val and a gained future on the other –, these documents expressed a deep interest in the time/ space-model of the passage, of the journey, of the feelings connected to a time and a space that was neither ‚here‘ nor ‚there‘ – related to Germany, for sure, but disconnected from its territory, related to Israel, but not yet connected completely to the ‚land of the future‘. I first presented my thoughts on this thirdspace (following Edward Soja) or heterotopia (according to Michel foucault) at the large conference on ‚Yekkes in Israel‘, in Jerusalem 2004. Maybe this was not the most adequate occasion. Most of those present wanted to celebrate the successful integration of a group of immigrants that used to be looked at with suspicion when they first arrived – out of Germany rather than ‚out of conviction‘ and Zionist initiative – but are today regarded as a group that contributed profoundly to the development of the Israeli society, specifically in the areas of law, administration, and culture. It was not such a good idea to tell them that, in my view, they were mentally ‚still on the ship‘ (although I still think it is true). I meant to suggest that, in researching this story that brought German Jews from Germany to Palestine – and maybe, in more general terms, from the ‚Old World‘ of Europe to the ‚New World‘, to the United States and South America, to South Africa, to Australia –, we will need a place, a vantage point, from which both areas, the old and the new, the past and the future (herkunft und Zukunft) are still visible. There is no better place for such an enterprise than the ship. The ship embodies the notion of passage, moving as it is between here and there, crossing and recrossing the seas on both side of the borders: Narratives of leaving and narratives of arriving meet, come together – and sometimes contradict themselves – during this week, or several weeks of in-between-ness. This period is marked by restless activities both before people can enter the ship (consulting atlases and maps, sitting and waiting in the offices of Jewish aid organisations or consulates of potential new home countries, buying tickets,and so on) and after they leave it again (border control, passport control, customs, and the first impressions of a future life on a kibbutz in the Galilee or a farm far away from Buenos Aires, or in Manhattan. In contrast, the period of the sea voyage is marked by an intense silence. In the early period after 1933, when emigration from Germany was tolerated, partly even encouraged by the Nazi regime and entry visas to host countries were still available, the journey still resembled a sea voyage in more peaceful times. There was nothing much to do during this week before the emigrants arrived in haifa, or the three or more weeks it took to bring them to cape Town or Melbourne. Therefore, many people started to – felt the need, and also the opportunity to – reflect. To write down observations. To think about the ‚whence‘ and the ‚whither‘. Where do we come from, and where do we go? how do we feel in this suspended time and space? Where do we look, backward or forward? Together with David Jünger (Berlin) and Björn Siegel (hamburg) a project has been developed: to create a literary anthology that collects a variety of sea voyage testimonies, from letters, diaries, memoirs, or fictional texts. A visiting profes- sorship at the centre for Jewish Studies, Graz University, gave me the opportunity to organise