Celebration of Life

Dear Erik, dear All,

Many thanks for including me in the memorial for Henri. My warmest condolences to you, dear Rachel and the whole family

“Why another war - it tears wounds that never heal…” said an old man in tears when he was interviewed on the street in Moscow on February 28, 2022. Unfortunately, we all know only too well how right he is.

The old man reminded me of Henri who would have been very, very sad and upset, because he had hoped—as we all did—that there would never be another war on European soil. All his life he had been involved in prevention research and had studied human aggressiveness. During my time as director at the Sigmund Freud Institute (2001-2016), he supported me in a unique way in the implementation of the various early prevention projects we carried out for families living on the margins of society in Frankfurt, traumatized migrants, refugees and families who had fallen through the social net. It was a very special gift for us that he shared his impressive knowledge and his tireless, warm-hearted commitment to children with me and my team of young people in supervisions, consultations—and this in the country of the perpetrators responsible for the murder of his mother in Auschwitz. Henri's generosity, warmth and professional competence has been a formative experience for all of us. All the members of my team were very sad when I told them that Henri has passed away. One of them, Judith Lebiger-Vogel, wrote: “I remember him as an open, gentle, even loving person and was so impressed by how he was able to maintain this, despite his traumatic life story. A fighter for humanity, we really urgently need in these times.” Unforgettable is also the lecture he gave in 2012, at the Joseph Sandler Conference in Frankfurt a.M. I was deeply moved when I looked at the Youtube video in the net today again, following his lively, wonderful talk with his sonor deep voice as a singer, on the most important topic: The development of Aggression in childhood. He