Markus Willy “Leo” Horovitz

Markus Willy “Leo” Horovitz, a Berkeley resident of nearly six decades who is one of the only known people to repatriate to Germany as a senior citizen after fleeing from there as a child during the Holocaust, died in Frankfurt on January 13. He was 90 years old.

Markus Horovitz and grandson Daniel Horovitz in Frankfurt, Germany, August 2016

Markus Willy Horovitz was born in Frankfurt on Nov. 8, 1928. His grandfather, Markus Horovitz, was a rabbi who was recruited to come to Frankfurt am Main, where a synagogue was built for him on the Börneplatz. His father was a silversmith, whose Judaica items can be seen in Jewish museums throughout the world.

Horovitz remembered witnessing Kristallnacht, which took place the day after his 10th birthday. His father was arrested in a roundup of German men very early on, but his friendship with a police officer helped him avoid being deported to a concentration camp.

That event scared his parents enough that they sent Horovitz and his older sister Hanna to Great Britain on the Kindertransport, which helped an estimated 10,000 German Jewish children escape. Eventually, Horovitz’s parents were also able to flee, though it was some time before the family was reunited. Horovitz and his sister were sent to live in the countryside when the Germans bombed London.

Horovitz attended the University of Toronto. Then he decided to pursue a degree in biophysics at Cal, which brought him to Berkeley in 1958, but he never finished his Ph.D.

While a student, he met Janet Rosenblum at a picnic for Jewish singles in Tilden Park, and they married soon after they met.

Reclaiming his German citizenship

Leo Mark Horovitz (left) and German Consul General Peter Rothen
Photo/Cathleen Maclearie

For much of his career, Horovitz worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and then later in technology. He and Jan had two children: Alex Horovitz, born in 1968, now of San Carlos, and Suzy McMeans, born in 1970, now of San Leandro. They divorced in 1980.

Horovitz’s background and relationship to Germany was a never-ending source of fascination for him; he first went back to visit in 1954, and later, found a job that had him commuting back and forth between Silicon Valley and Germany. He felt compelled to make peace both with Germany the country and Germans themselves.

This propelled him to seek out Berkeley-based drama therapist Armand Volkas, who spent decades leading workshops for Jews and Germans to work through their darkest feelings about “the other.”

While working through this trauma in dialogue and drama therapy was one outlet for him, clowning was another major one. He was a participant at the Clown School of San Francisco for over a decade. Horovitz was always the oldest person in the room, as he started clowning in his 70s.

When Horovitz was well into his 80s, he made an indelible mark on Wilderness Torah, which puts on earth-based festivals timed to the Jewish holidays, showing up with his box of clown costumes.

In 2014, Horovitz received German citizenship under Article 116 (2) of the German Basic Law, the country’s postwar constitution. The vast majority of Jews who reclaim German citizenship are the children or grandchildren of Holocaust survivors or refugees from Nazi Germany. Horovitz was the rare example of a German-born Jew who lived through the Nazi era and reclaimed it.

His receiving it was on the front page of J. in 2014. Not long after, Horovitz repatriated. His son said he found healing and acceptance there, something he had always longed for.

In addition to his son and daughter, Horovitz is survived by five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Donations in Horovitz’s memory can be made to either the UN Refugee Agency or the ACLU. A memorial service is pending in Berkeley. To receive details about the date, email alex@alexhorovitz.com.