This was a circle I had never expected would close. In the summer of 1938, my family and I fled the small town in Bavaria where our forefathers had lived for centuries. The town, Unsleben, had a population of about 1,000, of whom perhaps 15 percent were Jewish. My father and two of his brothers operated a granary, which was the family business. One of my uncles was the town doctor, and other relatives provided many of the town's services.

Within an 18-month period, all who could find a way out did so. They fled to the U.S., to Cuba, to South America and to South Africa. Some who could not find a way out perished in the concentration camps.

Most of my immediate family settled in and around New York City where we went to school, found careers, married, and had children and grandchildren. Most of those who fled to Cuba and South Africa eventually relocated to the New York area.

Then, two years ago, an incident occurred that would have dramatic consequences.

I had been working on my family and using the Internet to do some of the research. One of these searches turned up the astonishing fact that there was a Web page in Unsleben. An e-mail to that site put me in contact with an extraordinary young woman. Angela Bungert, a current resident of the town, had been trying to locate the Jews who had fled. Her goal was to re-establish contact and forge new links between the current inhabitants and the families of those who had left.

This summer her goal became my reality. Forty-one of my relatives from three continents, the refugees, their children and grandchildren, aged from 3 to 87, arrived in the town hall and were greeted by the town's people. The town hall, incidentally, is composed of the former synagogue and the main building of my father's business. The Burgermeisterin (mayor) and other leading citizens spoke to add their personal welcome. The four of us who were born in the town and several others introduced our families to the group.

During the following days we were invited to meet and visit with the townspeople who lived in our former homes, taken on a tour of the Jewish cemetery, and hosted at a reception in the schloss (castle) followed by an impressive concert attended by some 500 people held in our honor on the schloss grounds. Finally we were taken to Munich where we attended a session of the Bavarian Landestag (legislature) and were hosted at a luncheon by its president, Johann Boehm.

As we left Germany after another week of touring, all of us felt that the warmth we perceived was genuine and we had related to many good people who recognized a collective responsibility for a national nightmare.

While what was can never be restored, and what happened should never be forgotten, a step was taken to assure that future generations put hate and recriminations behind them.