Conversion Story

Now this is a complicated past.

Bernd Wollschlaeger has two stories to tell.

First, he's a former officer in the Israel Defense Forces, a physician who developed expertise in biological warfare. He lives in Miramar, runs a family practice in North Miami Beach, has become a legislative leader of the American Medical Association and is active in local Jewish causes.

Now, at 49, he has decided to tell ``my coming-out story.''

It is this: He was born the Christian son of a World War II German tank commander -- a third-generation warrior who received Deutschland's highest military honor, the Iron Cross, which was pinned on his uniform by Adolf Hitler himself.

As a teenager, Bernd studied the Nazis and the Holocaust and was repelled by what he learned. Ultimately, he converted to Judaism and moved to Israel.

''This was, and is, very difficult to deal with,'' he said. ``I never saw my father again.''

But recently, after telling his children about his father, he started talking -- first at Hillel Community Day School, where his two eldest children attend. Now, he has created a website -- AGer manLife.com -- and plans to publish a book under that name.

''He is an amazing individual,'' said Brian Siegal, executive director of the American Jewish Committee's local chapter, where Wollschlaeger was elected to the regional board. ``He's gone through an amazing self-reflection and contributes greatly to the work we are doing.''

For years, he kept his past secret, not even telling his first wife, a Jew he met in Israel -- an omission that, when revealed, seriously damaged the marriage.

''I lied, plain and simple,'' he said. 'I was ashamed of my past, and it wasn't something that you could work easily into a conversation in Israel. `My father was a Wehrmacht officer.' That's definitely a party pooper.''