In a Wurzcburg station, with suitcases from 69 towns that had large Jeiwsh populations, plus one open suitcase with a poem by an Israeli poet that moved with his family from Germany dedicated to his childhood girlfriend who perished in the Holocaust.
The attached is a picture furnished by the Yad v’Shem Jerusalem (Hand and Name, the Jerusalem Holocaust Memlorial) via the Jerusalem Post
I can relate somewhat to the poet since my very best friend and second cousin, same age and a look alike, Jonti Wilkes, went down with the Athena in September 1939 after a U-boat attack.
I’m assuming the station you refer is Grunewald, which has several memorials for some years now.
I also assumed it was Grunewald, since the story came from Berlin. I recommend the website: www.guyshacher.com for more on Grunewald and more.
But:
From Jewish Telegraphic Agency, intended for distribution and reproduction:
BERLIN (JTA) – Nearly 80 years after the last train sent Jews to almost certain death from the main railway station in Wurzburg, a memorial to those who perished was dedicated in the German city.
The memorial, designed by artist Matthias Braun, features a collection of suitcases, backpacks and assorted travel gear made of stone, ceramic and other materials.
The luggage – its owners unseen – stands in front of the main station. Nearby are information steles with historical photos.
In a modern twist, one can scan QR codes on the luggage to learn about the Jewish population and history of each town that had someone deported on a train to the Theresienstadt concentration camp outside Prague, in then-Czechoslovakia.
Each sculpted suitcase has a twin in one of those towns.
Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and a Wurzburg resident, told Germany’s main Jewish weekly, the Juedische Allgemeine, that the memorial was likely the first in Germany to feature related monuments “at the central place of remembrance and in the local communities.”
Schuster, in fact, inspired the idea to have a memorial with separate branches, according to the newspaper.
The last major deportation from the Wurzburg station took place in June 1943.
Before the Holocaust, the Lower Franconia region reportedly had the highest density of Jewish communities in Germany. Between 1941 and 1944, some 2,069 Jews were deported from the area to Theresienstadt.
For the project, local artists were asked to create a symbo
https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poem/24211/auto/0/0/Yehuda-Amichai/Little-Ruth/en/tile
In case you wondered why the empty suitcase.
Ironically, all the other Hanovers left Wurzburg in the 1930s, and survived; Ruth was trapped in Holland, with an amputated leg; Amichai in a novel recounts how she skipped to the train after her prosthetic leg was confiscated. Remember her as a symbol of history, like the suitcase.
Thanks for the clarification and backstory.
Thank you, Overmod, for finding the beautiful poem. Thanks to you also, Charlie.
Only Jews from the 69 towns were shipped to concentration camps?
Oh wow, I had no idea this existed. That’s really amazing from the artist. Especially implementing QR codes for people to scan, that’ll help educate more people. Thanks for sharing this!
243129- Obviously they were from towns around Wurzburg and were brought there as a central gathering point, probably by truck. This sort of thing happened all over Europe, such as Parisian Jews being gathered at the Velodrome de Hiver and the Drancy horse racetrack and then taken from these locations for “settlement in the East and given special treatment” as the nazis told them.
109 towns were invited to participate in the memoroial, and 69 participated up to the time of the news item, but more are expected. Only the specific “state.”
As Charlie noted, Berlin haa had its own memorial station, platform 11 at Grunewald, for many years.
That does not answer my question.
I have removed my comments in order to keep the discussion centered on Dave’s information.
I have read many history books. That is why I asked the question to the OP.
Are you getting enough fiber in your diet murph? You seem a bit testy.
I have removed my comments in order to keep the discussion centered on Dave’s information.
“Prissy”? Your comment to go “read some history books” is prissy. The question is not dumb it is being asked of the original poster for a reason.
Try some shredded wheat perhaps that will improve your attitude.
Please cool it, both of you. It is obvious that he was referring only to German Jews, not all Jews under Nazi occupation, and that he wondered if Jews were settled in all German towns or just the 69 plus Berlin. That is a perfectly legitimate question. And it is true that there were Jews in most German towns and cities, but not in all. In this case ir is a memorial specifically for the Jews from somewhere between 69 and 109 towns, those that are in the final count of suitcases sent. Berlin has Grunwald Station, track 11, as a memorial for Berlin Jews and local street memorials to specific families. If I remember correctly, Frankfort on Maen (Sp) has a memorial adjacent to its West End Synagogue, which was Reform before WWII but now has an Orthodox congregation, an Orthodox congregation with a well-cared-for pipe organ! (Used in concerts)
Don’t attack people on this thread. Period. Don’t call names and use degrading adjectives or imply someone is stupid. Most of the time when you do that you simply don’t understand what is behind the question or misstatement.
I should also point out that Germany does now have a number of Jewish communities and synagogues.
And it is also true that not all German Jews had their lives ended in the Holocaust. In addition to those that obtained “Aryan” forged documents that could not be identified as forged, and those that joined anti-Nazi Partisons and survived underground, there was the interesting case of most Berlin Jewish men married to Christian women. The night before the roundup, thousands of these women converged on the street in front of Gestapo Headquarters and prevented any traffic, foot or vehicle, and refused to leave unless they were promised that their husbands would not be taken from them. And it actually worked! This was only in Berlin, and those men survived.
Mr. Klepper, let me clarify my original question. Were there other ethnic groups Involved in the deportation of which you speak?
Romany were among the “undesirables” dealt with in various ways.