{"id":50904,"date":"2021-07-05T17:13:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/?page_id=50904"},"modified":"2021-07-05T17:13:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:13:57","slug":"reichspogrom-night","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/reichspogrom-night","title":{"rendered":"Reichspogromnacht"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reichspogromnacht<\/h1>\n

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The synagogue\u2019s destruction was captured by the amateur photographer Erich Koch (1914\u20131986) from Siegen. Koch, a businessman by profession, arrived at the scene when the building was already in flames. The rights for the photo series with 26 shots are held by the Siegerl\u00e4nder Heimat- und Geschichtsverein (the Siegerland society of local history). The Aktives Museum association presented the pictures to the public for the first time on November 9, 2018.<\/h6>\n

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Compa\u00adra\u00adtively late, around noon on November 10, the Siegen synagogue, too, fell victim to the flames. The new SS Haupt\u00adsturm\u00adf\u00fchrer<\/em> in Siegen, the teacher Heinrich Lumpe, had obviously not known of a synagogue and was only made aware of it by a call from his superior. Imme\u00addia\u00adtely, Lumpe assembled a group of ten to twelve SS and SA men, whom he ordered to wear civilian clothes. In broad daylight, they entered the building and built a pyre out of wooden benches, the harmonium, and the preaching podium. The fire quickly spread, and the apartment of the janitor\u2019s family caught fire. The fire\u00adfigh\u00adters concen\u00adtrated on preven\u00adting the fire from spreading to the surroun\u00adding buildings. The numerous onlookers kept quiet; neither applause nor protest could be heard. Only a doctor from the neigh\u00adbor\u00adhood, whose patients included members of the Jewish community, shouted from the window, \u201eWhat kind of a dirty job are you doing?\u201c<\/p>\n

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\u201eOn that night of 9 November 1938, ever\u00ady\u00adthing changed: the pogroms, orchestrated by the state and accepted by the public, ended what had always been a trou\u00adble\u00adsome coexis\u00adtence for the Jews with the majority of the popu\u00adla\u00adtion in the German Reich. The anti-Semitism that had been state doctrine since 1933, which justified the social discri\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion of the Jews, turned into perse\u00adcu\u00adtion that culmi\u00adnated in exter\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion. The \u201aReichs\u00adkris\u00adtall\u00adnacht\u2018 was the beacon for all that was to come, it was the end of discri\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion, it was the beginning of the Holocaust.\u201c<\/div>\n

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Wolfgang Benz<\/p>\n

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The perpe\u00adtra\u00adtors then went to the J\u00fcngst restau\u00adrant to celebrate the \u201eJuden\u00adak\u00adtion\u201c in the SS\u2019s regular pub. Six of them were charged in 1948 \u201ewith crimes against humanity and aggravated arson.\u201c The sentences were extremely lenient: Three men were acquitted, and three were sentenced to prison terms of a maximum of one year and two months, but these were shortened or even suspended. The justi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion of the verdict said that the defen\u00addants had merely been \u201etools of others.\u201c \u201eTheir insight into the injustice of their deed\u201c had been \u201econsider\u00adably impaired\u201c by the \u201epropa\u00adganda which they had been exposed to for years.\u201c<\/p>\n

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The fragment of the Torah scroll is one of the few things that remain from the Siegen Jewish Community. The piece of paper had been rescued from the debris by 14-year-old high school student Heinrich Kretzer. Heinrich Kretzer was one of the students from the city\u2019s high school who were sent to the scene of the fire by their teachers to witness \u201ethe new era.\u201c Kretzer took the parchment, hid it under his sweater, carried it home, and pinned it in his closet: one must not forget what had happened, the student justified his courageous deed. Heinrich Kretzer died in October 1944 at the age of twenty as a Wehrmacht soldier.<\/h6>\n
Half a century later, his youngest brother Rolf remembered the fragment: In the summer of 1995, the Aktives Museum S\u00fcdwestfalen (AMS) had called on the citizens of Siegen to search for things from the Nazi era. Rolf Kretzer gave the page to the museum, where it can be seen today. <\/h6>\n

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After the Pogrom Night, the number of Jews who wanted to leave Germany increased rapidly. Around 130,000 \u2013 as many as in the entire previous five years \u2013 left their belon\u00adgings behind and set off for an uncertain future. Those who could, also left the Sieger\u00adland: by the time Jewish emigra\u00adtion was banned on 23 October 1941, about forty percent of the Sieger\u00adland Jews had left. Those who stayed behind were the old, the sick \u2013 and men who bore respon\u00adsi\u00adbi\u00adlity like Eduard Hermann, chairman of the Siegen Jewish Community since 1921. The small group of believers now met in his house for services. Hermann also had to conduct the nego\u00adtia\u00adtions with the Nazi autho\u00adri\u00adties, who demanded that the congre\u00adga\u00adtion demolish the ruins and sell the property.<\/p>\n

The congre\u00adga\u00adtion had to bear the costs of the demo\u00adli\u00adtion, and the property was sold to the city of Siegen for far less than its value on 20 July 1940 \u2013 almost exactly 36 years to the day after the synagogue was dedicated. In 1941, the city built an air raid shelter on the property. There was to be nothing left to remind people that a synagogue had stood here.<\/p>\n

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For the Jews who remained in Germany, the situation became incre\u00adasingly unbe\u00adarable. From September 1941 onwards, they had to wear a yellow \u201eJewish star\u201c, which prevented many from leaving the house for fear of being beaten up on the open street. In October 1941, the depor\u00adta\u00adtions to the exter\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion camps began. At least 160,000 German Jews were not to return.<\/p>\n

As late as September 1944, Jewish women from the Sieger\u00adland who were married to non-Jews or so-called half-breeds were deported to the Kassel-Betten\u00adhausen concen\u00adtra\u00adtion camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald.<\/p>\n

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When Heinrich Marburger, a miner from M\u00fcsen born in Fischel\u00adbach near Laasphe in 1887, learned of the destruc\u00adtion of the Siegen synagogue, he said, \u201eThis is the end of the Nazis.\u201c In justi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion, he quoted a verse from the book of the prophet Zechariah: \u201eHe who touches my people touches the apple of God\u2019s eye.\u201c The city of Siegen was almost comple\u00adtely destroyed on December 16, 1944, and in further Allied bombing raids. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany declared its uncon\u00addi\u00adtional surrender.<\/p>\n

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Text: Uwe von Seltmann (2021)<\/p>\n

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Reichs\u00adpo\u00adgrom\u00adnacht The synago\u00adgue\u2019s destruc\u00adtion was captured by the amateur photo\u00adgrapher Erich Koch (1914\u20131986) from Siegen. Koch, a busi\u00adnessman by profes\u00adsion, arrived at the scene when the building was already in flames. The rights for the photo series with 26 shots are held by the Sieger\u00adl\u00e4nder Heimat- und Geschichts\u00adverein (the Sieger\u00adland society of local history). The [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-50904","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoge-siegen.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}