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How Frankfurt Has Handled the Holocaust Since 1980: Projekt Judisches Leben Frankfurt am Main
September 2023
By Joe Freiberg
In the June/July 2020 issue of The Charlotte Jewish News, I wrote about my experience in 2019 when my daughter and I traveled to Germany, courtesy of an important program offered by the city of Frankfurt am Main. Since 1980, the city has organized a visitor program for former citizens of Frankfurt and those who were politically or religiously persecuted during the National Socialism movement. Thousands of previous Frankfurters and their families from all over the world have already participated in this program. Since 2012, the city has also invitedthe next generations from Frankfurt families. The city provides airfare, hotel lodging, transportation around the city and many meals for the invitees and some of this for their guests too.
This year, I once again had an opportunity to make this trip with my sister, Barbara. Though my first trip included first generation Frankfurters, this one included only second and third generation family members. This didn’t diminish the stories shared at all. In fact, one of the words most often used to describe our experience was “connection.” One of those connections started when one of the families shared their story about their grandfather who was on the ship, the “St. Louis”. The St. Louis left Germany and was turned away from Cuba, the United States and Canada. None of the passengers were allowed to disembark and were returned to Europe, many of whom later died at the hands of the Nazis. The grandfather did survive and had other experiences that helped him survive the Holocaust. Through the telling of this story, another family on the trip shared that they, too, had a family member on the St. Louis.
Another connection included two families that had relatives that were rescued via the Kindertransport, the nine-month rescue effort authorized by the British government that saved some 10,000 children, from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk) by relocating them to the United Kingdom.
More discussions involved how several families had crossed paths in the USA. An additional memorable event was when two of our group’s families held their Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones) dedication ceremony that turned out to be very near our hotel.
The itinerary for this trip was a little different from my first trip. We started with a “get-together” at City Hall, meeting members of the Frankfurt organization and participants like us. We took a walking tour focused on Jewish history in Frankfurt and a guided tour of The West End Synagoge, which holds separate services for all the different Jewish movements. One of the repeat visits was to the Philantrophin School, which our mother attended. Later, we visited the Memorial Grossmarkthalle, where Jews were gathered and transported by trains to the concentration camps. Another new stop was a tour of the European Central Bank (like our Federal Reserve), which I especially enjoyed as an Econ and Business major.
Next, we toured the Hochbunker at Friedberger Anlage. This bunker was built at the place of the former Orthodox Synagogue (which was destroyed during “Kristallnacht”) to protect the non-Jewish Germans during air raids. We ended this day with a unique performance of the Orchestra of Korea at the Alte Oper.
We also went to the Judisches Museum at Bertha-Pappenheim-Platz, a different museum from my last trip, and it was also amazing. Friday ended and Saturday began with an opportunity to attend services and a visit to the Botanical Garden Palmengarten.
The Projekt Judisches Leben in Frankfurt (Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt) is an independent association of volunteers that cooperates with the city of Frankfurt. These volunteers help the visitors with research about their families and prepare and organize the meetings and talks with local students.
Sunday was dedicated to personal family history, complemented by input from the program’s staff. I am grateful to both Ellen Holz and Angelka Rieber for their additional information about our family.
The last event was to have conversations with students at different schools in Frankfurt to discuss our family and their experiences during this period of Frankfurt’s history. The students were both Jewish and non-Jews and the feedback from the staff and families was very positive. Learning about the Holocaust is mandatory for students.
We ended the program with a farewell reception at City Hall Romer, hosted by the mayor and other dignitaries from Stadt Frankfurt am Main, complete with delicious, kosher meal.
Barbara and I also took our own, personal side-trips. We visited the addresses where both my mother and aunt worked while in Frankfurt. We also took an excursion to Kaiserslautern, where our father grew up after moving away from Winnweiler. Here is where he was arrested and sent to Dachau. We visited his home address, synagogue, and the assembly place used to send arrested Jewish men to the concentration camps. After he was liberated from Dachau with the help of the Bischoff family, our father made his way to Brussels. Thanks to the research of Angelika Rieber, chairwomen and founder of the association Projekt Judisches Leben in Frankfurt, we were able to locate and visit the address of his residence where he lived for almost a year. Another stop while in Brussels was another amazing Jewish museum that had my favorite Seder plate of all time!
As with my last trip, we’ve added new friends from around the world. We also want to recognize and thank the City of Frankfurt and the members of the Projekt Judisches Leben in Frankfurt for putting together a memory of a lifetime.
If your direct family roots were in Frankfurt before and during the Nazi-regime and were affected by it, this program could be an important step in uncovering your family history and accepting how Frankfurt has handled the Holocaust since 1980.
Checkout their website: www. juedisches-leben-frankfurt.de/
