For the first time in 2017, after a visit to their great-grandfather’s homeland, the descendants of Hermann Gärtner asked the community of Ruppichteroth to think about laying “Stolpersteine” in order to remember the fate of the murdered and expelled Jews of the village. In 2018, two final classes from the secondary school who, after a contemporary […]
Awarding of the Obermayer Award to Horst Moog
Horst Moog was awarded the German Jewish History Award of the Obermayer Foundation in 2018 for his decades-long commitment to coming to terms with Jewish history in Hamm an der Sieg, in particular the expulsion and displacement of Jews from their hometown and from the memory of the remaining population. As a four-year-old, Horst Moog […]
First laying of “Stolpersteine” (stumbling blocks) in Windeck-Rosbach
Until the 1930s, Jewish citizens lived side by side with the Christian population in the villages on the Sieg. Together they were for example active in associations or celebrated the anniversary of the synagogue in Rosbach together. When the National Socialists won the elections in January 1933 and took power, Jews were increasingly marginalized, excluded […]
Inauguration of the “Landjuden an der Sieg” memorial in Windeck-Rosbach
The “Landjuden an der Sieg” memorial site is inextricably linked to the history of the Seligmann family: they lived in the house on Bergstrasse in Rosbach for several generations. In the early 1980s, Hilde Seligmann contacted the district archive because of the exhibition “Jews on the Rhine and Sieg” and gave them numerous photos and […]
Documentary film “We were so beloved” with protagonists from Ruppichteroth
The documentary „We were so beloved“ by Manfred Kirchheimer, shot in Washington Heights, New York, portrays German and Austrian emigrants who fled the Holocaust and formed a new community there, who shared memories but processed their traumatic experiences in different ways . His friend Walter Hess from Ruppichteroth not only worked behind the camera on […]
Return of the Seligmann family from Argentina to Rosbach
Alfred Seligmann from Rosbach married Hilde Minkel from Weisenau in the summer of 1938 and lived with her in his parents’ house on Bergstrasse (later a memorial). Hilde and her family were the driving force when it came to emigration; to finance it, they sold their house in Weisenau. On October 28, 1938, the Seligmann-Minkel […]
Internment of the Jews still living in the Sieg district at the RAD camp Much
In 1941 the first assembly camps for Jews were set up. The Jewish people living in the Sieg district who did not have to do forced labor in companies important to the war were sent to the former Reich Labor Service (RAD) Camp Much until June 16, 1941. Excessive rent payments were demanded of the […]
The pogrom night in Hamm on Sieg
Above the entrance of the synagogue of Hamm, which was consecrated in 1894, there was a blessing on a white marble plaque saying: “The Lord will protect your coming and going.” On the night of November 9th, 1938, the Jewish house of worship was set on fire by the National Socialists. In the early morning […]
The pogrom night in Ruppichteroth
The fire in the Ruppichteroth synagogue was not set only at 7 a.m. on November 10, 1938. Some onlookers and SS men made fun of putting the Hess family in front of the burning door to take photos and taunt them. Walter Hess, then seven years old, remembers: “It was a snapshot opportunity. […] I […]
“Boycott of Jewish businesses” in Ruppichteroth
On April 1, 1933, there was a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses. SA men were also posted in front of the shop of the Jewish butcher Hermann Gärtner that morning to prevent people from shopping there. Hermann Gärtner could not endure this humiliation, got drunk in the surrounding restaurants out of desperation and later told […]
50th anniversary of the Rosbach Jewish community
In 1875, the Rosbach Jews decided to seperate from the synagogue association in Hamm and founded their own synagogue community. At first, a prayer room in the Havetz bakery served as a meeting place. In 1879 the “Israelite Association for the Satisfaction of Religious Needs” was founded. A synagogue was built around 1880. At the […]