I was privileged to see Nuremberg in ruins.
In 1947 I travelled with a friend from Brussels to Prague. The train stopped for a short time in Nuremberg. We got off to see the city. Standing in the square in front of the railroad station we were surrounded by waste and destruction. The city of the “Nazi Party Congresses” the city of Streicher and the “Stuermer” lay in ruins.
Since then Nuremberg has been rebuilt. Its old town, which was famous for its medieval walls, towers, buildings, fountains and markets, has been reconstructed and restored.
Tourists come from afar to see the medieval monuments of the old town.
I too, visited rebuilt Nuremberg. I was eager to see the area, once inhabited by Jews as well as the present Jewish community.
The people of Nuremberg didn’t have to wait for Streicher to infect them with anti-Semitism. The city has a long tradition of Jew-hatred and Jew-baiting. Jews were massacred and expelled on several occasions.
In 1349 , during the Black Death persecutions, 50 Jews were burnt to death and the rest were driven from the city. The majority of the Jews’ houses were destroyed to make place for the market. On the site of the chief synagogue, the “Church of Our Lady” was erected.
The church and the market are still in existence. Tourists flock to see them, but who remembers the old Jewish settlement on whose ruins both had been erected?
Not long after the burning and the expulsion, Jews were again admitted into the city. They were assigned a quarter — in the vicinity of their former dwelling places — where they resided until they were once more expelled at the end of the fifteenth century. The Judengasse recalls this community, which boasted well known Torah scholars and a famous yeshiva.
Only in the nineteenth century were Jews permitted to settle again in the city. The new community, which by about 1933, numbered about 9,000 souls, came to an end during the Nazi regime.
On August 10, 1938, the large synagogue which stood on the Hana Sachs Platz in the old town was destroyed by the Nazis. Streicher participated personally in the demolition of the building.
Three months later– during Crystal night many Jews were killed, ten committed suicide and the remaining synagogues were destroyed.
A memorial stone marks today where once stood the Hana Sachs Platz Synagogue. The inscription reads:
“On this site stood Nuremberg’s chief synagogue, built in Moorish style in 1874. It was razed to the ground even before Crystal Night, on August 10, 1938, by the National Socialist rulers.”
The headquarters of the postwar Jewish community are in the new city. The building in the Wielandstrasse houses a synagogue, an old age home and the offices of the Jewish community. I recognized it from afar by the police patrol car which for security reasons is stationed in front.
The director of the old age home, Uri Abraham, gave me a friendly welcome,”Why did you come so late?” he asked. “IF you would have been here an hour earlier you could have had lunch with us. We had excellent food today.”
He showed me the synagogue and introduced me to Albert Erhardt, the vice president of the community, who told me about Jewish life in the city.
About 300 Jews reside in Nuremberg. Services are held on Sabbaths. They have no rabbi, only a cantor and a teacher. The community publishes periodically the “Gemeindeblatte.”
A new community center with a synagogue and a larger old age home is at present being built.
Many former Nuremberg Jews come to the city to visit the graves of parents and relatives.
I spent about two hours in the city. When I returned to to the railroad station, I discovered that I had still a little time to see the place where the war crimes trials against the Nazi leaders were held. I hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to the Justizpalast (courts of law) and back to the station.
The Jewish Press, Friday, Nov.18, 1983