"Jewish life in Lüneburg" commemorates former citizens
"Jewish Life in Lüneburg" is the name of a website of the museum of the Hanseatic city, which took months of research and is now online. In connection with the redesign of the synagogue memorial, a large amount of biographical data on Jews who once lived in Lüneburg has been collected. The website (jüdisches-leben-in-lüneburg.de) is intended to be a reference work, research platform and communication space.
"It contains biographical data on over 400 people with their family histories. With indexing and cross-references, it is an incredible treasure for the history of Jewish life in Lüneburg - I know of no comparable website for other cities in Lower Saxony," says museum director Heike Düselder. It went live on November 9 - the anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany in 1938.
Together with the museum, the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation took the initiative to put this information - mainly compiled by historian Anneke de Rudder - on a platform. It is to be constantly updated in the future. Users can search for names, places and biographies of Jewish families in German or English. The time span ranges from the 17th century to the 1950s.
The Jewish community in Lüneburg also suffered extremely under the National Socialists. In 1933, there were more than 100 Jews living in the town. Shortly after the end of the war, there was a small community for around ten years, made up of several hundred Holocaust survivors, for whom Lüneburg was usually only a brief stopover on their way to emigration. Their history has only been researched for a few years and will be gradually expanded on the website.
"The proximity of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the fact that Lüneburg had remained largely undestroyed during the war made the town a place for concentration camp survivors from the summer of 1945, especially those from Eastern Europe who could not and did not want to return to their home countries," says the museum website. There has been no Jewish community in Lüneburg since the late 1950s.
It was therefore not always easy to find out the biographical details of many of those who disappeared. According to the initiators, it was particularly difficult to trace the fates of the women.
The comprehensive data on Jewish individuals and their histories found on the "Jewish Life in Lüneburg" website, serving as a research platform and communication space, provides valuable insights into the city's religious and historical context. This wealth of information, including biographies of over 400 people, is a testament to the rich history of Jewish life in Lüneburg, a history that is often overlooked in the context of Lower Saxony's other cities.
The meticulously researched information on the website, including biographies and histories of Jewish families spanning from the 17th century to the 1950s, is a testament to the enduring legacy of religion and its influence on Lüneburg's history. The presence of this information in museums, especially in the context of a city's religious history, serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving and sharing historical narratives.
Source: www.dpa.com
