oldenburg-l - Nachricht 2008-01 00117

[Christopher Grote <cgrote(a)rush.edu>]

Fred and others,

Thank you for the interesting and informative replies.  

At home, I have books written on the history of Alfhausen (my grandmother's
town) and Visbek (my grandfather's town), both written in German of course,
which I do not speak.  One of these books, the one on Alfhausen I believe
(this being a bit northwest of Osnabruck), has a chapter on Jewish people in
that area.  If this listserv allows, I could try to scan the chapter and
send it as an attachment, if someone here would have the interest and time
in doing a quick read through and telling the rest of us what it says.

Chris
Chicag

-----Original Message-----
From: oldenburg-l-bounces(a)genealogy.net
[mailto:oldenburg-l-bounces(a)genealogy.net] On Behalf Of W. Fred Rump
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 8:47 AM
To: Oldenburg-L
Subject: Re: [OL] Olderburg during the Wars

On Jan 21, 2008 8:02 AM, Paul Rowold <paulrowold(a)kpnplanet.nl> wrote:
> Fred
>
> No one can deny that Oldenburg had a small jewish population which was
> vanished  in WWII without any rumour?
>
> Paul

Has anybody denied that? Let me give a little history of their plight.
During the 18th century there were very few Jews in the Duchy of
Oldenburg. Those who lived there were not considered as citizens of
the communities they lived in. They had to pay for protection and for
the right too settle which limited their presence pretty much to the
city of Oldenburg, Varel and Jever. By 1822 there were 91 so called
Schutzjuden (protected Jews) who paid a fee for the privilege of doing
business in the duchy. These were the heads of household and together
with their families totalled 746 people or less then 1/2% of the
population. In 1827 the duke granted the Jews of his land religious
freedom and provided the function of a chief rabbi to oversea their
schools and religious observances. By 1854 nine synagogues existed in
Oldenburg. (Berne, Cloppenburg, Delmenhorst, Jever, Oldenburg,
Ovelgönne, Varel, Vechta and Wlideshausen). A thorough revision of the
rights of the Jews was published in 1858 to enable them to be full
partners in the citizenship of the country. These rules lasted until
1927. After WWI the state subsidy for the Jewish community was
increased from 1500 to 4000 Reichsmark. 1932 brought an abrupt change
to all the laws which had been provided for the protection of the
Jews. The National Socialist state blamed the Jews for the WWI defeat
of Germany and enacted all manner of laws to force them out of the
country. Many left including the chief rabbi, Dr. Leo Trepp . Others
were 'resettled' or arrested and died in concentration camps. The Jews
of Oldenburg were mostly the businessmen who sold and traded goods in
the communities they lived in. The slow disappearance of the Jews was
not seen as an extermination attempt by the populace but mostly a
quiet move out of the country. There were no protests as nothing as
nefarious as what was actually happening behind the scenes was
believable - even though all the synagogues had been burned on
Krystallnacht this was just a bunch of ruffians doing evil deeds.
People tend not to question the actions of their governments too
severely as those are the people who are supposed to be smarter then
us and we put them in power. As such we all deserve the governments we
have.

There are several synagogues in the Land Oldenburg today. Their
membership is still only a few hundred but no real record exists of
what may have happened to each and every family during those
horrendous years of the Nazi regime. It can only be hoped that most
emigrated before they were interned, for their own protection, as the
government claimed. Schutzhaft (protective custody) was the word used
to retain people without trial.

Fred


-- 
Fred Rump,
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fredrump(a)gmail.com
http://fredrump.phanfare.com
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