Erlangen Remembers the Holocaust

Jewish cemetery in Erlangen

 „Die Shoa ist und bleibt das größte Verbrechen der Menschheitsgeschichte“

(The Holocaust is and remains the worst crime in human history.)

-Pastor Johannes Mann
Erlangen Evangelical Reformed Church

As is the custom every year, the German city of Erlangen commemorated the Holocaust with a ceremony at their Jewish cemetery. The remembrance falls on the anniversary of the so-called Night of  the Broken Glass, in which Jewish homes and shops were plundered, and Jews were rousted out of their homes and imprisoned for a period of days or weeks. Erlangen was no exception.

http://www.nordbayern.de/region/erlangen/holocaust-gedenken-1.2498962

Some 80 Jews from Erlangen died in the Holocaust. Of course, the cemetery contains none of their remains since they died in far off lands where they were deported (Riga, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz). Their names were read by students from the Werner von Siemens School.

The linked article (in German) describes the attendance of Erlangen Lord Mayor Siegfried Balleis and head rabbi Dani Danieli, who officiated. Today, Erlangen is home to some 100 or so mostly Russian Jews who have immigrated from the former Soviet Union.