The New Berlin Wall

The wall is being built by sixth grade students to memorialize Holocaust victims

Berlin --January 24, 2012— Since 1994, sixth grade students at a primary school in Berlin --the Locknitz-Grundschule-- have been building a wall to commemorate former Jewish residents of their neighborhood who were deported by the Nazis.  Each student who wants to participate selects a Jewish individual , writes information about them on a brick, and then, in an annual ceremony, places it on the wall near the site of a former synagogue and describes what they know about the individual.  The first year, there were 27 bricks.  In 2012, there will be 1,000.  On January 24 a ceremony was held  in front of the wall with participation by all the students and members of the Obermayer Award committee.

On the previous evening,  the principal of the school and program’s creator, Christa Niclasen,  accepted on behalf of her students an Obermayer German Jewish History Award at a ceremony in the Berlin Parliament.  Five of these awards are given annually to non-Jewish Germans who have made extraordinary efforts to preserve German Jewish history and culture. The ceremony was part of the Parliament’s week-long commemoration of the Holocaust, culminating in Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th.

According to Arthur Obermayer, an American entrepreneur and founder of the awards –now in their 12th year--,“ Fewer `Righteous Gentiles’ who saved Jews during the Holocaust remain, but a newer generation of gentiles has appeared and Germany and the world needs to know about them.” The other 2012 award-winners were:

Werner Schubert (Weisswasser).  This former Hitler Youth leader and soldier in the Nazi army has almost singlehandedly reconstructed the lost history of the Jews of Weisswasser, in the former East Germany, despite some local opposition. He gleaned information from archives that had long been closed by East German authorities, tirelessly sought out eyewitnesses to the Nazis’ crimes and produced or co-produced several books on the local Jewish community. He also led efforts to preserve the site of the former Jewish cemetery and has written about courageous opponents of Hitler’s regime.

Wolfgang Batterman (Petershagen, North Rhine-Westphalia).  This retired high school teacher led efforts to restore the abandoned former synagogue in Petershagen ,which had been severely damaged in the Kristallnacht, as well as a former Jewish school, which had been turned into apartments.  Today, the buildings serve as a “Memorial and Information Space” as well as a site for cultural events, drawing more than 2,000 people annually. He also launched an information and documentation center on Jewish local and regional history going back more than 450 years.  He gives tours and organizes volunteers for the center, and maintains regular contact with Jews from around the world who trace their origins to Petershagen.

Rolf Emmerich (Laupheim, Baden-Wüttemberg); A retired chemical engineer and schoolteacher, he began researching the Jewish past in his hometown of Laupheim 30 years ago.  He has published extensively on a wide range of topics related to the local Jewish community, which dates back to the early 18th century. In 1998, he co-founded a museum dedicated to the history of local Christian and Jews, where he continues to serve as a volunteer and guide.  He has also helped to preserve gravesites in Laupheim’s Jewish cemetery, and regularly assists the descendants of those buried there to find their ancestors’ graves.

Fritz Kilthau (Zwingenberg, Hesse).  Since 1978, he has been actively engaged in  archival research and education to inform the public about former Jewish residents of the Hessische Bergstrasse region, especially in the towns of Zwingenberg, where he lives, and Bensheim.  He says his work is a response to right-wing extremism, which he contends is alive and well in the region. He has published booklets on local Jewish history, organized many public programs and tours of key Jewish sites in the region, co-written two plays about the Jews of Zwingenberg, helped to ensure that Jewish victims’ names would be added to a commemorative plaque in city hall, educated local students about former Jewish residents, and other activities.