Gedenkstätten- Special Issue, June 2020 Rundschau News from: Arbeitskreis „Wüste“ Balingen, Gedenkstätten KZ Bisingen, KZ-Gedenkstätten Eckerwald/Schörzingen und Dautmergen-Schömberg, Ehem. Synagoge Haigerloch, KZ Gedenkstätte Hailfi ngen · Tailfi ngen, Alte Synagoge Hechingen, Stauffenberg Gedenkstätte Albstadt-Lautlingen, Löwenstein-Forschungsverein Mössingen, Ehem. Synagoge Rexingen, Gedenkstätte Synagoge Rottenburg-Baisingen, Ehem. Synagoge Rottweil, Geschichtswerkstatt Tübingen, Verein Lern- und Dokumentationszentrum zum Nationalsozialismus Tübingen From the Neckar River to the Mediterranean – Shavei Tzion Was Founded 82 Years Ago. Barbara Staudacher, Horb. Translated by Rosy Lumsden and Sarah Davis-Röck “Once upon a time there was a villa- became famous because of Shavei tourist guide in Shavei Tzion, liked to ge in the Black Forest and this village Tzion, Shavei Tzion, on the other characterize the two villages when would have remained completely hand, became famous because of the he took groups of German visitors unknown if we hadn‘t come to Shavei Rexingers.” This is how Pinchas Er- around his new home. And today, 10 Tzion. Yes, you got it, Rexingen langer from Ravensburg, a baker and years after his death, this still applies. The fi rst day in Shavei Tzion. In the background, the barracks made from prefabricated parts are being erected. From left: Hans Schwarz, Siegfried Steinharter, Hermann Gideon, Isidor Loewengart, Manfred Scheuer, Manfred Weil, and Leopold Schwarz.(Courtesy Rexinger Synagogenverein) 1 Dear friends all over the world! Since 2008, the Gedenkstätten- Rundschau is the biannual joint periodical of the Gedenkstätten- verbund Gäu-Neckar-Alb, a con- federation of thirteen memorial associations in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The Gedenk- stätten-Rundschau provides both the Gedenkstättenverbund’s mem- ber associations and the public with information about research and current projects. Every member association is in close contact with descendants of Jewish families and former concen- tration camp inmates. Children, grandchildren, and great-grand- children regularly visit the places which were of such importance to their ancestors. The descendants support our work with photos, documents, family stories, and last “And that stood in Rexingen, high above our houses and disheartened us no end”, recounted Her- but not least by encouraging and mann Gideon, a cattle-dealer’s son. He recognised the danger and he and his sister Käthe joined the appreciating our work. group of emigrants. (Courtesy Rexinger Synagogenverein) This special issue of the Gedenk- stätten-Rundschau in English is a Should We Stay or Should We Go? Hedwig, however, managed to little thank you to all our friends On the 13th of April 1938, 80 years convince her parents Alfred and Bella who do not speak German. Thank ago, the village by the Mediterranean Hopfer, to take that step and come to you for your interest in our work was founded, situated just a few kilo- Palestine. But her parents-in-law made and your support! metres north of the old crusader town the decision to stay behind and died in Finally, we would like to thank all of Akko and about 20 kilometres from 1942 in Treblinka. authors who contributed to this the Lebanese border. Its founders That being said, it wasn’t easy to issue! were men and women from Rexin- take your parents with you. In fact gen, who 2 years previously had deci- nothing was easy for Jews in Nazi ded to take this brave and life-saving Germany. They were forced to emi- Most of the visitors who come to step. Their shared vision was to create grate, but the Nazis made this emigra- Rexingen to see the former Synago- a settlement in what was then British- tion as diffi cult as possible, from state gue or the old Jewish graveyard know ruled Palestine. Their fi ght to achieve sponsored theft to offi cials humiliating of Shavei Tzion or have been there. this was at times hard and desperate. them at every given opportunity. And And vice versa, Rexingen is nearly a Most of them were young people, then there were the strict immigration household name for those who come couples with children, tradesmen, requirements for Mandatory Palestine to Shavei Tzion to learn more about its cattle-dealers, bank employees and laid down by the English. Offi cial history. There they are taken into the housewives. They all had one thing in approval was expensive and there so called ‘Rexingen Room’, the memo- common: an increasing concern about were quotas for certain professions, rial to those parents, grandparents, the future and that of their children. meaning that the chances for a whole relatives, neighbours and friends who Wolf Berlinger, a young Zionist and group applying for immigration status stayed behind, for those who weren’t teacher in Rexingen in 1933, was were slim. This didn’t put the Rexin- saved. 128 names are engraved on the instrumental in enabling the Rexingers gers off, in fact when they realised wall and there isn’t one founder of to take this step. that there were not enough of them Shavei Tzion who didn’t have to bear “As Nazi activity increased, only to run the planned agricultural settle- the loss of a loved one in the Shoah. we, the younger generation, saw the ment viably, they advertised in other On the 9th of November 1938, the writing on the wall. We knew that we Jewish communities in Southern Torah scroll from Rexingen’s synago- had to act. However our attempts at Germany, resulting in families from gue was damaged. It was later saved trying to convince the older generati- Baisingen, Freudental, Ludwigsburg, and is now on display in Shavei Tzion’s on of the steps to be taken fell on Buchau, Buttenhausen, München, ‘Rexingen Room’. deaf ears.” These lines are from Mannheim, Würzburg and other Hedwig Neckarsulmer’s memoirs. places coming on board. In the end 2 The Jewish National Fund used this well-distributed brochure to publicise the successful group emigration from Nazi Germany. They hoped that other Jewish communities would take note and follow in their footsteps. However, at the end of the day it was too late. Hardly anyone managed to escape after the 9th of November 1938. (Courtesy Rexinger Synagogenverein) they had not only enough people, but they would be reunited and that there the English had not yet approved all 41 also the necessary capital and support would be a lively coming and going immigration applications. to dare to take this step. between their old and their new Some families still had to put their They had already drafted a coopera- offshoot community on the Mediterra- affairs in order, sell their house, tive contract, as their settlement was nean. Wolf Berlinger, the teacher who organise the transport of their be- not to be a Kibbutz, which would have was part of the group of emigrants longings and struggle with the Nazi meant forgoing private property. They along with his wife, put it like this, authorities for permission to leave the were too Swabian for that. They all “Today isn’t a farewell party, but a country. agreed that their earnings should be party to mark the foundation of a Their leaving was marked by spiteful paid into a common house-keeping beginning in Eretz Israel. We want to comments in the press, but also, kitty, with every family or individual open a branch of our community according to Resi Schwarz, by sad being paid only according to their there, which will gradually become reactions from their neighbours who, needs. However, they wanted to run our headquarters.” as they were leaving in 1938, cried their own households independently of Unfortunately, the idea of two and asked, “Why are you going? We one another within their own walls. existing Jewish communities, one in won’t hurt you.” On the 6th of February 1938, the Rexingen and the other in Shavei Once in Palestine, the fi rst group of Jewish families in Rexingen held a Tzion, was soon to be destroyed by Rexingers joined forces with the farewell service in their synagogue the brutal reality of Nazi Germany. emigrants from the other southern with the Rabbi from Horb, Dr. Abra- The fi rst group left Germany on the German communities. In the early ham Schweizer. Their parting was 14th of February and sailed from Triest morning of Wednesday the 13th of diffi cult, but they consoled themselves to Haifa. Not all of the 41 men, women April 1938, they began with the with the belief that in better times and children were part of this group, as creation of Shavei Tzion. Their plot, 3 Aerial photograph of Shavei Tzion from 1939. In the center, one can see the barracks, the guard tower, and the wooden “Lift” containers as well as the fi rst concrete buildings and the new water tower. On the right, next to the beach, are some small portable chicken houses. The street on the left runs to the Nahariyah-Haifa main road. (Courtesy Rexinger Synagogenverein) that had been chosen by 3 scouts, was The New Life ny were destroyed and the men given to them on the basis of a long Life was hard and full of deprivati- arrested and deported to Dachau. Not term building lease by the Jewish on. From day one both the men and everyone who had committed to the National Fund. the women were faced with tough cooperative managed to escape. There The plot had been bought from a manual work and every day brought were instances where people’s be- Turkish princess, Madame Said Pascha, its own challenge, whether it was longings were on their way to Shavei and was called ‘El Sitt’ by the Arab the unfamiliar climate, the strange Tzion whilst they were being deported neighbours, which means ‘a woman’s food, the makeshift sanitation or to Riga.