In many German cities, on November 9th, the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938, the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) embedded in the ground in front of the former homes of Jewish citizens are cleaned. Behind each Stolperstein stands a real person, a family, torn from their German neighborhood. Many of them were murdered; a few managed to escape. Sometimes, survivors return and are able to tell their own stories.
Hansi was seven years old when they came to take his father away – just hours after they had burned the holy books. The Rosenbergs lived in Magdeburg, right next to the magnificent synagogue, because Hansi's father, Rudolf Rosenberg, was a Jewish religious teacher and cantor. He inherited this from his mother's family, where everyone had been a religious teacher or rabbi for generations.
"Hansi" is now called "John." A few months ago, he and his younger brother Horst, also known as Harry, returned to the city where they had spent their early childhood for a special occasion. Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) were laid for the brothers Hans and Horst and their parents, Rudolf and Gerta – right in front of the memorial, which had once been an impressive synagogue. On the very spot where the family had once lived.
“We all had to go out into the courtyard to watch everything, in the middle of the night,” John recounts. “First the prayer books, then the Torah scroll. Everything went up in flames. Mom was holding Horst in her arms; she was holding my hand. ‘Everything’s destroyed,’ I supposedly kept saying. Then she asked a man in a Nazi uniform if they were going to kill us. He just shrugged. Then they blew up the interior of the synagogue.”
When the Rosenbergs were allowed back into their apartment, their entire interior was destroyed. The parents put a mattress in the kitchen for Hans, creating a makeshift bed for him. "The next morning I woke up to a knock at the door," John recalls. "The Nazis had come to take my father away. My mother wanted to make him some bread. But they didn't want to wait that long. So I ran after them with the buttered bread for my father."
The 125 Jewish men arrested during the night of November 9th to 10th and taken to the Magdeburg city prison expected to be home again that evening after a brief interrogation. However, from there they were deported directly to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Many committed suicide. After 17 days in prison, only 100 men remained alive, and they returned to their families in Magdeburg. They were given 30 days to leave Germany. The Rosenfeld family fled to Rotterdam. After a year of waiting, someone paid for their passage to America. Rudolf's mother and most of his siblings perished.
And now the two of them, John and Harry, stood on the spot where their childhood home had once been. Surrounded – thankfully – by many interested Magdeburg residents, they laid the first roses on the golden Stolpersteine (stumbling stones). Thus, after 86 years, a circle closed for the Rosenberg family. There are now more than 700 Stolpersteine in Magdeburg commemorating the mostly Jewish victims of Nazi persecution.
The presence of a Jewish community in the capital of Saxony-Anhalt predates Magdeburg's history as the residence of the first German emperor, Otto. Its origins date back more than 1,000 years. Through many ups and downs – persecution, expulsion, and new beginnings – it developed into one of the largest Jewish communities in Central Germany. Behind the socialist-era apartment blocks of Fermerslebener Weg lies a 200-year-old, almost perfectly preserved Jewish cemetery with more than 2,000 gravestones: a vast open-air history book of many of Magdeburg's most famous Jewish residents.
Shortly after the official laying of the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones), the Rosenbergs had another appointment: an invitation to the new Magdeburg synagogue, just a few hundred meters away. The synagogue community, which numbered only 20 members in the 1980s, has grown to over 400 members again thanks to the influx of Jewish immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union. This Friday evening, the Shabbat candles will once again be lit in Magdeburg during the service. Some of the worshippers have an American accent, most a Russian one. And so, after the solemn Shabbat liturgy, a meal showcasing the cuisine of Eastern European Judaism will be served.
The rabbi blesses the bread. John tells stories from his childhood. He speaks in English, and the translation is into Russian – the native language of most of the worshippers. The long tables in the Magdeburg synagogue, only a few months old, become a place where East and West meet, united by their shared Jewish roots.
Community leader Inessa Myslitska, who comes from a shtetl near the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr, fights back tears as she thanks the guests who have traveled so far for coming. "We only moved into the new synagogue in December. Everything is brand new. We are always searching for a connection to the original community. But that connection only exists on paper now, in the archives. And now you are here! You are our living link to our roots here!"
One psalm is always prayed at the end: the 126th. “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream…”
With the kind support of Mrs. Waltraut Zachhuber, initiator and coordinator of the working group “Stolpersteine for Magdeburg” and chairwoman of the association “New Synagogue Magdeburg”.
