6 Friday, December 21, 1979
Congress
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
And the Synagogue Still Stands, Unhurt by War
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Call Harry Jacobs
kff Jacobs
I
17390 W. 8 Mile Rd.
Southfield, Mi. 48075
r
recently to participate in
the Fourth International
Congress for Exile Litera-
ture, the specialized area of
study that deals with the
German authors driven out
by Hitler.
The papers were out-
standing— learned disquis-
itions on the writers' perse-
cution beyond Germany's
borders, about their lan-
guage difficulties when try-
ing to adopt to the publish-
ing demands of their second
or third — homeland,
their slow assimilation to a
new country and to the
different language.
By DR. GUY STERN
(Editor's Note: Dr. Guy
Stern is the provost at
Wayne State University.)
About 30 of us had been
invited to a conference cen-
ter in Southern Germany
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Many of the speakers, re-
presenting various West
European countries, the
U.S., Canada and Au-
stralia, were quite young
and treated the events of
more than 30 years ago, still
fresh in the minds of the
older participants, with a
certain historical detach-
ment.
An event followed
which transmitted the
past into the present: we
heard that within a few
miles of us, in the small
Swabian town of
Ichenhausen, a
synagogue was standing
intact — undefiled by the
so-called Kristallnacht of
1938, when the burning of
German synagogues
foreboded the burning of
the worshippers.
Our trip to Ichenhausen
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t SAY IT WITH TREES
DR. GUY STERN
took less than half-an-hour.
On the way there we
quickly reviewed the his-
tory of its once thriving
Jewish community, and the
reasons for the community's
genesis in this remote rural
part of Southern Germany.
The reasons went back to
the 18th and 19th Cen-
turies.
The district was, for a
long time, an Austrian out-
post within German terri-
tory, and the Austrian em-
perors had been more
tolerant of their Jewish citi-
zens than the rulers of the
surrounding German states
of Bavaria and Swabia.
So the Jews settled in
Ichenhausen, launched
their trade forays from
there, fanning out into
Germany — and built a
jewel box of a synagogue in
the enchanting style of the
European rococo complete
with houses for the rabbi
and the shammes.
We drove straight to
the ancient townhall. The
mayor himself received
and guided us — and
called in a city council-
man, Moritz Schmidt, as
an additional expert
guide. We walked past
the house of the sham-
mes; the Hebrew letters
above the door were fad-
ing, though still legible.
And then we stood in
front of the synagogue.
The joyous playfulness of
the rococo-style blended in
singular synthesis with the
seriousness of a Jewish
house of worship. We
entered the synagogue. In
the vestibule hung a variety
of plaques, the names of
prominent members of the
community throughout the
centuries.
Councilman Schmidt
pointed to it and told a very
personalized history of the
community: "I knew many
of these since childhood."
His narrative was colored
by the regional dialect, was
told without rhetorical
skill, in fact rather uneven
and halting — and for that
very reason entirely credi-
ble.
"You know, before 1933
nobody hardly paid any at-
tention to people's religion.
One of our Jewish fellow-
citizens was president of the
sports club; that's one of the
big honors in our small
town; several were mem-
bers of the volunteer fire
brigade and that, too, was a
real honor. And when all
that trouble started with
the Nazis, some of us here in
Ichenhausen tried to put in
a good word for our Jewish
population — yes, we were
naive at first."
The mayor has brought
a file along from his
office, showed us a once
secret party file with an
order "The local party
leader cannot be trusted
on Jewish affairs." Such
anomalies did exist.
the
entered
We
synagogue. The mayor ex-
plained, with embarrassed
apologies in every word,
"We use the synagogue
nowadays as a storage
room, mostly for fire-
fighting equipment. We're a
poor community; when the
Jews left or were taken
away, we lost our most
productive citizens and
trade opportunities. And so,
after the war we had to find
a function for the building.
Without that we couldn't
have maintained it here in
the middle of the village.
And we made only slight
alterations, all of them eas-
ily removable."
It's true. the few shelves
and room dividers do not
touch the walls; not a single
one of them obtrudes upon
the beautiful wall paint-
ings. These consist of flow-
ers, wreaths and garlands:
the biblical stricture
against representing
human images is strictly
adhered to. The mayor
showed us a set of photo-
graphs: "This is the way the
interior of the synagogue
looked before; someday we
will restore it exactly as it
was."
"Yes," I said, "but how
did the synagogue sur-
vive the night of destruc-
tion?" Councilman
Schmidt becomes even
more embarrassed: "My
father and a few other
citizens convinced the
police, they in turn the
stormtroopers, that the
haylofts would also catch
fire and that the whole
village might burn
down."
The synagogue survived.
Two years ago the 80-year-
old rabbi of Ichenhausen
came over from New York to
visit the site of his former
congregation. Before us he
was the last Jewish visitor.
There were tears in the
eyes of Councilman
Schmidt. "You know, the
route from Ichenhausen to
the country-seat of Burgau,
where our Jewish residents
started out on their trade
routes, still carries its old
nickname, the 'Jewish
Slide.' And you know, I am
still waiting that one or the
other of my Jewish friends
may some day return on
that train."
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