Scholar Uncovers
Jewish Story
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Hanau, Germany (JTA) — Slow-
ly, with endless patience, he
moves from one grave to anoth-
er, reconstructing the history of
bygone Jewish communities
through the personal data en-
graved on each tombstone.
This is the self-imposed mis-
sion of Naftali Bamberger, a
Jerusalem scholar who came to
Germany seven years ago. He
has since written five books, each
telling the story of a former Jew-
ish community.
"It is a mitzvah to commemo-
rate the names of the deceased,"
Mr. Bamberger said.
He has written the histories of
the communities of Neuwied,
Hoechburg, Celle, Jebenhausen
and Geislingen.
Mr. Bamberger, 76, is almost
finished collecting information
from the Jewish cemetery of
Hanau, which is near Frankfurt
and once had a Jewish popula-
tion of 300. Jews began to live in
Hanau in the late 16th century.
Small communities such as
Hanau tell the story of the
500,000 Jews in Germany before
the rise of Nazism, Mr. Bam-
berger said.
"Families which were unable
to trace the graves of their rela-
tives can now receive a picture of
their tombstones, along with doc-
umentation of the engravement,"
Mr. Bamberger said.
"But I am also building a
bridge to the past. I am among
the last of my generation who can
still speak both Hebrew and Ger-
man and has the necessary Ju-
daic education to make this kind
of work." Recently, the National
Library at the Hebrew Universi-
ty of Jerusalem gave Mr. Bam-
berger the names of Hanau's
deceased.
The list of names, in combina-
tion with Mr. Bamberger's re-
search, has resulted in the
identification of some 2,000 Jews.
A handful of young German
theologians from the University
of Tubingen are helping Mr.
Bamberger decode the graves. He
gave them a crash course in He-
brew, which aids them in identi-
fying the Scriptures on the
graves.
Mr. Bamberger's grand-
daughter Adi and her husband,
Tamir Nir, who are both stu-
dents, came to the cemetery this
summer to help out.
The cemetery was not dese-
crated during the Nazi period,
but only because the plot was set
aside for the expansion of a near-
by hospital, plans that never ma-
terialized.
The undertaking is primarily
funded by the Bamberger family
trust. Donations have come from
Jews in France and Switzerland
as well.
Birthplace
To Be Restored
Rome (JTA) — Some left-wing
officials want to restore the birth-
place of wartime Fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini in the central
Italian town of Predappio and
turn it into a museum.
Two members of Parliament
from the Predappio area have
presented a motion that would
allocate some $11 million for the
restoration of the birthplace.
The funds "would be very wel-
come for the restoration of the
buildings associated with Mus-
solini," No Marcelli, the ex-Com-
munist mayor of Predappio, told
the Rome daily II Messaggero.
"It would be a godsend for local
tourism and thus also for the
local economy," Mr. Marcelli
added.
The parliamentary proposal
said the buildings — including
the house where Mussolini was
born in 1883 — were in very bad
condition, adding that they would
be "worth restoring and recon-
structing for a new cultural and
touristic use."
The officials supporting the
move said their plan was not
aimed primarily at right-wing
Italians nostalgic for the Fascist
era, but at all visitors interested
in contemporary history.
They said caring for the build-
ings and recognizing their his-
torical significance would attract
more general tourists rather than
simply right-wingers making a
pilgrimage to fascist icons.
"These places have a value
that goes well beyond a regional
scope," Denis Ugolini, one of the
parliamentarians who proposed
the plan told II Messaggero.
"Many foreigners already come
every year to visit Mussolini's
tomb and birthplace."
Mussolini's tomb in Predappio
has long been a place of pilgrim-
age for right-wingers.
On the 50th anniversary of
Mussolini's death in April, black-
shifted. neo-fascists, many giving
straight-armed salutes and wear-
ing Nazi swastikas, gathered
there to honor his memory.