Halle (Saale) Umland Rückwanderer

The most beautiful monument a person can get
is in the hearts of others.

***
Albert Schweitzer
***

We mourn our former teacher Volkhard Winkelmann, who unfortunately died in December 2017.
He will be well remembered and we will always remember him honorably.

This memorial book is and remains his legacy.
We are proud that all documents that led to the creation of this book have been made available to the Stadtarchiv in Halle (Saale).

Preface to the 3rd edition (2008) of the commemorative book

Volkhard Winkelmann und ehemaliges Schülerprojekt "Juden in Halle" des Südstadt-Gymnasiums Halle

Four years ago the second edition of this commemorative book appeared on the Home Page of the Südstadtgymnasium Halle (Saale). It was read frequently and copies were made for detailed use. Relatives were helped to remember their dead anew or more intensively and were given certain knowledge of their fate. We very often received enquiries and suggestions sent from many parts of the world by relatives or friends of the victims or those families whose life-story until that moment had been totally unknown in Halle or known only in part. Enquiries on behalf of archives, particularly those belonging to genealogists in Germany and the USA were the motivation for renewed reflection on previous conclusions and for further research.

This author is most grateful for help given in the shared search for the victims of the biggest transportation from Halle to the Lublin district of Poland. We would not have been able to research this event without the wholehearted support of the historian Marcus Gryglewski. Very many fresh discoveries and results were born of the collaboration requested by the federal archive in Berlin in connection with their preparatory work on their "Commemorative Book. Victims of the persecution of the Jews under the national-socialist dictatorship in Germany 1933-1945", Publisher Bundesarchiv, Koblenz 2006.
The submission of our vast body of research to the Bundesarchiv as previously agreed, prompted renewed examination and additions to our own research-work. This in turn led to the growth of further motivation and further tasks for our commemorative book. This was complemented by the integration of commemorative books concerning the deportation to their deaths of German Jews from countries of western Europe occupied by German troops, but most particularly by thorough examination of the Central Database of Shoah victims' Names, Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 2007.

The entire commemorative book was amplified and revised regarding content and, to some extent, style so as to offer everyone an even better means of interpreting the contents. Every detail was examined yet again as thoroughly and comprehensively as possible. This exercise became ever more difficult and ultimately demanded compromise.

The first part of the commemorative book was altered most manifestly by this task. A great number of Jewish citizens of Halle, like many German Jews in general, changed their abode frequently. In most cases it was the NS laws and the fear of deportation that enforced moves and this fact now often militates against the firm establishment of a single place of residence. Jews of Halle like many others often concealed themselves in the false security of big cities, particularly, in this case, Berlin. Even there, however, they were forcibly deported to the death camps.
German Jewish emigrants to western European countries were hounded after the occupation by the German Wehrmacht by the national-socialist administration and its submissive local officials and deported to concentration camps in the East. On the whole, only documents relating to those deporting them to their deaths - index cards or lists of those to die - remained. Although these contain the names and dates of birth of the deportees as well as their transportation and its destination, they only give the place of birth to indicate where the murdered had come from.
In order to preserve them and their names from oblivion, we have admitted them to our commemorative book and are passing their names on to its readers. We hope they will accept these people, who are almost unknown but were born in Halle, as Hallenser (citizens of Halle) and augment their details. In addition, even the lists of names of the dead conveyed in writing to the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem are not always complete. Hence we decided to include Halle in our commemorative book wherever Halle means Halle (Saale) or Halle a. S. or Halle, Anhalt and is unambiguously and clearly differentiated from Halle/ Westf(alen).

In 2003 all the members of the final project group passed their Abitur (higher school-leaving certificate). Thereafter they were scattered throughout Germany and Europe according to their different career paths. There were a number of considerations against re-stablishing the project under totally different conditions. Therefore it is on his own that the former leader of the school project, "Jews in Halle", is continuing the work on the commemorative book in the spirit of the former project and under its name. He would be grateful for proposals and suggestions and draws the reader's attention to the page of contacts.

He expresses his thanks to Mrs Hanna Singer, England, for the translation of this preface. Christina and Steffen in Bad Nauheim, Hessen, continue to provide help and a great deal of support. Without their knowledge and great expertise this new on-line presentation would not have been possible nor its further technical supervision and for this the author is especially grateful.


Halle (Saale) und Bad Nauheim, October 2008                                   Volkhard Winkelmann

Logo der Stadt Halle (Saale)
© Volkhard Winkelmann und ehemaliges Schülerprojekt "Juden in Halle" (1993-2003) des Südstadt-Gymnasiums Halle      © Online-Präsentation: Christina & Steffen P.
Letzte Projekt Aktualisierung: 10.06.2018   Anzahl der Datensätze: 434   technischer Stand: 2024-08