Jewish memories in Thale, Germany

The region of Harz mountains, in Germany, was famous for the high concentration of Jewish population, especially in the 17-18th century. Despite the permanent threats of pogroms, the local landlords allowed the Jews to establish here, set up their own business and schools and even create important institutions of Torah learning. But as in many other cases, it was short lived and the persecutions in the 1930s lead to vandalism of synagogues and places of prayer as well as the significant diminishing of the Jewish population. 

Nowadays, there are almost no Jews left, most part of them being murdered.

The memories are strong though and one might find memorial notes about famous local families and personalities that leaved in various cities. 

One of such case was this mention, on a wall near the Karl-Marx street in Thale. It reminds the family Dessauer, who lived here for a while, before the war. Dessauer was a common name in the region, with similar names encountered in Magdeburg or Halberstadt, but the clear connection between them is not obvious. Dessauer might be a name that in fact can mention the common place of origin, the city of Dessau. 

Jewish memories in Hamburg: Otto and Paul Lang

The - sometimes strong - connection between national socialism and sport, especially in the case of the big sport associations is not yet fully explored. One of such cases is the famous and extremely popular FC Pauli in Hamburg. In the 1930s, many players of Jewish origin were either dismissed from their sport clubs or simply encouraged to do so by themselves.

One such a case are the brothers Lang, Otto and Paul, in whose honour a memorial stone was inaugurated a couple of years ago. The memorial stays at the entrance to the stadium. 

Both of them had an important contribution to the development of the local rugby. They left FC Pauli in 1933, the clear conditions of the departure not being documented in full details. 

Otto left shortly after Germany via Antwerp, from where he moved in the United States where he died in 2003. His brother, Paul, stayed in Germany and was deported to KZ Theresienstadt in 1945. He survived and returned to Hamburg after the war, where he died in 2003.