Obj. ID: 50316 Second Memorial at the Site of the Synagogue in Memmingen, Germany, 1960s, 1998
Memorial Name
No official name
Who\What is Commemorated?
The synagogue destroyed on Kristallnacht (Nov 8, 1938), and Jews of Memmingen killed in the Holocaust
Description:
The monument sits on the edge of a small plaza at the intersection of two significant streets, close to the site of the synagogue. Most of that site is now occupied by a brewery. A second memorial is built closer to the street and only commemorates the former synagogue [link].
The monument is a tall tri-partite grey granite wall, with the two side parts angled outward at about 45 degrees, creating a niche or apse-type enclosure. The wall is set on a pavement articulated as a Magen David, and the walls rise from three lines of the star design. Block text of names of victims are inscribed on both side walls. A one-line motto (ERINNERUNG STIFTET ERLÖSUNG), is inscribed on the upper part of the wider central wall. Beneath this stands a large smoothed granite boulder, lightly curved at the top. On the face of this are affixed a bronze menorah in relief, and three bronze panels with inscriptions in German and Hebrew.
Inscriptions
Central Panel
German
ERINNERUNG STIFTET ERLÖSUNG
Translation: Memory creates salvation
AN DIESER STELLE
WURDE 1909 DIE
SYNAGOGE FUER
UNSERE MITBURGER JUDISCHEN GLAUBENS
ERRICHT IM JAHRE 1938 FIEL SIE DER
GEWALT HERRSCHAFT ZUM OPFER
Dem Gedenken und zur Mahnung diene dieser Stein
Translation: At this place was built in 1909 the synagogue for our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith. In 1938, it fell victim to violence. This stone serves to commemorate and as a reminder.
NICHT DURCH MACHTUND
NICHT DURCH ST’A’RKE SON-
DERN DURCH MEINEN GEIST
SPRICHT DER HERR ZACHAR 4/6
Hebrew
לא בחיל
ולא בכח
כי אם-ברוחי
אמר יהוה
צבאות
Translation: Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit said GOD of Hosts. Zacharia 4:6 [translation from Revised JPS]
On left-hand panel (German)
ZUM GEDENKEN AN DIE 1941-1945
ERMORDETEN JUDISCHEN MEMMINGER
BURGERINNEN UND BURGER
[followed by a list of victims on both side panels]
Translation: In commemoration of the murdered Jewish Memminger citizens 1941-1945
Commissioned by
The Municipality of Memmingen [to be confirmed]
13 image(s)
bronze
Central Stone
-Height: 1.28 meters
-Width: 1.33 meters
A new synagogue of Memmingen was dedicated on a prominent site in 1909 and was destroyed on Kristallnacht (November 8-9, 1938). In the spring of 1942, the remaining Jews of Memmengen were deported, most to their deaths.
After World War II, the plot was transferred to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO). In 1951, JRSO sold the plot to the company "Lech-Elektrizitätswerken" (LEW) which erected an office building on the plot in the early 1960s. In the front of the building, a stone dedicated to the destroyed synagogue was installed. In addition to that, the LEW building bore a plaque with a relief depicting the synagogue.
On July 5, 1998, two vertcial tablets with names of murdered Jews were added to the memorial stone. During the construction of a new building in 2012 the memorial was disassembled and re-erected later.
The memorial is a gathering place during the ceremonies dedicated to the destruction of the local Jewish community.
Engelhard, C, Erinnerung stiftet Erloesung. Gedenkheft fuer die juedischen Frauen, Maenner und Kinder aus Memmingen, die zwischen 1941 und 1945 verfolgt, verschleppt und ermordet wurden (Materialien zur Memminger Stadtgeschichte, Reihe B, Materialien, vol. 3, 1999)
Kraus, Wolfgang, Berndt Hamm, and Meier Schwarz, eds., Mehr als Steine... Synagogen-Gedenkband Bayern, vol. 1 (Lindenberg im Allgäu: Kunstverlag Fink, 2007)., p. 510.
"Memmingen," Alemannia Judaica, https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/memmingen_synagoge.htm#Zur%20Geschichte%20der%20j%C3%BCdischen%20Gemeinde (accessed September 6, 2023)
"Synagoge (Memmingen),"
Wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_(Memmingen)#cite_ref-am_64-0.