A German curator has made it his mission to return objects lost in the Holocaust to the descendants of the original owners.
MUNICH — Matthias Weniger put on a pair of white cloth gloves and carefully lifted a tarnished silver candleholder, looking for a yellowed sticker on the bottom of it.
Weniger, who is a curator at the Munich museum and oversees its restitution efforts, has made it his mission to return as many of the silver objects as possible to the descendants of the original owners. Thousands of the pieces taken from the Jews were melted into some 135 tons of silver, and used to help Germany’s war efforts. But several museums ended up with hundreds of silver pieces such as candlesticks used to light candles on the eve of Shabbat, Kiddush cups to bless the wine, silver spoons and cake servers.
First, he searches for the identity of the original owners. The little yellowed paper stickers on some of the pieces often help his efforts. They were put on the objects by the pawn shops — a testament to Germans’ obsessive bureaucracy even in times of dictatorship and war. The numbers on the stickers are also listed on more than 80-year-old documents naming the Jews who had to give away their silver — sometimes beloved heirloom that had been passed down in families for many generations.
Weniger makes a point of personally delivering the pieces to the families. He traveled to the U.S. earlier this year, and last week, he returned 19 pieces to families in Israel. The cup was likely used for Kiddush to bless the wine on the eve of Shabbat — but nobody knows for sure because the original owners, Bavarian cattle dealer Salomon Gutmann and his wife Karolina, who were the grandparents of Benjamin, were murdered by the Nazis in the Treblinka extermination camp.
Argentina Últimas Noticias, Argentina Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
As a stolen silver sleuth, German curator returns heirlooms Jewish families lost in the HolocaustA German museum curator has made it his mission to return silver objects stolen by the Nazis to Jewish families around the globe nearly eight decades after the Holocaust. The Nazis took thousands of silver pieces from German Jews in 1939. Most were melted to help the country's war effort. But hundreds were left untouched at museums across the former Third Reich. Museum curator Matthias Weniger has carried out meticulous detective work using historical documents as well as social media. He has traced down most original owners of the 111 silver objects at the Bavarian National Museum in Munich and has already restituted around 50 pieces to their descendants. He hopes to return the remaining pieces by the end of this year.
Leer más »
Survivors' stories shared as Toronto Holocaust Museum opensA museum that features stories from Holocaust survivors has opened with the aim of sharing their experiences and combating anti\u002DSemitism.
Leer más »
Jewish group calls on Hochul to remove CUNY chancellor after law grad’s commencement speechNew York Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing calls to remove CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez after his response to an antisemitic commencement speech.
Leer más »
ChatGPT delivers sermon to packed German church, tells congregants not to fear deathMore than 300 people attended an AI-generated church service at St. Paul's Church in Fürth, Bavaria, during which a ChatGPT avatar delivered a sermon saying not to fear death.
Leer más »
BioNTech faces first German lawsuit over alleged COVID vaccine side effectsBioNTech will go to court on Monday to defend itself against a lawsuit from a German woman who is seeking damages for alleged side effects of its COVID-19 vaccine, the first of potentially hundreds of cases in the country.
Leer más »