Kaddish for the Jews deported from Kassel
On November 11, the Königstor initiative, together with Kassel University and Kassel State Theatre, commemorated the deportation of Jews from Kassel with a memorial event lasting more than fourteen hours.
The Kassel Gestapo office was responsible for the deportation of Jews from the administrative district of Kassel to concentration and extermination camps. The first mass transport of 696 male Jews to Buchenwald concentration camp took place on November 11, 1938; they were usually released after a few weeks. From December 1941 to September 1943, the Gestapo deported a total of 2598 Jews of all ages to the concentration and extermination camps in the East; only a few survived.
On the 87th anniversary of the first mass transport, each individual will be called to the former headquarters of the Gestapo at Kassel's Königstor with their fate.
The action begins at 8 a.m. and ends after 14 hours at 10 p.m. with a memorial prayer and music. The prayer אֵל מָלֵארַחֲמִים (El male Rahamim) will be spoken by Annette Willisch and Jakob Axenrod. Elena Padva will sing.
The event is organized by the initiative Gedenkort Polizeipräsidium Königstor, the Staatstheater Kassel and the University of Kassel in cooperation with the Jewish Community Kassel, the Sara-Nussbaum-Zentrum, the Jewish liberal community region Kassel e.V. Emet weschalom and the memorial Breitenau. Patron is the Hessian Minister for Science and Research, Art and Culture, Timon Gremmels.
Gremmels: "Reading out the names of the Jews deported from Kassel is a sign against forgetting. Behind each of the names is a person, a life with hopes, dreams, families and friendships. And behind each of these names is a crime that destroyed these lives. At a time when anti-Semitic slogans are becoming louder again and Jews feel increasingly threatened, our responsibility is clear: we must look, name and act. Never again must hatred be allowed to gain the upper hand. Never again must we look the other way. Remembering the victims of National Socialism is an inseparable part of our democratic identity, because only those who recognize the past can measure the value of freedom in our society and shape the future in a humane way."
More than 40 citizens of Kassel took part in the reading of the names, including members of the initiative Gedenkort Polizeipräsidium Königstor, Omas gegen Rechts, Aktion Sühnezeichen/ Friedensdienste, Seebrücke Kassel, Stolpersteine in Kassel, Freundinnen und FreundeJewish life in the Werra-Meißner district, the German-Israeli Society, the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Kassel, the Protestant and Catholic Churches, actors and employees of the Kassel State Theater, the President of the University of Kassel Prof. Dr. Ute Clement, the chairwoman of the Jewish community of Kassel Ilana Katz and others.
https://gedenkort-koenigstor.de/aktuell/kaddisch/