German Jews? And after many inglorious experiences from the past, including in the recent history, are we able to create a real environment for mutual respect?
Undoubtedly, Jewish culture is currently enjoying great popularity, and there are many organizations and initiatives promoting it in Wroclaw. Opposite, however, there are neo-Nazi organizations, which are also recovering. When describing the story of Wroclaw’s Jews, I also look to the future: I am curious to see what the development of the city and the cultivation of common memory will look like not only by our generation but also by the generation of our children
Fragment of the website dedicated to the Holocaust
It is estimated that most of Wroclaw’s Jews left the city during the several years of Nazi rule, and only those who did not believe in the specter of death or those who could not afford to leave or were not allowed to do so due to their health condition stayed in the city. One of those who did not leave the city was Willy Cohn. He did not believe in the darkest scenario, and his journal No Justice in Germany: The Breslau Diaries, 1933-1941 is today an extraordinary chronicle of those times. In November 1941, recalling the events of Kristallnacht, Willy Cohn noted with great hope: “Today is the eve of the infamous November 9! Three years ago, synagogues were on fire! But the Jewish people will survive these times anyway!”. However, two weeks later he and his family were ordered to show up at the collection point, from which the transport set off to Kaunas, where the Nazis first forced the Jews to dig pits, then told them to undress and shot them all.
The first deportations of Wroclaw Jews took place at the end of 1941. Jews had to wait for deportation at collection points; for instance at the courtyard in front of the White Stork Synagogue and the vicinity of the present Nadodrze Railway Station and Strzelecki Square. The Jewish inhabitants of Wroclaw were deported in several transports: to the camps Tormersdorf, Riebing and Grüssau, to Kaunas, Izbica, Sobibór, Bełżec and Majdanek, as well as to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. The last transports were organized at the beginning of 1944. Owing to an extremely scrupulous bureaucratic system, the Nazis were sure that Jews had disappeared from Wroclaw. The only survivors were the few who lived in mixed marriages. Thus, the Nazis annihilated one of the largest German Jewish communities.
About the author
Jewish Wroclaw is an original project of Urszula Rybicka implemented as part of the Artistic Scholarship of the President of Wroclaw. The aim of the project is to present the history of Jews and their contribution to the development of the city from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day.
The project was initiated hoping that the growing awareness of the significant contribution of Jews to the development of Wroclaw could contribute to an increase in tolerance in the capital of Lower Silesia.
Urszula Rybicka is a publicist, reviewer, and educator. She graduated from the University of Wroclaw. She is the founder and editor of Żydoteka – the only Polish medium about Jewish literaturę.
The project is funded by the City of Wroclaw.