The Neubergers and the Jewish Community of Sennfeld-Adelsheim: film shot by Max Korshak in May,1938
What this video shows: The family of Isaak and Gida Neuberger outside their home at Adolf-Hitler-Straße 58 in Sennfeld. (The street was formerly “Hauptstraße”; its original name was restored following the fall of the Nazi regime). Beginning at 4:19 you can see students from Sennfeld’s Zionist training camp (Hachshara) which operated 1936-1939 on land owned by Isaak Neuberger and his brother Adolf. The young students came from many parts of Germany to prepare for emigration to Palestine. Beginning at 6:07 you can see exteriors of the “new” Sennfeld synagogue, built in 1836.
Background: In May, 1938 Chicago lawyer Max Korshak and his wife Jessie spent part of an extended European and Mid-Eastern vacation in Nazi Germany. Their destination was the small town of Sennfeld-Adelsheim in Baden-Württemberg where they had agreed to sponsor the emigration of two Jewish girls, Berti and Erika, the daughters of Isaac and Gitele Neuberger. During the course of their brief stay in Sennfeld, the Korshaks also agreed to sponsor the emigration of Lothar and Joachim, sons of Isaac and Gida, as well as Gida’s sister, Selma Thalheimer.
Max Korshak was well connected in the Cook County (IL) Democratic party. He had no problem obtaining visas for the five members of the Neuberger family. He booked passage for them on a sailing of the Isle de France which reached New York on 19 August, 1938. The Neuberger children and Aunt Selma subsequently moved into the Korshak’s Chicago home at 506 W. Roscoe. They never again saw their family members who remained in Sennfeld.
Back in Sennfeld: In the course of the Pogrom of 9-10 November 1938, the interior of the synagogue was vandalized and ritual objects were burned. Many of the young people at the Zionist training school were beaten. The school was shut down the following year.
On 22 October 1940 the 21 Jews remaining in Sennfeld, including Gida, Isaak and Adolf Neuberger, were deported to the Gurs internment camp in southern France. All were subseuently murdered. (Isaak and Gida Neuberger were sent from Gurs to Auschwitz 12 August, 1942 in convoy 18).
Today: The Sennfeld synagogue at Hauptstraße 43 has been rebuilt and presently serves as a community center and memorial.
A request: Can anybody identify any of the Zionist training camp students? I would very much like to trace their subsequent histories.
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