Johanna Eichmann

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Johanna Eichmann, 2012

Johanna Eichmann OSU (* February 24, 1926 in Münster as Ruth Eichmann ; † December 23, 2019 in Dorsten ) was a German religious woman from the order of the Ursulines , teacher and co-founder of the Jewish Museum Westphalia in Dorsten.

Life

Eichmann was the daughter of Martha Eichmann, a Jew born. Rosenthal and the Catholic Paul Eichmann . She received a Jewish upbringing, something that was particularly important to her grandparents. Her father was the only family member who was not of Jewish faith. Nevertheless, she was baptized a Roman Catholic in 1933. This was a protective measure against persecution by the National Socialists . In Recklinghausen , where she grew up, she would otherwise have been prohibited from attending a general school due to a regulation.

In 1936 she left the Recklinghausen school and moved to the boarding school of St. Ursula High School in Dorsten , which she was able to attend until the nationalization in 1942. There she was largely protected from the persecution of the Jews. Their origins were kept secret by the nuns. In 1943 she trained as an interpreter in Essen and then worked in the French police station in Berlin as an interpreter for forced laborers seeking protection. As a “ half-Jewish ” she later had to do forced labor herself from November 1944 to March 1945.

After the end of the war Johanna Eichmann returned to the Ruhr area; her mother had been under the protection of " mixed marriage " for a long time , had to do forced labor since 1944 and survived it. Her father was Mayor of Marl from 1945 to 1946 by the American and British military governments .

Johanna Eichmann studied German and Romance languages in Münster and Toulouse from 1946 to 1952 . Then she joined the Dorstener Konvent of the Order of the Ursulines ( Ordo Sanctae Ursulae , German: "Society of Saint Ursula ") on November 1, 1952 and in 1956 became a teacher at the St. Ursula grammar school. From 1964 to 1991 she was the headmistress there and introduced fundamental reforms, after which she was Superior of the Dorsten Ursuline Convent from 1995 to 2007 .

In 1992 she founded the Jewish Museum Westphalia together with other local history activists of the “Research Group Dorsten under the Swastika” , of which she was honorary director until 2006. Eichmann wrote numerous writings on Judaism in the region in the 19th century and at the time of National Socialism, as well as a two-volume autobiography.

honors and awards

Fonts

  • with Wolf Stegemann : The Star of David. Sign of shame - symbol of hope. A contribution to the history of the Jews . Documentation center for Jewish history and religion in the former main synagogue community of Dorsten in the Recklinghausen district, Dorsten 1991. ISBN 3-928676-04-0 .
  • A Jewish fate between Germany and Auschwitz. Kaddish for my grandfather . Evangelical City Academy, Bochum 1992.
  • Convent and schools after 1933. The fate of the monastery under National Socialism . In: Peter Hardetert: 300 years of the Ursulines in Dorsten: monastery and St. Ursula schools . Edition Archaea, Gelsenkirchen 1999, pp. 135-140.
  • with Norbert Reichling and Thomas Ridder: From Bar Mitzvah to Zionism. Jewish traditions and ways of life in Westphalia . Edited by the Jewish Museum Westphalia. Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-89534-673-6 .
  • You not a Jew, you blond, you German . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0519-1 .
  • The red Johanna. Memoirs 1952–2012 . Edited by the Jewish Museum Westphalia. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8375-0867-3 .

literature

  • Peter Hardetert: 300 years of the Ursulines in Dorsten. Monastery and St. Ursula Schools . Edition Archaea, Schwelm 1999, ISBN 3-929439-93-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Klein: DZ + Große Mrauer: Dorsten's honorary citizen sister Johanna Eichmann died at the age of 93. Retrieved December 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Martin Ahlers, Ludger Böhme: The city honors a great woman . Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, May 12, 2011
  3. ↑ Nicolas Holezek: From someone who is responsible . Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, February 27, 2011
  4. ↑ http://www.ursulinen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/dorsten/S._Johanna_Bd.2.pdf
  5. ↑ Information from the Federal President's Office
  6. ↑ Award of honorary citizenship to Sr. Johanna Eichmann (OSU) . In: Heimatkalender der Herrlichkeit Lembeck and the city of Dorsten , vol. 68 (2009), pp. 40–45.
personal data
SURNAME Eichmann, Johanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eichmann, Ruth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German religious, founder and director of the Jewish Museum Westphalia
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH 23 December 2019
Place of death Dorsten