Cohn barn

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The Cohn barn in the Lower Saxony district town of Rotenburg (Wümme) houses a cultural history museum on the history of Judaism in the Rotenburg area and in the Elbe-Weser region . The reconstruction and the museum were made possible by the Cohn-Scheune development association and numerous donations. The culture workshop was opened on September 19, 2010 with a festive ceremony at which family members of the Cohn family were also present.

The Cohn barn

building

The small, two-storey half-timbered building, which was actually not a barn, but a workshop building, is approx. 180 years old and was originally located on the site of the inner-city commercial building on Grosse Strasse 32. This commercial building belonged to the local Jewish merchant family Cohn , who played a prominent role within the local Jewish community played. The textile workshop belonging to the business has been located in the so-called barn since the end of the 19th century. In the post-war period, the building threatened to deteriorate, until it was dismantled in 2005 by a local initiative and rebuilt in a central location opposite the city ​​church by 2010 with the aim of building a Jewish museum and a meeting place. At the original location, Grosse Strasse 32, there is now a new building with a shop. Before that, six stumbling blocks were laid in 2005 to commemorate the Cohn family and their employees. See also Stolpersteine ​​in Rotenburg (Wümme) .

Cohn family

The Cohn family was the only Jewish family that lived in Rotenburg from the middle of the 18th century until they were expelled during the Nazi era. She traded in fur and fabrics, and had her own textile shop since the beginning of the 19th century. After Julius David Cohn, who took over the business from his father David Isaak Cohn in 1877, the successful textile business was then called "JD Cohn" and has been run by Hermann Julius Cohn since 1922. Due to the global economic crisis and anti-Jewish Nazi policy, he had to file for bankruptcy in 1934. While the two daughters were able to emigrate to South America and England, the parents Hermann and Gertrud Cohn were deported from Berlin to Auschwitz in 1943 and murdered.

museum

The exhibition in the museum has two sections on the lower and upper floors. In the lower main room, the local historical permanent exhibition Jewish life in Rotenburg shows the history of the Jewish inhabitants in the region since the middle of the 18th century. It presents the development of the former Rotenburg Jewish community, which in the 19th century formed one of the most important centers of Jewish life in the Elbe-Weser region and included the families in Visselhövede , Scheeßel , Neuenkirchen and Tewel. The exhibition also addresses the persecution of the Nazi era , to which numerous residents of the Rotenburg institutions also fell victim. The Jewish history of the Elbe-Weser region can be researched on interactive maps and timelines.

On the upper floor of the Cohn barn there is a seminar room with an introduction to Judaism. There, in addition to the basics of culture and religion, insights into Jewish life are given and, for example, the feasts and holidays are presented. Users can independently use the exhibition's research materials on work computers and find out more about the culture of remembrance in Rotenburg.

Controversy over opponents of the Cohn Barn

In parts of the Rotenburg population there was resistance to the plans for the Cohn Barn, including openly anti-Semitic slogans. The press reported letters from readers that could not be published because they had complied with the criminal offense of sedition . Demands published such as "Wouldn't it be more appropriate to remember our fallen soldiers and heroes?" A citizens' initiative “Cohn Barn in the Wrong Place” was formed. The head of the Friends' Association Cohn-Scheune described their work to the Rotenburger Rundschau: “Hidden under the cloak of urban planning know-it-alls, unabashed anti-Semitic statements were unabashedly carried out, which frightened me.” And further: “I didn't think it was possible still existed in this clarity 60 years after the end of National Socialism. ". The reconstruction was carried out against this resistance with the support of the city council.

literature

  • Manfred Wichmann (ed.): Jewish life in Rotenburg. Book accompanying the exhibition in the Cohn barn. PD-Verlag, 2010

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Critics have fallen silent. In: www.rotenburger-rundschau.de. Retrieved December 4, 2016 .
  2. ↑ "Outstanding" . In: http://www.kreiszeitung.de . March 14, 2016 ( Kreiszeitung.de [accessed December 4, 2016]).

Coordinates: 53 ° 6 ′ 35 ″  N , 9 ° 24 ′ 19.5 ″  E