Gehringshof

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The Gehringshof is a now unused former agricultural property, which housed an agricultural training center for Jewish emigrants from Palestine from 1929 to 1941 and again from 1945 to 1948, then a rest home for the workers' welfare until 1983 and finally a home for asylum seekers until 2001.

Geographical location

The Gehringshof is located on the southwestern edge of the Hattenhof district , a district of Neuhof in the Fulda district in East Hesse , on the eastern slope of a hill about 350 m above the Rehbach. An asphalt path leads from the L 3430 between Hattenhof and Büchenberg to the west, past grain fields and natural ponds , to the entrance of the site.

history

The farm is first mentioned around 1630 as "Geringshauk" and was then owned by the Johannesberg provost near Fulda . In 1641 he is referred to as "Grunshack" and in 1789 as "Grüßhaug".

Hachschara Gehringshof

In 1929, the Kibbutz Haddati movement , members of the Zionist youth organization Bachad (Brith Chaluzim Datiim - Association of Religious Pioneers), acquired the Gehringshof from Simon Heinrich August Roog. The Kibbutz Haddati movement was founded in 1924 in Betzenrod (now part of Eiterfeld ) and moved to Rodges (now part of Fulda ) in 1926/27 . As Rodges was too small, the group eventually moved to the Gehringshof, which they called Kibbutz Haddati , as the members were preparing for a life in the kibbutz here . These were a Hachshara -Stätte where young people through agricultural training for emigration ( aliyah ) to Palestine were prepared. With a completed agricultural training one could get a certificate from the British government to immigrate to Palestine. Even the Gehringshof proved too small in the long run, and so several dozen young Jewish men and women worked for the neighboring farmers in Hattenhof. The trainees were mostly students from all parts of Germany who were not allowed to continue studying under the Nazi regime. Among those trained at the Gehringshof in the 1930s was Josef Burg (1909–1999), who came to Palestine in 1939 and held a ministerial post in all Israeli cabinets from 1951 to 1986.

The site was closed by the Nazi authorities in autumn 1941. Those among the residents who had not yet managed to emigrate or go into hiding were deported to the Riga ghetto .

Kibbutz Buchenwald

Soon after the end of the Second World War in Europe, on June 24, 1945, around 50 young Jewish survivors from the Buchenwald concentration camp and other concentration camps arrived at the Gehringshof. Before that, on June 3, 1945, they had been brought from Buchenwald to a farm in Eggendorf near Weimar , which they called Kibbutz Buchenwald , but had to move further west from there shortly afterwards because the Soviet army was advancing into the area. The Gehringshof became the Buchenwald kibbutz . The courtyard was almost completely destroyed, but the US occupation authorities gave permission to rebuild it. More kibbutzim moved in, and soon 70 people were living there. Among them were Sylvia Wagenberg and Esther Bejarano , two survivors of the Auschwitz Girls' Orchestra ; Esther had already lived on the Neuendorf Landwerk in 1939 .

Under the guidance of two trainers prewar a first time after the Second World War on German soil again Hachshara -Stätte built in preparation for departure to Palestine. The first graduates traveled there in August 1945. After Israel was founded, some of them founded the kibbutz in Bir Salem in 1948, which was also initially called the "Kibbutz Buchenwald" (today a place, Netzer Sereni ). The Gehringshöfer received support from Jewish military chaplains and soldiers from the US occupation troops stationed in the Fulda area, who contributed food, clothing, reading material, furniture, household utensils, tools and donations from their own resources.

Recreation Home of the Workers' Welfare; Asylum seekers residence

At the end of the 1940s, the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) acquired the Gehringshof and used it as a holiday home for socially disadvantaged children. From 1951 to 1956 it was headed by the reform pedagogue Eva Seligmann .

From 1983 the buildings were used by the AWO as a temporary residence for asylum seekers . This use ended in 2001 when some war refugees from Kosovo were still housed there, and the Gehringshof has been unused since then.

Current condition

Considerations to turn the residential units of the complex into condominiums could not be implemented, just like the idea of ​​setting up a museum with an adjoining leisure center. Today the buildings are falling into disrepair and the site is overgrown.

Since the beginning of 2015, the property has been owned by an agricultural entrepreneur who wants to use it again.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In addition to the Gehringshof, there were three other such training centers run by the Hechaluz in Hesse: in Grüsen near Gemünden an der Wohra , in Külte near Volkmarsen , and at the Löhnberger Hütte near Weilburg .
  2. ↑ Kurt Schilde: “The youth are now our only remaining hope. Jewish youth and youth work in DP camps after the Second World War. ”In: Diana Franke, Joachim Henseler, Jürgen Reyer (eds.), Social Pedagogy: From Therapeutics to World Society. Historical and systematic articles, Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2005, pp. 116-134
  3. ↑ Many of the founders came as survivors from the Buchenwald concentration camp
  4. ↑ Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz (יהודית תידור באומל-שוורץ): Kibbutz Buchenwald: survivors and pioneers [קיבוץ בוכנוואלד; Engl.], Dena Ordan (transl.), New Brunswick (NJ): Rutgers University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8135-2336-2 , p. 2.
  5. ↑ Alex Grobman: American Jewish Chaplains and the Shearit Hapletah April-June 1945 ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (on the Simon Wiesenthal Center website ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / motlc.wiesenthal.com
  6. ↑ Florian Dietz, “Forgotten Places” (2) - Der Gehringshof: Transitional Home for Asylum Seekers, August 27, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.osthessen-news.de  
  7. ↑ A ruin for 13 years: Gehringshof now has a new owner , in: Fuldaer Zeitung , May 7, 2015

literature

  • Susanne Urban: "... according to her own statements in Kibuc Gehringshof": Displaced Persons in the files of the ITS ; Projects and insights into research approaches, in:  Exposures: Reflections of Nazi persecution and its consequences, Wallstein, Göttingen, 2015, pp. 191–214
  • Erhard Lotter: The Gehringshof in the period from 1922-48: a contribution to the thousand-by-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle of a Zionist Hachschara site near Fulda , in: Contributions to the history of Neuhof , Volume 3, Neuhof History Circle, 2005, p. 287-302
  • Judith Tydor Baumel: Kibbutz Buchenwald and Kibbutz Hafetz Hayyim: Two Experiments in the Rehabilitation of Jewish Survivors in Germany . In: Holocaust and Genocide Studies , Vol. 9, No. 2, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, 1995, pp. 231–249
  • Heinz-Jürgen Hoppe: “From Betzenrod to Kibbutz Rodges. Religious-Zionist Chaluz work in the Fulda area. ”In: Buchenblätter Bd. 62, 1989
  • Y. Walk: "The Torah va-Avoda Movement in Germany", In: Leo Baeck Yearbook 6 , 1961
  • Aryei Fishman: Judaism and Modernization on the Religious Kibbutz (Chapter 4: "The foundations of the Religious Kibbutz Movement"), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1992, (Online Publication: October 2009), Online ISBN 9780511557330 , Hardback ISBN 9780521403887 , Paperback ISBN 9780521050272 .

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 26 ′ 52 ″  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 14 ″  E