Groß Breesen (teaching material)

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Groß Breesen was the name of a non- Zionist training center for young German Jews in the Silesian village of Groß Breesen (today: Brzezno Trzebnica) near Trebnitz . It was set up in 1936 by what was then the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden ( Reichsvertretung ) in response to the incipient persecution of Jews by the National Socialists and existed until 1942.

history

When vocational training and attending secondary schools became increasingly difficult for young people from Jewish families in National Socialist Germany , Jewish associations, above all the Reich Representation, founded training centers for young people who were willing to emigrate from 1934/35. Here young people should be prepared to create an existence outside of Germany. Most of these sites followed the Zionist idea of ​​a return of all Jews to Palestine , were in the tradition of the Hachshara and were determined by the ideas of a more natural life, which were also popular in the Jewish youth movement . In the spring of 1938 5,520 trainees (out of an estimated 60,000 German youths who were considered Jews) attended 94 such training centers, in mostly two-year courses with agricultural, handicraft and home economics lessons. After the November pogroms in 1938 , their number fell rapidly.

In order to also help young people from families who were far removed from the Jewish religion or Zionism, but who were not less discriminated against, the Reich Representation decided to found a non-Zionist emigrant teaching material. Plans for this, which did not include a commitment to Palestine as the sole emigration destination, first became known around the turn of the year 1935/1936 and immediately met with fierce opposition. On January 14, 1936, the Zionist Jüdische Rundschau raised the following questions: “› Where is the country for which these young people are to be trained? ‹[..]› Where is their collective task that they will have to fulfill in the world ? What culture should they be when they leave Germany? ‹Such a project [..] would neither serve the people involved, nor the Jewish cause.

On January 16, 1936, the Reich Representation, chaired by Leo Baeck, nevertheless decided to found a non-Zionist emigrant teaching material under the direction of Curt Bondy . “In the initial stage, a maximum of 125 boys and girls should receive specialist training there that concentrated in theory and practice on agriculture, horticulture, handicrafts and housekeeping. In addition, lessons in foreign languages ​​were included in the curriculum. In addition, there was the intensive cultivation of the intellectual and cultural tradition, namely - in contrast to the Zionist teaching institutions - of the German and the Jewish, and the formation of the character of the future course participants. ”About this decision, the short time later in the foundation of the teaching material Groß Breesen, reported the Jüdische Rundschau in its issue of January 21, 1936.

In its first part, the article reports on the “Communiqué” received by the newspaper about the founding procedure for the “Jewish Emigration School” and names the people involved - in addition to Leo Baeck, among others: Julius Seligsohn , Julius Brodnitz , Otto Hirsch , Leo Löwenstein , Ottilie Schoenewald , Max Moritz Warburg . The second part, separated from this, begins with the reference to the article of January 14, 1936, which has already been quoted. It does not initially insist on Palestine as the sole emigration destination, since it is clear “that it is not in a position to prepare everyone to emigrate To accept Jews and that there are large numbers among us who are not qualified for Palestine. That is why efforts to open up new opportunities for emigration are entitled to active support from all groups in Jewish life. ”The criticism that followed this statement was sparked on the one hand by the allegedly unclear emigration countries, but also on the presumed pre-determination of Argentina. The actual point of attack, however, is a passage from a planning paper by Curt Bondy from January 7, 1936, which is said to have said:

“We believe that there are typical structural differences among the Jews in Germany, and that certain people are unsuitable and not in line with their work to be completely Hebrew and largely orientalized, as is ultimately necessary for the people in Palestine. These people will want to maintain their basic Jewish attitude and also outside of Germany the German culture. However, none of this prevents the lively relationship with Palestine. "

For a Zionist-oriented newspaper, the accusation that those who emigrate to Palestine are "Hebrewized" and "orientalized" and also prevented from possibly cultivating German culture there is hardly acceptable. Polemically, the article therefore asks whether the aim of the emigration teaching material is “ to want to imitate the example of the Transylvanian Saxons through Jews in South America”. In order to counter the danger of uprooting, the word “cultural assimilation to the new home” is vehemently spoken. In order not to lose one's own identity while in exile, “a particularly good Jewish foundation is required, which is somewhat briefly lost in the plans for the new emigration school that have become known up to now”. This is also indicated by the fact that although many foreign languages ​​are to be taught in the new facility, “Hebrew as the basis of Jewish knowledge” is not given any space. All of this is merely the continuation of the "life lie about the 'home of the Jews in the world', which led to a tragic collapse for the older generation".

From the Zionist point of view, however, adherence to German culture was more disruptive than the supposedly imprecise emigration destination. If this is important to you, you just have to stay here, persevere with all the consequences:

“We can understand that a group of Jews whose feelings have not been changed by the profound changes in the environment in their assessment of the Jewish question are against their own or their children becoming members of a living Jewish people in Palestine. From this they can draw the consequence of staying at their post here, and if they are forced to emigrate for economic reasons, then they will have to accept this as a tragic fate. To turn this into an action by the Jewish community, for which public funds are used, and to put the matter under the cloak of a - more than unclear - ideology seems to us wrong and suitable to confuse the Jewish public inside and outside Germany. "

Despite these attacks, the Groß Breesen estate about 30 km north of Breslau was soon leased by a Polish-Jewish family and, as part of the redeployment concept, the selection and training of around 120 boys and girls began in 1936 . There were a total of three two-year courses for a total of around 370 young people, the majority of whom were boys; the desired balance between boys and girls was never achieved. In 1942 the training center was closed by the Gestapo .

Plans for a joint emigration of all Breeseners overseas failed. From the first course, most of them found their way abroad individually in 1937/38. On November 10, 1938, the estate was attacked by SS men. The male members of the second course, the educators and almost all foremen were deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp . After six weeks, almost the entire group was released from the concentration camp with the obligation to emigrate immediately. Groß Breesen continued to exist as a training facility and now accepted 114 participants for a third course. Those of them who were still living in Groß Breesen in 1942 were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp .

Concept and meaning

The work on the estate, especially the work of the “interns” in the fields, in the stable and in the garden, was difficult. Most of them were city children, they were to receive a thorough training in agricultural theory and practice in two years, and Groß Breesen was dependent on their labor. After all, the training center did not need any further financial support from the RV after just one year.

In addition to vocational training, the “conscious affirmation of the Jewish tradition and commitment to German cultural heritage” were part of the Groß-Breesener educational principles. They had been conceived by the head of the project, the social educator Curt Bondy, who was particularly keen to give the young people solid moral and ethical principles, a sense of responsibility and the ability to critically reflect on themselves on their way into their new and risky life. Bondy therefore carried out an extensive cultural, musical and intellectual education and discussion program with the support of the other employees and with the active participation of the young people.

Many of those he trained at the time later reported that the time in Groß Breesen had been decisive for their development. They attributed this mainly to the influence of Curt Bondy. With strict requirements, with attention to each individual and in open discussions about the threatening situation, the young people who were separated from their parents had a feeling of security and community. Bondy and his young assistant Ernst Cramer apparently even managed to maintain the helpful cohesion of the group who had been deported there in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

The course participants who managed to escape the National Socialists emigrated to all continents; Hans Rosenthal even founded the “Fazenda Nova Breesen” in Rolândia . Many of them stayed in contact with each other, especially through hectographed "Groß-Breesen circulars" and "Gross-Breesen Letters", which were sent out at irregular intervals until 2003. Many of these newsletters and other material, e.g. B. on the Hyde Park Farm (the attempt to continue Groß Breesen in American exile) is in the "Harvey P. Newton Collection".

swell

literature

  • Werner T. Angress : Emigrants School Groß Breesen , in: Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook , 10, 1956, pp. 168–187
  • Werner T. Angress: Generation between fear and hope. Jewish youth in the Third Reich . Christians, Hamburg 1985 ISBN 3-7672-0886-5 (Hamburg contributions to social and contemporary history, supplement 2)
  • Bernhard Brilling : The Jewish communities of Central Silesia. Origin and history. Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 1972, pp. 196-199
  • Salomon Adler-Rudel : Jewish self-help under the Nazi regime 1933-1939 as reflected in the reports of the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany. Mohr, Tübingen 1974, p. 61
  • Avraham Barkai , Paul Mendes-Flohr : German-Jewish history in modern times. Volume 4: Awakening and Destruction, 1918 - 1945. CH Beck, Munich 1997, p. 265
  • Germania Judaica , Volume 3.2. Tübingen 2003, p. 1463
  • The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and during the Holocaust, Vol. 3, New York University Press, Washington Square, New York 2001, p. 1320

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angress, Generation ... pp. 33, 15.
  2. ↑ Jüdische Rundschau of January 14, 1936, p. 3, quoted from Werner T. Angress: Generation between fear and hope , p. 51
  3. ↑ Werner T. Angress: Generation between fear and hope , p. 52
  4. ↑ a b c d e A “Jewish Emigration School” , Jüdische Rundschau , No. 6, January 21, 1936
  5. ↑ The story of the teaching estate Groß Breesen is comprehensively described in Werner T. Angress: Generation Between Fear and Hope , p. 51 ff.
  6. ↑ Contemporary witness reports on this from Verena Buser: Fire on the Gutshof. Hachshara camps for emigrants also fell victim to the pogroms , in: Jüdische Rundschau , November 7, 2013
  7. ↑ Angress, Generation, p. 55.
  8. ↑ not identical to the later well-known quiz master, who also worked in a Jewish agricultural school in the Reich, but in the Neuendorf Landwerk
  9. ↑ See “Harvey P. Newton Collection” (web links), pdf pages 162–163.
  10. ↑ see web links
  11. ↑ The text can be viewed online via the "Harvey P. Newton Collection" (see web links; pdf pages 5–15)
  12. ↑ with further research literature and extensive document attachment
  13. ↑ The 731-page collection of the former Groß Breesener Hermann Neustadt, who later called himself Harvey P. Newton, can be viewed in various formats.

Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '42 "  N , 16 ° 52' 8"  E