Israel Offmann
Israel Offmann (born July 20, 1925 in Czestochowa ; † May 9, 2018 in Straubing ) was the first chairman of the Israelite Religious Community in Straubing .
Career
Offmann was born in Czestochowa, Poland. At the age of 15 he was arrested by the Gestapo in the Czestochowa ghetto for smuggling rifles. He was taken to Auschwitz concentration camp , where he was used as an interpreter, later to Sachsenhausen concentration camp , Oranienburg concentration camp and finally to the Ganacker subcamp near Landau an der Isar . When the US Army liberated the camp, he was emaciated to 29 kilos. His parents and four siblings had been murdered.
He went to Palestine and took part in the War of Independence there, then returned to Germany and Straubing became his new home. As chairman of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, for many years the smallest in Germany, he campaigned for the continued existence of the synagogue , the only one still preserved in Lower Bavaria . With the arrival of the quota refugees after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the mid-1990s, the community grew from 60 to over 1,800 members. At times he was a board member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany .
Honors
- 2007: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
literature
- Stefan Rammer: “I am a Lower Bavarian Jew.” In: Passauer Neue Presse , April 24, 2010, p. 3
- Birgit Fürst: "A father saved me": Israel Offmann was liberated from a subcamp 65 years ago In: Jüdische Allgemeine , April 29, 2010
Individual evidence
- ↑ idowa, Straubing, Germany: Straubing community as a life's work - Israel Offman is dead - idowa . In: idowa.de . ( idowa.de [accessed on May 15, 2018]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Offmann, Israel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | 1st chairman of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Straubing |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 20, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Czestochowa |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 9, 2018 |
| Place of death | Straubing |