Jewish Vocational School Masada
| Jewish Vocational School Masada | |
|---|---|
| type of school | professional school |
| founding | 1947 |
| closure | 1948 |
| place | Darmstadt |
| country | Hesse |
| Country | Germany |
| Coordinates | 49 ° 52 '20 " N , 8 ° 38' 26" E |
| student | 45 to 60 |
| management | Samuel Milek Batalion |
The Jewish Vocational School Masada was founded and directed in Darmstadt in 1947 and 1948 by Samuel Milek Batalion . The aim of the school was to give the young Holocaust survivors an education and a new will to live and to prepare them for a possible life in Israel . The school taught between 45 and 60 students. The school began its activity in September 1947 and closed after the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 with the emigration of students to Israel. The school, which only lasted ten months, represents a milestone in Hesse's post-war history and is a symbol of the new development and establishment of Jewish life in post-war Germany .
school
The programmatically after the Jewish fortress Masada named school was one of the Betar movement related vocational school . The Betar movement was a right-wing, revisionist-Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 with the aim of establishing a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan . It was unusual for the school to be subordinate to Samuel Milek Batalion, as almost all schools for displaced persons (DPs) after the Second World War were housed in DP camps and had been founded and supported by the ORT .
In 1946, Samuel Batalion met the Betar active Moshe Mordchelewitz in Eschwege , on whose advice Batalion presented the idea of the vocational school at the headquarters of the Betar organization in Munich, which was also approved. Moshe came to Darmstadt to become the Madrich (youth leader) in the school. The school was partially funded by the Betar Central Committee in Munich and the local American military administration . In addition, the state administration and the city of Darmstadt supported the establishment of the school. Some of the students were supported by the JOINT . Samuel Batalion organized the buildings, accommodation and supplies as well as the teaching staff, the financing and the equipment of the school. Ludwig Bergsträsser , who was present at the opening of the school, mentioned the imminent closure of the school in his diary on June 18, 1948.
building
The state administration and the city administration provided the buildings for the school and the student accommodation near the school in the former building of the Main-Neckar train station on Steubenplatz in downtown Darmstadt. The station, which had been out of service since 1912, was called "Jakob-Sprenger-Haus" from 1937, named after the Gauleiter Sprenger , in which the National Socialist People's Welfare of the Hesse-Nassau district was housed.
The accommodations were located in a building of the hospital complex, which was not far from Steubenplatz. The students lived there 20 minutes away from the school on the corner of Bismarckstrasse. 59 and Grafenstr. 9.
The school building in the former Main-Neckar train station contained classrooms, workshops and kitchen facilities. The students renovated the derelict building.
The building at Steubenplatz 17 was later demolished. The new building erected on the site housed the Hessian State Social Court .
opening
On September 8, 1947, the Masada Jewish Vocational School in Darmstadt began its work. The school was officially opened on December 5, 1947.
At this ceremony, Colonel Rose, the district manager of the American Military Administration for the city and district of Darmstadt, officially opened the school. Other guests attended the opening ceremony, including members of the American military government, the Hessian state government, the district president, the city administration and the Jewish community as well as representatives of the Betar Central Committee from Munich. Aron Propes, director of the Jewish youth organization Betar in America, also attended the opening ceremony and gave a speech at the celebrations after the opening ceremony. In addition, representatives of the German and American governments and representatives of other institutions conveyed their congratulations on the opening ceremony.
Timetable
The school wanted to give the Jewish students an education and a new will to live and to prepare them for a possible life in Israel. They were trained to be locksmiths, metalworkers, carpenters and other craftsmen. For this purpose, they were taught the subjects of technical computing, metrology, installation, low-voltage and general electrical engineering. They were also taught Hebrew, Jewish philosophy, sports, and the basics of Betar and Zionism . The books for this were provided by the Betar organization in Munich. Classes took place for ten hours each day.
student
The school taught between 45 and 60 Holocaust survivors from various DP camps in the American zone of occupation , such as the DP camps in Babenhausen , Dieburg , Rochelle Eschenstruth, Gabersee and Weilheim. Most came from Poland , a large number from Romania . The Romanian emigrants immigrated to Germany quite late and therefore no longer lived in DP camps, but went straight to the Masada vocational school. The other students came from countries such as Lithuania , Hungary and Czechoslovakia and spoke several languages. The most widely spoken languages were Yiddish and German, followed by Polish and Romanian. Some also spoke Hungarian, Russian, and Hebrew. Almost all of the students expressed a desire to emigrate to Palestine. It was noted in the students' index cards that 19 of them emigrated to Palestine on July 3, 1948 . A few said they wanted to emigrate to the USA or stay in Germany.
Important persons
Samuel Milek Batalion
Samuel Milek Batalion, founder and director of the Masada vocational school, was born on September 22nd, 1918 in Stryj, the son of Natan Batalion-Lebersfeld and Fanny Hennenfeld. In 1937 he graduated from school and joined the Betar movement. He enrolled at the University of Lemberg (Lvov) to study law, but fled to Russia in late 1939 , shortly after reading Hitler's Mein Kampf . He ran all the way to Perm , where he stayed for several years, working as a plumber and later becoming a station manager in a sovkhoz . He was arrested twice, once accused of being a Zionist. He apparently agreed to spy on his colleagues and friends for the NKVD (Communist Secret Police) and was then released. After his release, he organized false papers that identified him as a boxer. To escape his first fight, he fled to Saratov . With the help of friends he found his sister Helen there. There he also met Sophie Osser, whom he married on May 8, 1945. They left Saratov a few months later to enter Germany through Poland. At the end of 1945, Batalion and a group of his friends went to West Berlin. Disguised as Russian officers, they crossed the border into West Berlin in an officer's car and stated that they were on a secret night mission. He drove to Hanover and from there to the DP camp in Eschwege. There he became an officer at UNRRA and helped organize several new DP camps. Until October 1946 he lived with his wife in Hessisch Lichtenau . There he began planning the founding of the school and in May 1947 was appointed director of the Jewish vocational school in Darmstadt. He ran the school until it closed in 1948. Batalion then became an independent businessman. The couple had two children: Lea Dror-Batalion and Nathan Batalion. At the end of 1950 the family moved to Frankfurt am Main . Samuel Batalion died in Frankfurt in 2000.
Moshe Mordchelewitz
Moshe Mordchelewitz, the madrich of the school, taught Hebrew, Jewish philosophy, sports and the basics of the Betar movement and Zionism.
He was born on February 18, 1920 in Kovno (Kaunas) , Lithuania. His parents were Sarah Brode and Eisig Mordchelewitz. In 1937, after finishing high school, Moshe joined the Betar movement. In 1939 he was drafted into the Lithuanian army, which was disbanded in 1940 after the Soviet invasion. After Germany occupied Lithuania on June 22, 1941, ghettos were established there for the Jews. Moshe's two brothers, Yaakov and Sissel, were shot in the Kovno ghetto in 1943. Moshe managed to escape. Until 1945 he had to do forced labor in Russia, from where he returned to Poland in 1946 and from there to Germany. In the Betar movement, he met Samuel Batalion at a Betar conference and became a Madrich at the Masada Vocational School because of the experience he had previously gained as a Madrich in Gabersee Wasserburg. Moshe also headed the Herzog kibbutz in the DP camp in Hessisch-Lichtenau. He arrived in Darmstadt in 1947 and lived there in the kibbutz. During the day, Moshe attended lectures at the university as a guest auditor and in the evenings he taught at the vocational school. Representatives of the Jewish Agency came to Darmstadt to take the students to Erez Israel. In April 1948, Moshe was the first to leave school to join the Irgun group and fight in Palestine. Irgun was an underground Zionist organization in Palestine between 1931 and 1948, also known as Etzel. According to Moshe, he came from Marseille to Palestine on the Teti ship and reached Tel Aviv on May 15, 1948. He immediately joined the Irgun. After the incident of the Altalena ship , the Irgun and Haganah were disbanded and their units were absorbed into the Israeli army. Moshe fought in the Palestine War until the end of 1948 . He was released in August 1949. He married Miriam Kalmus on November 8, 1949 and had two daughters. After his wife died in 1980, he married Falla Minkowitz in 1981, with whom he emigrated to Canada . Moshe Mordchelewitz died in September 2011.
exhibition
Lea Dror-Batalion researched her father Samuel Milek Batalion and the Jewish Vocational School Masada. The result is an exhibition about the Jewish Vocational School Masada, which was created in collaboration with Renate Dreesen and students from the Heinrich Emmanuel Merck School in Darmstadt and with the support of the University of Haifa and the Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society .
The exhibition was shown in 2011 in Darmstadt and at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena . It will also be shown in other cities in Germany and Israel.
Web links
- Masada is located in Darmstadt
- Papers by Lea Dror-batalion
- The Jewish Vocational School Masada in Darmstadt 1947–48
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ilana Michaeli, Irmgard Klönne (ed.): Gut-Winkel - The protective island. Hachshara 1933-1941. German-Israeli Library, Vol. 3, Berlin 2007, p. 280.
- ↑ Liberation, Occupation, New Beginning - Diary of the Darmstadt District President 1945–1948. Munich, 1987, p. 313.
- ↑ The new home of the RGB building authorities, Jakob-Sprenger Haus. in: Darmstaedter Tageblatt of December 1, 1937 and Jakob-Sprenger-Haus. in: Hessische Landeszeitung from December 1, 1937
- ↑ School Building on the Steubenplatz 17 ( 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.
- ^ First Jewish technical school. in: Darmstädter Echo of September 13, 1947
- ^ First Jewish vocational school. in: Darmstädter Echo of December 9, 1947
- ↑ "Madrich" means leader, trainer, educator. In the world of the Jewish youth movement, a Madrich is the youth leader. The word also has the connotation of example, inspiration and general source of wisdom. The Madrich not only leads or organizes tours, camps and programs, but he also introduces the ideology and mythology of the movement. Translated based on THE JEWISH CHRONICLE ONLINE: Madrich
- ↑ See also the papers by Lea Drorbatalion
- ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau of January 28, 2011
- ^ Exhibition about the Jewish vocational school Masada. On IsraelMagazin.de on November 3, 2011.
