Nathan Saretzki

Nathan Saretzki (born March 11, 1887 in Hohensalza / Province of Posen ; † October 12, 1944 in Auschwitz / Upper Silesia ) was a German tenor , religion teacher, last senior cantor and rabbinical administrator of the liberal Jewish main synagogue on Börnestrasse in Frankfurt am Main and cantor at the liberal Westend synagogue of this city. During the pogroms on November 9, 1938, he rescued volumes with notes from the burning main synagogue and thus secured the transmission of historically valuable liturgical compositions for the modern, liberal, synagogue rite. Today these scores form the basis of the Oberkantor-Nathan-Saretzki-Foundation of the European Center for Jewish Music in the Lower Saxony state capital Hanover . By Margot Käßmann saving the liberal Jewish liturgy by Saretzki in their capacity as bishop of the Hanover church in March 2005 was described as an example of "evil lived fraternity".

Life path

Childhood and youth

Nathan Saretzki was born as the eldest of nine children of the Jewish Schochet and cantor Elias Saretzki (? - February 24, 1915) and his wife Ernestine, née Helischowski (December 23, 1862 - November 16, 1927).

education

It is assumed that he was trained as a cantor by his father and subsequently completed a degree in pedagogy in Berlin . Evidence for the training centers no longer exists, but based on his place of birth, both assumptions correspond to the practice of comparable biographies at the time. In Frankfurt am Main he took singing lessons to become an opera singer (hero tenor).

Personal and professional development

In 1909, in Westerburg in the Westerwald , he took up his first position as a Jewish religious teacher and cantor. In 1910 he put together the musical program for the festive opening of the synagogue there on July 8th, sang with orchestra accompaniment, with mixed choir and solo. During this time he met his future wife Emmy there. When the First World War broke out in 1914 , Saretzki took part in the fighting as a non-commissioned officer and was an officer candidate in the West Prussian Infantry Regiment 140 from Hohensalza. During the (first) Battle of the Marne , which took place in northern France between September 5 and 12, 1914 , Saretzki was shot in the head and survived. During the following year, which he spent recovering in a French military hospital, his father died. After his stay in the hospital, Nathan Saretzki was a French prisoner of war until the end of the war. In his homeland he was considered "fallen" during this time.

After the war, he gave up his original intention of starting a stage career as an opera singer, a decision to which his severe head injury and its effects will have contributed. In order to still use his vocal training and tenor pitch - but with less stress - he took up a position as a cantor in the Upper Silesian border town of Gleiwitz .

On December 23, 1920 he married Emmy Ullmann from Westerburg, Kirchstrasse 7, born on May 1, 1890, daughter of a businessman. Their only child, Edgar , was born on May 10, 1922 in Limburg an der Lahn .

In 1922 he moved from Gleiwitz to Frankfurt am Main, where he was employed as senior cantor and deputy chairman at the main synagogue on Börnestrasse. In addition, he also worked regularly as chief cantor in the Westend synagogue in Frankfurt.

Saretzki's interest and commitment to the modern Jewish liturgy was supported in the Frankfurt main synagogue by the organ that was only there. Since its inauguration in 1860, this was explicitly intended for the liberal liturgy. He had his professional home there, according to his son Edgar Sarton-Saretzki. The distribution of roles between the choir (a mixed choir in Frankfurt am Main), cantor and congregation, similar to the Christian rite, became characteristic of modern Jewish liturgy. Saretzki worked together with the choirmaster Artur Holde to put together a rather broad combination of secular and synagogal music. The pronounced interest in both contemporary trends in sacred Jewish music did not always meet with approval from their community. Some "almost atonal" works that the community considered too modern were strictly rejected.

Saretzki also appeared as a tenor outside of church services, for example at commemorations or lectures. He also cooperated with choirmaster Artur Holde, for example, at a public choir concert during the Frankfurt “Summer of Music” in 1927 as part of the international exhibition “Music in the Lives of Nations”, which was opened by Reich Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann ( DVP ). This continued even after January 30, 1933, when Saretzki appeared as a tenor at sacred concerts by the Frankfurt Jewish Tonkünstler or the Society for Jewish Education. Both organizations were merged in 1935 in the Reich Association of Jewish Cultural Associations . At Nathan Saretzki's house, regular private concerts were held, in which the then well-known contralto Magda Spiegel (1887–1944) took an active part.

From 1930 to 1932 Saretzki was employed as a teacher for Jewish religion at Lessing-Gymnasium , until 1935 at the Schillerschule and the Elisabethenschule . From 1937 on he taught philanthropy at the Jewish grammar school and German at the Hassan School, and founded several choirs, some of which were secular. In the same year in May, the family had to move and moved to the third floor of a so-called Jewish house at Lersnerstrasse 34. Before that, they lived in Königswarter Strasse from 1922, at Gagernstrasse 36 from 1924, at Hansaallee 16 from 1928, and from 1932 at Holzhausenstrasse 16 and from 1934 to May 29, 1937 at Klüberstrasse 13.

Saretzki's collection of notes in the main synagogue formed a treasure trove of unique repertoire for shaping the liberal Jewish rite, which he had often provided with detailed handwritten notes on his interpretation of the order in the service. During the pogroms on November 9, 1938, the main synagogue was set on fire by the National Socialists . Despite the mortal danger, Saretzki saved as much from the burning main synagogue as he could carry. He stored his thirteen volumes of sheet music and notes in the Philanthropin and was able to save musical works that would otherwise have been irretrievably lost. These included works by Jacob Bachmann , Moritz Deutsch , Aron Friedmann , Arnold Grünzweig , Louis Lewandowski , Salomon Sulzer as well as one of the most likely last works published for the liberal Jewish rite in Germany, “A Friday Evening Liturgy for Cantor, Choir and Organ” by Heinrich Schalit , published in January 1933. Non-European works can also be found in the collection, such as a volume in the ten-volume “Hebrew-Oriental Treasure of Melodies” by the musicologist and ethnologist Abraham Zvi Idelsohn .

On November 13, 1938, Nathan Saretzki was arrested and taken to the police station in Frankfurts Oberweg (between Eckenheimer Landstrasse and Oeder Weg ). After a few hours he was released there; his son suspected that there might have been a comrade from the First World War among the officers there.

Saretzki's son Edgar managed to emigrate to Great Britain in 1939 - at the age of 16 - against the declared will of his German nationalist parents , where he was interned in 1940 and then taken to a camp in Canada . From today's perspective, this was a far-sighted decision. His parents did not want to believe that the persecution of the Jews in the German Reich was developing in a direction that the Nazis later described as the final solution . They saw marginalization and displacement as a temporary phenomenon.

After the destruction of the synagogues, the liberal Jewish community held the services led by Saretzki as rabbinical administrator and rabbi Leopold Neuhaus in the Philanthropin's auditorium, which is designated as an “emergency synagogue”. Since January 27th, 2000 a memorial plaque commemorates this. Concerts taking place in the auditorium had to be announced as "religious-musical consecration hours" by order of the Nazis. One of the last of these concert performances took place on June 8, 1941; works by Eduard Birnbaum , Herbert Fromm , Samuel Naumbourg and Siegfried Würzburger , the organist of the Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt, were performed. Because of the overwhelming demand, the concert was repeated again the following month.

Deportation and murder

The deportations began shortly afterwards . Shortly before that, Saretzki was still able to hand over the collection of music and notes that had been rescued from the burning main synagogue to a friendly Catholic family. He expressed an urgent request that the documents characterized as important documents be kept very carefully for him.

Saretzki was brought to the Theresienstadt ghetto with his wife Emmy and his mother-in-law Rosa, née Schaumburger (born July 14, 1859) . Saretzki's mother-in-law died there on September 16, 1943, while the couple were taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp on October 9, 1944 , and murdered there three days later.

Memberships

Nathan Saretzki was a member of the Jewish Cultural Association Rhein-Main in Frankfurt a. M.

Liturgical sheet music and notes collection

In the newspaper reports on the exhibitors and authors of the Frankfurt Book Fair 1990, the family name Saretzki of a Canadian was noticed. Nathan Saretzkis, the custodian of the liturgical sheet music and notes collection, drove the documents to the exhibition grounds and handed them over to his son after the close family relationship became apparent. Edgar Sarton-Saretzki passed it on to the European Center for Jewish Music in Hanover in 2000, where it is kept for research purposes as the Oberkantor-Nathan-Saretzki-Stiftung. The collection is considered to be historically and scientifically significant because a large number of works of the liberal Jewish liturgy have been irretrievably lost through the expulsion and willful destruction by the National Socialists.

The liberal Jewish liturgy found its continuation particularly in exile, for example in the United States of America . In Germany it was first practiced in the Berlin synagogue on Pestalozzistraße . For the survivors of the Holocaust in Germany and the Jews who returned there, however, the liberal rite was no longer an option. It was viewed as a failed attempt at a German-Jewish symbiosis or, in any case, never accepted by supporters of Orthodoxy .

Concert reconstruction

On June 13, 2004, the last “musical consecration hour” of the city's liberal Jews on June 8, 1941 was commemorated in the current building of the Philanthropin in Frankfurt am Main. The works compiled by Nathan Saretzki were performed by Prof. Andor Izsák just as they were then.

Memorial stones

• A memorial stone was set for Emmy and Nathan Saretzki at the New Jewish Cemetery in Frankfurt am Main. The stele is inscribed in German and Hebrew.

• In September 2005, stumbling blocks for Nathan Saretzki, Emmy Saretzki and their mother Rosa Ullmann were laid in front of the Jews' house at Lersnerstrasse 34 in Frankfurt, which was designated by the Nazis .

“ These stones weigh more than any pathetic memorial. Here you can feel what the normality of today hides on the spot. "

- Edgar Sarton-Saretzki, 2005

literature

• Dr. Paul Arnsberg / Hans-Otto Schembs : "The history of Frankfurt's Jews since the French Revolution". Volume 2. S. 16. Verlag Eduard Roether. Darmstadt 1983. ISBN 3-7929-0130-7
• Joachim Carlos Martini / Judith Freise, “Music as a form of spiritual resistance. Jewish Musicians in Frankfurt 1933-1942 ”. An exhibition in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main from November 7th - 25th 1990. Volume 1 + Volume 2. Verlag Brandes + Apsel. Frankfurt am Main 1990/2010. ISBN 3-86099-620-7 , ISBN 3-86099-621-5
• Dr. Thomas Schinköth: “Jewish musicians in Leipzig. 1855-1945 ". Publisher Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad. Altenburg 1994. p. 41. ISBN 3-9305-5000-8
• Prof. Dr. Benjamin Ortmeyer (Ed.): “Eyewitnesses Speak Out Against Denial. Testimonials by 100 Surviving Jewish Students of Their School Days in Frankfurt on Main / Germany During The Nazi Era ". Margarete Wehle publishing house. Witterschlick / Bonn 1995. p. 197. ( online / English ; PDF; 13.1 MB)
• Prof. Dr. Benjamin Ortmeyer (Ed.): "Reports against forgetting and displacement of 100 surviving Jewish schoolchildren about the Nazi era in Frankfurt am Main". Publishing house Marg. Wehle. Witterschlick / Bonn 1995. p. 197. ISBN 3-925267-85-9
• Ute Daub (ed.) / Edgar Sarton-Saretzki: "We have been waiting for you". CoCon Verlag. Hanau 1997. ISBN 3-928100-55-6
• Prof. Dr. Michael Brocke , Margret Heitmann, Harald Lordick: "On the history and culture of the Jews in East and West Prussia". Georg Olms. Hildesheim 2000. p. 104. ISBN 3-4871-1026-1
• Claudia Becker: “Magda Spiegel. 1887–1944 ". Waldemar Kramer publishing house. Frankfurt am Main 2003. p. 189. ISBN
• Arno Lustiger (ed.): "Love makes the song immortal". For the reconstruction of the last "Musical Consecration" in the liberal synagogue Philanthropin, June 1941, Fachhochschulverlag. Frankfurt am Main 2004. ISBN 3-9360-6526-8
• Heidy Zimmermann: “Shir Zion. Music and singing in the synagogue ”. In: Eckhard John, Heidy Zimmermann (Ed.): “Jewish Music? External images - self-images ". Böhlau publishing house. Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2004. ISBN 3-4121-6803-3
• Gerlind Schwöbel: “The almond branch should bear flowers again. Memories of the Philanthropist in Frankfurt - Jewish New Life ”. Otto Lembeck. Frankfurt am Main 2007. p. 60. ISBN 3-8747-6543-1
• Peter Bloch : My teachers . Frankfurt 2008. (Contains a portrait of Nathan Saretzki)
• Dr. Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert, Prof. Dr. Horst Pöttker : “Journalism that made history. 60 years of press freedom in the Federal Republic of Germany ”. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin 2010. pp. 14-15. ISBN 3-1102-3508-0
• Jascha Nemtsov / Hermann Simon: "Louis Lewandowski: Love makes the song immortal". Publishing house Hentrich & Hentrich. Berlin 2011. ISBN 3-9422-7138-9
• European Center for Jewish Music, Hanover: Collection of Oberkantor Nathan Saretzki (Nathan Saretzki's sheet music collection with his handwritten notes). o. Sign.
• Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main, "Library of the Elderly": Box furnished by Edgar Sarton-Saretzki with numerous autobiographical memories and documents also on Nathan Saretzki (including a list of the notes recovered from the burning main synagogue and handwritten notes and a recording of the reconstructed last consecration hour in philanthropist). o. Sign.
• Institute for Urban History Frankfurt am Main: S2, Sign. 17.164: Saretzki, Nathan.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Institute for Urban History Frankfurt am Main: S2, Sign. 17.164: Saretzki, Nathan.
2. ↑ Short profile of Nathan Saretzki at: uni-hamburg.de
3. ^ European Center for Jewish Music, Hanover: Collection of Oberkantor Nathan Saretzki (Nathan Saretzki's sheet music collection with his handwritten notes). o. Sign.
4. ↑ "Preserving the cultural memory". In: Tageblatt, March 7, 2005  ( 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. on: tageblatt.de  
5. ^ Sermon by Bishop Dr. Margot Käßmann at the opening of the “Week of Brotherhood” in Stade on March 6, 2005 at: evlka.de (PDF file)
6. ↑ Michael Brocke, Margret Heitmann, Harald Lordick: "On the history and culture of the Jews in East and West Prussia". P. 104.
7. ↑ Photo (undated), approx. 1925–1930: Nathan Saretzki at: ffmhist.de
8. ^ Photo (undated), approx. 1910: Nathan and Elias Saretzki on: uni-hamburg.de
9. ↑ Quotes from the reporting from the Kreisblatt for the Westerburg district from July 1910  ( 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. on: google.com  
10. ^ Emmy and Nathan Saretzki, Rosa Ullmann at: frankfurt.de, accessed on Feb. 22, 2020
11. ^ Biography Nathan Saretzki on: uni-hamburg.de
12. ↑ Nathan Saretzki, last senior cantor of the main synagogue at: ffmhist.de
13. ^ Photo (undated) around the end of the 1930s: Emmy and Nathan Saretzki at: frankfurt.de, accessed on Feb. 22, 2020
14. ↑ Family data Emmy, Nathan, Edgar Saretzki on: uni-hamburg.de
15. ↑ Ute Daub / Edgar Sarton-Saretzki: "We have been waiting for you". Hanau 1997
16. ↑ “Music in the Frankfurt Synagogues - III. The main synagogue ”. In: Jewish community sheet for Frankfurt. No. 2, November 1937, p. 4 (2nd paragraph)  ( 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. (PDF; 4.5 MB) at: uni-frankfurt.de  
17. ↑ Joachim Martini / Judith Freise: “Jewish musicians in Frankfurt 1933-1942. Music as a form of spiritual resistance ”. Frankfurt am Main 1990
18. ↑ Claudia Becker: “Magda Spiegel. 1887–1944 ". Waldemar Kramer publishing house. Frankfurt am Main 2003, p. 189
19. ↑ Prof. Dr. Benjamin Ortmeyer: "Eyewitnesses Speak Out Against Denial". P. 197
20. ↑ Photo: Former “Judenhaus” Lersnerstrasse 34, Frankfurt am Main at: frankfurt.de, accessed on Feb. 22, 2020
21. ↑ Heidy Zimmermann: “Schir Zion. Music and singing in the synagogue ”. In: Eckhard John, Heidy Zimmermann (Ed.): “Jewish Music? External images - self-images ". Pp. 53-75
22. ^ Historical Museum Frankfurt am Main. Documents on Nathan Saretzki. In: Library of the Ancients.
23. ↑ Philanthropist memorial plaque ( Memento of the original dated December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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: stadtgeschichte-ffm.de 
24. ↑ Autumn Days of Jewish Music 2008  ( 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. on: convivio-mundi.de (2nd paragraph)  
25. ^ The Jewish cultural association Rhein Main / Frankfurt am Main on: ffmhist.de
26. ↑ Photo: Memorial stone for Emmy and Nathan Saretzki at the New Jewish Cemetery in Frankfurt am Main on: flickr.com
27. ↑ Stumbling blocks for Emmy and Nathan Saretzki and Rosa Ullmann on: frankfurt.de, accessed Feb. 22, 2020
28. ↑ “The Stolpersteine ​​campaign closes a gap in our culture of remembrance”. In: Speech by City Councilor Franz Frey on the occasion of the relocation of the 100th Stolperstein in Frankfurt am Main for Nathan Saretzki; Address by Edgar Sarton-Saretzki: “What one passes over day after day” from September 14, 2005. P. 6 (PDF; 3.9 MB) on: stolpersteine-frankfurt.de

Web links

• Nathan Saretzki in the Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians of the Nazi Era (LexM)