Norbert Prager

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Norbert Prager (born January 17, 1891 in Dobrzyń , Poland ; † June 29, 1965 in Hanover ) was a German businessman and, among other things, the first chairman of the Hanover Jewish Community after the Second World War and co-initiator of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation .

Life

family

Norbert Prager, born in Poland, was married to the non-Jew Frieda (* March 17, 1900, † October 30, 1980).

Career

Tomb of Norbert Prager and Frieda; Jewish cemetery on the Strangriede

Norbert Prager spoke Polish , Yiddish , Russian and German and received his religious education in Poland.

In 1912, Prager came to Germany and, according to the city of Hanover's address book, had been a gold and silver goods dealer in the city since 1928. He was involved in the local Jewish community and - although a so-called " Eastern Jew " - was fully integrated in the synagogue community and in the religious and social life determined by the Hanoverian Jews.

During the time of National Socialism , Prager was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp , but released again after a short time because he was married to a non-Jewish woman.

After the liberation from National Socialism , Prager deliberately stayed in Hanover in order - with the approval of the British military government in August 1945 - to rebuild a Jewish community . On September 8th, Norbert Prager held the first service in Hanover and was elected chairman of the Jewish community in December of the same year. At the same time, however, in 1945 a second congregation in Hanover was founded from the Jewish Committee , which opposed the plans of Prager. Only after Prager's own parish had been entered in the register of associations in 1954 (today the parish is a corporation under public law ), did he find himself ready to accept members of the second parish in his own.

Prager saw it as the “father of the Jewish community” in the continuation of the former community of the New Synagogue, which was destroyed during the Reichspogromnacht .

In addition to the office of the head of the community, Norbert Prager also held the offices of pastor and prayer leader . He consecrated in Hanover

Norbert Prager was co-founder and chairman of the regional association of the Jewish communities of Lower Saxony and a member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany . He was also one of the initiators of the Society for Brotherhood (today's name: Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation).

Norbert Prager and his wife Frieda were buried in the Jewish cemetery An der Strangriede in the Nordstadt district of Hanover.

Honors

As a German of the Jewish faith, Norbert Prager sought a reconciliation with the Germans through humanity and tolerance . He was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Great Cross of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit .

literature

  • Life and destiny. On the inauguration of the synagogue in Hanover , ed. from the state capital Hanover, press office, in cooperation with the Jewish community Hanover eV, (o. O., o. J.) [Hanover 1963], pp. 41–47
  • Anke Quast: Jewish Committee and Jewish Community in Hanover. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): In the shadow of the Holocaust. Jewish life in Lower Saxony after 1945 / ed. from the Working Group on the History of Lower Saxony (after 1945), Hanover: Hahn, 1997, ISBN 3-7752-5840-X , pp. 55–74, in the series:
    • Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen: Publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen ; Vol. 38
    • Sources and studies on the history of Lower Saxony after 1945 , vol. 12
    • Working group history of Lower Saxony (after 1945): Publications of the working group history of Lower Saxony (after 1945) , [Vol. 12]
  • Anke Quast: Search term Prager (passim, via Google books ), in: After liberation. Jewish communities in Lower Saxony since 1945. The example of Hanover , also a dissertation at the University of Hanover, 1999, in the series History of the State of Lower Saxony (after 1945): Publications of the History of the State of Lower Saxony (after 1945) , vol. 17
  • Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Jewish personalities in Hanover history , Hanover: Lutherisches Verlags-Haus, 1998, ISBN 3-7859-0758-3 , pp. 59–62
  • Waldemar R. Röhrbein: PRAGER, Norbert. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , pp. 289f.
  • Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Prager, Norbert. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 507f.

Web links

Commons : Norbert Prager  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Prager, Norbert (see literature)
  2. ↑ a b see this photo of the common grave at the Jewish cemetery An der Strangriede
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Waldemar R. Röhrbein: PRAGER, Norbert (see literature)
personal data
SURNAME Prager, Norbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman and head of the Jewish community in Hanover
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Dobrzyń
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1965
Place of death Hanover