Oljean Ingster
Oljean Ingster (born on February 2, 1928 in Proszowice in the Powiat Proszowicki ) is a survivor of the Holocaust and has been the Chasan (cantor) of the Rykestrasse Synagogue in Berlin since 1966 .
Life
His father ran a seed factory in Proszowice, his mother was a general agent for a chemical company. At the age of 13 he was deported to a concentration camp with his entire family ; the parents, the two years younger sister and all other relatives perished. Ingster survived eight different concentration camps and found himself in Schwerin , where the death march from Sachsenhausen concentration camp ended on May 2, 1945. He decided to stay in Germany. At first he worked as a dental assistant and continued his school education with secondary school leaving certificate. He then completed technical training and graduated from high school at night school.
He stayed in Schwerin for 15 years. After a separate training, he took over the office of cantor of the Jewish community for five years. In the early 1960s he became a department head at VEB Funkwerk Köpenick in Berlin and joined the Jewish community on Rykestrasse in Berlin. After the death of Rabbi Martin Riesenburger in 1966, he took over the duties of cantor - initially part-time. There was no longer a rabbi in the GDR; Ödön Singer from Budapest was present at times until 1969. The connection to the rabbinate in West Berlin was also severely restricted after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. Ingster faced the organizational and pastoral tasks that he had as a result with great success. He held the community in East Berlin together under the most difficult of circumstances.
As a board member of the Jewish community in East Berlin 1971–1990 and the German-Israeli Society until 2005, he was committed to promoting understanding between German Jews, Germans of other faiths and Israelis. He advised producers, directors and actors on DEFA productions. As part of the celebrations on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the November pogroms in 1938 , he was honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver, in 1999 with the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon, and in 2012 with the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class. Ingster lives with his wife Ingrid in Woltersdorf near Berlin.
literature
- Newsreel of the GDR: Eyewitness No. 52 / December 22, 1965 Inauguration of the new rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin and in the GDR, Öden Singer
- Cantor Ingster receives the highest federal medal . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 11, 1999
- Igal Avidan: Life like on a wooden raft. The largest synagogue in Germany is celebrating its 100th anniversary . In: Parliament No. 39, September 20, 2004.
- Wolfgang Frindte: Staged Anti-Semitism. A polemic. VS-Verlag. 1st edition, 2006, p. 92
- Katrin Bischoff: Inmate 106 965 - Oljean Ingster survived eight Nazi concentration camps. He was liberated 65 years ago . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 10, 2010
Individual evidence
- ^ News sheet of the Association of Jewish Communities in the German Democratic Republic , Dresden, March 1989, p. 12; Berliner Zeitung, Wednesday, November 2, 1988, p. 2: High honor for deserving Jewish personalities
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ingster, Oljean |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German cantor, survivor of the Holocaust |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 2, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Proszowice |