Otto Schwerdt (Author)

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Otto Schwerdt (born January 3, 1923 in Braunschweig ; † December 30, 2007 in Regensburg ) was chairman of the Israelite religious community in Regensburg and the state committee of the Jewish community in Bavaria.

Life

Schwerdt grew up in Braunschweig. After the Nuremberg Laws were passed , his family first moved to Berlin and in 1936 to Katowice in Poland . In May 1943 he and his family were arrested and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. While his mother, brother and sister were murdered, he and his father survived the Theresienstadt camp .

Schwerdt got his Abitur in Weiden idOPf after the end of the Second World War . after and studied two semesters at the Philosophical-Theological University of Regensburg . In 1948 he became a soldier in the Israeli army and fought as a driver in the War of Independence of the State of Israel . In 1949 he married his wife Gela; the marriage had three children.

Commitment against forgetting

In 1954 Schwerdt returned to Germany, worked in his father's company in Regensburg and was involved in the local Jewish community . For many years he was the chairman of the Israelite cultural community in Regensburg and chairman of the state committee of the Israelite cultural community in Bavaria. He was also a member of the Broadcasting Council in Bavaria .

In 1998 he published his autobiography under the title When God and the World slept , which he had written in collaboration with his youngest daughter Mascha Schwerdt-Schneller. In a large number of lectures at schools, he told his life story in order to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

In 2001 Schwerdt was the first to receive the prize for moral courage awarded by the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi for his “work against forgetting”. For his services Schwerdt was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2006 and the City of Regensburg's Silver Medal in 2003; he was also the recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit .

Schwerdt died as a result of a fall in the Jewish community center. In early 2008, the Regensburg ÖDP suggested naming a street after him.

In March 2009 the all-day secondary school in Regensburg-Burgweinting was renamed Otto Schwerdt School.

literature

  • Otto Schwerdt, Mascha Schwerdt-Schneller: When God and the world slept. Autobiography. Lichtung Verlag , Viechtach 1998, ISBN 3-929517-27-2 .
  • English edition translated by Veronica Leary: When God and the world slept. Lichtung Verlag, Viechtach 2002, ISBN 3-929517-57-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Former Chairman of the Regensburg Jewish Community Interview with Andreas Bönte , repeated on January 28, 2017
  2. ↑ “pax christi awarded the“ price for civil courage ”for the first time in July 2001” ( memento of April 21, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), pax christi in the diocese of Regensburg, July 19, 2001.
  3. ↑ "Communities mourn Otto Schwerdt" , Mittelbayerische Zeitung Regensburg, December 30, 2007.
  4. ^ Forever in memory - ÖDP: Name the street and school after Otto Schwerdt. The Donau-Post, January 7, 2008 on deggendorf-aktuell.de
  5. ↑ Naming and information on Otto Schwerdt ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on schulen.regensburg.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schulen.regensburg.de
personal data
SURNAME Schwerdt, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, chairman of the Jewish Community in Regensburg
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 2007
Place of death regensburg