Siegfried Klein

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Siegfried Klein (born December 31, 1882 in Rheydt , † August 1944 in Auschwitz ) was a German rabbi .

Life

He studied at the Universities of Berlin and Freiburg as well as at the Institute for the Science of Judaism in Berlin and became a religion teacher at the schools of the Berlin Jewish Community . From 1914 to 1918 he was a soldier (wounded twice, Iron Cross ) and field rabbi . 1919 doctorate he became Dr. phil.

From 1919 to 1941 he was next to Rabbi Dr. Max Eschelbacher second rabbi and youth rabbi in Düsseldorf (a street there was named after him). He was active in the Jewish youth associations (co-founder and board member of the Association of Jewish Youth Associations) and co-founder and member of the management of the Reich League of Jewish Front Soldiers , member of the Düsseldorf UOBB , editor of the community papers for Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Essen and lecturer at the adult education center.

His wife Lilli, née Plotke (April 13, 1895 in Berlin), and he had two children: Hanna (June 12, 1923) and Julius Klein (April 4, 1925). During the November pogroms on 9/10 November 1938 Siegfried, Lilli and Julius Klein were attacked, mistreated and injured in their apartment at Friedrichstrasse 59a / corner of Herzogstrasse and brought to the police prison. After his release from police prison on December 22, 1938, Siegfried Klein and his wife sent the children to safe England.

Siegfried Klein remained in the community until the October 27, 1941 Dusseldorf from Lodz ghetto deported was. Lilli Klein died there on August 3, 1942 at the age of 48. Dr. Klein survived the "liquidation" of the ghetto in August 1944 and was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp and murdered there.

The Siegfried-Klein Youth Center Kadima the Jewish community Dusseldorf bears his name, the municipality has in Duesseldorf Carlstadt the Siegfried-Klein-road named after him.

Orders and decorations

literature

  • Walter Tetzlaff: 2000 short biographies of important German Jews of the 20th century. Askania, Lindhorst 1982, ISBN 3-921730-10-4 .
  • Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .
  • Barbara Suchy: The Düsseldorf rabbis from the 18th century to the time of National Socialism. In: Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf (Ed.): Aspects of Jewish life in Düsseldorf and on the Lower Rhine. Edited by Angela Genger and Kerstin Griese , Düsseldorf 1997, pp. 48–59.
  • Bastian Fleermann / Angela Genger (eds.): November pogrom 1938 in Düsseldorf, Essen 2008
  • Bastian Fleermann: “… the best rabbinate in Germany.” Biographical sketches of the Düsseldorf rabbis from 1706 to 1941, in: Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch 81 (2011), pp. 107–170

See also

personal data
SURNAME Klein, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Rheydt
DATE OF DEATH August 1944
Place of death Auschwitz extermination camp