Simon Snopkowski

Simon Snopkowski (born June 23, 1925 in Myszków , Upper Silesia, † December 2, 2001 in Munich ) was a German doctor. From 1971 until his death he was president of the regional association of the Jewish religious communities in Bavaria . In 1975 and later again from 1996 he was a member of the Bavarian Senate .

Life

Snopkowski was born the son of a master tailor. Shortly after graduating from high school in Czestochowa , he was arrested for courier services for resistance groups and deported to the Groß-Rosen concentration camp, where he was held until the liberation by the Red Army in February 1945. His father Szlomo and his brother Pinchas were shot by the SS, and his mother and sisters were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and gassed.

With a stream of refugees he came to a reception camp in Landsberg am Lech as a displaced person . After a recovery phase, he went to Munich in 1946 to study dentistry and human medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University . From 1955 he worked as a doctor, became a specialist in surgery in 1961, and from 1966 until his retirement in 1987 he was chief physician at the Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich.

His socio-political activity began while he was still a student, when he was chairman of the Jewish student association in Munich. As a result, Snopkowski held a leading position in various top Jewish organizations. From 1959 to 1971 he was a member of the board of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde in Munich, from 1960 to 1990 member of the board of the Central Welfare Office of the Jews in Germany , from 1960 to 1970 member of the board of directors of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , from 1960 to 1971 Vice-President and from 1971 President of the Israelitische Religious communities in Bavaria. In 1981 he was a founding member of the Society for the Promotion of Jewish Culture and Tradition and became its first chairman. In 1997, Snopkowski played a key role in the conclusion of the State Treaty between the Free State of Bavaria and the Israelitische Kultusgemeinden for the equality of Jewish religious communities.

As the top representative of the Jewish religious community in Bavaria, Snopkowski moved up to the Bavarian Senate for Jean Mandel on February 9, 1975 and was a member of the Committee for Social, Health and Family Policy and the Economic Committee until he left. A second time he was on March 7, 1996 as the successor of Julius Spokojny Senator.

In addition, he was a member of the board of the German Hospital Society from 1981 to 1986 . From 1990 he was a member of the Broadcasting Council of Bavarian Radio .

For his social merits Snopkowski was awarded the 1976 Bavarian Order of Merit and in 1985 with the Bavarian State Medal for social services excellent. In 1995 he received the Great Cross of Merit with a Star .

Simon Snopkowski Prize

Since October 9, 2006, the Simon Snopkowski Prize has been awarded every second year for research on Jewish history and culture in Bavaria and the Holocaust.

Prize winner 2006

• first prize: Ostendorfer-Gymnasium Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate for the implementation of the overall project Ilse - a Jewish girl from Neumarkt (history of the Neumarkt Jews before 1933 based on the individual fate of a former Jewish student at the grammar school).
• Second prize: Markgraf-Georg-Friedrich-Gymnasium Kulmbach on behalf of the project group Markgraf-Georg-Friedrich-Gymnasium, vocational school Kulmbach and Obere Schule for the engagement in the monument protection project Margravial Castle - Former Synagogue

2008 award winners

• Gustav-Walle-Schule Würzburg for the project "Würzburg Jews are deported to Riga via Lissa in November 1941".
• Sophie Scholl School in the private support center for children with respiratory problems at the Santa Maria Clinic, Oberjoch / Bad Hindelang for their school project War and Peace - Nazi Germany
• Special prize for an outstanding achievement: Ilse Macek and her group of 21 authors, mostly made up of laypeople, excluded - disenfranchised - deported for the documentation . Schwabing and Schwabing fates 1933 to 1945

Award winner 2010

• Maria Ward Realschule Bamberg for the project processing and publication of the Erika Löbl's diary
• St. Martin elementary school in Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg for the project Why is there a Jewish cemetery in Steinrain
• Honorary award: Michael Verhoeven "in recognition of his unmistakable, artistic remembrance work against the suppression and forgetting of the Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust"

Prize winner 2012

• first prize: Realschule am Judenstein in Regensburg for the project Everything kosher? Jewish life in Regensburg
• second prize:
  • Marktbreit high school for the project to revitalize a former synagogue - a cultural enrichment for Obernbreit
  • Neutraubling grammar school for work When the war is over at 11 a.m., you're all dead by 10 a.m. - death and survival in the Obertraubling subcamp
• Special prize: Fabian and Oliver Mehling from Höchberg near Würzburg for their internet documentation Bankrott derorder in Würzburg - the Habima scandal in 1939 based on worldwide internet research and correspondence about an anti-Semitic scandal from 1930 on the occasion of a performance by the Moscow Jewish Theater Habima in Würzburg
• Honorary award: Hans-Jochen Vogel and Bernhard Vogel for their services to German-Jewish understanding and their stand against right-wing extremism and for democracy.

2014 award winners

• first prize: Werdenfels-Gymnasium Garmisch-Partenkirchen for its audio guide Garmisch-Partenkirchen under National Socialism
• second prize:
  • Middle schools Langenzenn and Veitsbronn for their research work and exhibition on the Kindertransporte to England in 1938/39
  • Rhön-Gymnasium Bad Neustadt for the documentation of the Jewish cemetery in Bad Neustadt and their cooperation and student exchange with the Mikve Israel school near Tel Aviv
• Honorary award: Barbara Stamm "in recognition of her outstanding commitment to memory, especially of the young generation, of Jewish history and for special merit in conscious, lived democracy and political culture in Bavaria"

Prize winner 2016

• first prize: Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Realschule Neustadt an der Aisch for their documentary film Stolpersteine about the fate of former Jewish students who were expelled from school in 1934
• second prize:
  • Dossenberger Gymnasium Günzburg for the Judaism Learning Circle project
  • Willi-Ulfig-Mittelschule Regensburg for their teaching project What is sacred to Jews - learning from religious artefacts
• Honorary award: Bayerischer Rundfunk "for its outstanding services in the field of promoting understanding of Judaism in general, communicating current political events and for its sustainable contribution to the culture of remembrance"

Prize winners 2018

• Regiomontanus-Gymnasium Haßfurt for the international project on the Jewish history of Europe Local traces of Jewish life in Europe
• Friedrich-Rückert-Gymnasium Ebern for the traveling exhibition Forget-Me-Not - The Fate of Jewish Children from the former Haßfurt, Hofheim and Ebern districts during the National Socialist era
• Gabrieli-Gymnasium Eichstätt for the exhibition Hope - The Legacy of Emilie and Oskar Schindler
• Special prize: High School in Höchstadt ad Aisch for seven W seminar papers on anti-Semitism in the past and present
• Honorary award: Joachim Gauck "for his outstanding services to the consistent confrontation with the Nazi tyranny and for his commitment to the constant memory of its victims"

Works

• Confidence in spite of everything. Memories of a survivor in Germany. Munich 2000

Web links

• Literature by and about Simon Snopkowski in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Simon Snopkowski Prize 2006 awarded to Bavarian schools for the first time. Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
2. ^ Simon Snopkowski Prize. Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
3. ↑ Simon Snopkowski Prize 2008 met with great response. Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
4. ↑ Research on Jewish history awarded the Simon Snopkowski Prize 2008 ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
5. ↑ Snopkowski Prize 2012