New book sheds light on Jewish life in Leipzig before 1933

The starting point for the reconstruction was the *Leipzig Jewish Yearbook and Directory for 1933*, which documents the Jewish community at the turn of the year 1932/33. However, this directory only recorded active members of the community, and even then, only the heads of households. This gap was filled through the systematic analysis of numerous other sources. The result is a dataset that, for the first time, provides a complete picture of Leipzig’s Jewish population as at 1 January 1933. This enables new analyses of origin, age and family structures, economic circumstances and spatial distribution within the city.

With this publication, the results of this fundamental research are being made available in their entirety for the first time. The book documents Jewish life in Leipzig immediately prior to the onset of Nazi persecution and commemorates those whose lives were shattered shortly afterwards. Furthermore, the database compiled provides a robust foundation for further academic research. It opens up new possibilities for conducting nuanced research into the history of Jewish life in Leipzig and, in the long term, for making this research accessible to remembrance culture, education and urban society.

The research project was initiated and developed by Michael W. Schönemann, a graduate sociologist, in collaboration with Prof. Dr Rainer Vor, Professor of Law at HTWK Leipzig. The aim is to conduct a scholarly examination of the mechanisms of persecution, disenfranchisement and expropriation of Leipzig’s Jewish population.

With their research approach, the two academics are breaking new ground, as to date there has not been a single comprehensive empirical survey of the Jewish population in a comparable local authority area. Under the constant conditions of a clearly defined local authority area, new structural analyses become possible. The initiators hope that this will, in particular, provide well-founded insights into the processes that took place and a more precise understanding of the sequence of events in this unique, state-initiated campaign of plunder directed against a specific section of the population.

The research project is set to be further expanded in the coming years. Among other things, there are plans to carry out a systematic analysis of Leipzig’s land registers, which have been preserved almost in their entirety. The aim is to investigate how Jewish property was expropriated during the Nazi era, who benefited from the ‘Aryanisation’ , who the masterminds, indirect beneficiaries and free-riders were, how the properties were handled in the GDR, and how the restitution proceedings unfolded following German reunification.

In addition, the development of a digital application entitled ‘Jewish Leipzig 1933’ is planned. It is intended to visualise the historical places of residence of Leipzig’s Jewish residents within the urban landscape and to create new avenues for research, education and the culture of remembrance. Further funding and cooperation partners are currently being sought to implement the next phases of the project. The aim is to continue the research and make its findings permanently accessible to academia, the wider community and historical-political education initiatives. Interested funding bodies and cooperation partners are invited to support the further academic examination of this significant chapter in Leipzig’s city history.

January 1933: Jewish Leipzig: A Reconstruction

Published by DE GRUYTER, OLDENBOURG

ISBN 978-3-11-162418-1

618 pages 

Hardback €139.95

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111624679

Members of HTWK Leipzig can read the PDF free of charge thanks to the university library.