On Humanity… - Additional Info Landmarks of Jewish History
The political scientist and publicist Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) emigrated to France in 1933 and fled from there to the USA in 1941. She was stripped of her German citizenship in 1937. Until she became a US citizen in 1951, she was “stateless.” From 1949 onward, Arendt traveled regularly to Germany on business. In 1950, she published the essay “The Aftermath of the Nazi Rule: Report from Germany,” in which she described the German population’s indifference and speechlessness.
On September 28, 1959, the Senate awarded Hannah Arendt the Lessing Prize of the City of Hamburg. She was the first woman to receive one of the most prestigious cultural awards in the Federal Republic of Germany. In her commemorative speech, entitled “On Humanity in Dark Times,” Arendt openly criticized the silence of postwar German society and its “tendency to pretend that the years from 1933 to 1945 never existed.”
1950/5710. Hannah Arendt in Hamburg
Founded in 1947, the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Inc. was dedicated to locating and restituting Jewish cultural property from Europe. On its behalf, Hannah Arendt traveled through Germany in 1949/1950. Her task was to gain an overview of cultural property eligible for restitution. Hamburg in particular was home to many collections confiscated after 1933, most of which were no longer complete.
The Senate´s Visitor Program
Hamburg never issued an official invitation to emigrated Jews to return to their former home. Initial contact with emigrants was not made until the mid-1960s under Mayor Herbert Weichmann, who had himself been persecuted as a Jew and had been forced to flee. Since the 1980s, the Senate has been organizing a visitor program for former Jewish citizens and their descendants.
Struggling with Remembrance
The Jewish community in Hamburg and Jews living abroad have been committed to preserving the remembrance of the Shoah in Hamburg. In 1951, the Congregation erected a memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Ohlsdorf and in 1957 obtained the first commemorative plaque for the Bornplatz Synagogue. The Association of Former Hamburg Residents in Israel played a key role in the creation of the exhibition “400 Years of Jews in Hamburg,” which opened in 1991.
Captions
Lessing Prize Award Ceremony
Photograph, 1959, ullstein bild, 01092696
The audience at the Lessing Prize award ceremony consisted mainly of Germans who had consciously witnessed and helped shape the Nazi era. Hannah Arendt accepted the award. However, she did not allow herself to be described as “one of us,” as the then Senator for Culture had wished.
Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Field Reports
Field Report No. 18 by Hannah Arendt, February 15 – March 10, 1950 (Wiener Holocaust Library,, Collection 561 – Jewish Cultural Restoration Inc. Records, microfilm, frames 118-122), Schriftstück, Reproduktion, Wiener Holocaust Library Collections
Hannah Arendt’s report highlighted conflicts between international Jewish organizations and the Hamburg Jewish Congregation. The former wanted to secure cultural assets for the establishment of Jewish centers outside Germany, while the Hamburg Congregation wished to keep its own “heritage.”
Arie Goral, née Walter Lovis Sternheim
Artist and Activist, 1909–1996
Arie Goral with a protest poster against the DNZ, in front of a poster for the exhibition, “Auschwitz – Pictures and Documents”, photograph, 1966, Hamburg Institute for Social Research
Arie Goral became involved in Zionist youth organizations in Hamburg at an early age. Starting in the 1920s, he prepared to emigrate to Palestine, which he was able to do in 1934. He returned to Hamburg in 1953 and took a critical look at German-Jewish culture of remembrance.
Miriam Gillis-Carlebach
Educator, 1922–2020
Photograph, undated, University of Hamburg/Sukhina
Miriam Carlebach emigrated alone to Palestine in 1938 at the age of 16. She studied education, working and researching in this field until her death. From 1983 onward, she became committed to researching in Hamburg, too, on German-Jewish history and the work of her father, Rabbi Joseph Carlebach.
Esther Bejarano
Singer and Activist, 1924–2021
Award ceremony for the Federal Cross of Merit at Hamburg City Hall, Daniel Bockwoldt, photography, 2012, picture alliance / dpa, media number 31072079
Before Esther Bejarano was able to emigrate to Palestine as planned, she was drafted into forced labor in 1941 and deported in 1943. After liberation in 1945, she went to Israel. In 1960, she came to Hamburg with her family, working as a singer and engaging in the fight against racism and antisemitism.
Schellenberg Silver
Silver filigree cutlery
c. 1817, Tea strainer, 1841
Kiddush cup, probably seventeenth century
Necklace from the Altes Land region, nineteenth century
Children’s rattle with rotating ball, c. 1860
Clew container on a bangle, c. 1835
Jam jar with missing glass insert, c. 1800
Snuff box with monogram W.M: 1839
SHMH-Altona Museum, Inv. No. 1960-610,1-3, 1960-566, 1960-397, 1960-443, 1960-466, 1960-475, 1960-414, 1960-525
From 1938 onward, some 20 tons of silver belonging to Jews were confiscated in Hamburg. Carl Schellenberg selected 10% of this as particularly valuable for the museums. After 1945, the rightful owners could reclaim the stolen property, but the burden of proof rested with them. In 1959, Hamburg purchased the pieces from the Jewish victims’ associations not restituted and handed them over to the museums. Further provenance research on the so-called “Schellenberg Collection” is planned in order to enable restitution.
Small Jug, Probably Looted Cultural Property
Silver, around 1900, SHMH-Altona Museum, Inv. No. 1983-290
The donor stated that she had received the object as a gift from Dr. Carl Schellenberg around 1960. Since 1945, Schellenberg had been responsible for recording and restituting looted silver objects belonging to Jews. Apparently, he had retained the jug when handing over the “looted silver” to the Hamburg museums. Gifting objects to private individuals was never in line with the ethical guidelines of museum work.