Jewish History
in Wuppertal

Encouraged by their history teacher Ulrich Grote, a group of Wuppertal high school students started working with the memorial center “Alte Synagoge”. The students wanted to point out that Jewish life in Wuppertal existed in the past and has come to life again.
In 1999 the students opened an exhibition in the “Alte Synagoge” on the dispossession of Jewish property and boycott of Jewish life in Wuppertal. For the opening ceremony, Dr. Hilde Rohlen-Wohlgemuth, whose father was the owner of one of the largest department stores in Wuppertal, was the guest of honor.
In 2000, the group opened an exhibition on the topic “Kindertransporte”. These transports allowed children of Jewish families to leave Germany for a safer life in another country. For this second exhibition, former children who had been able to escape the Nazi-Regime with the so-called “Kindertransporte” spent some days in their native town.
In addition to the exhibitions an essay appeared on the tragic event of the so-called “Reichskristallnacht” in Wuppertal in the school's periodical.


Aryanization in Wuppertal - an example

Kindertransporte


November 9th 1938 – The so-called “Reichskristallnacht” in Wuppertal

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