A TRIBUTE MICHAEL HEITZ PETER KÖRNER BRIGITTA STAMMER BARBARA STAUDACHER & HEINZ HÖGERLE SIBYLLE TIEDEMANN THE OBERMAYER GERMAN JEWISH HISTORY AWARDS

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1 A TRIBUTE THE OBERMAYER GERMAN JEWISH HISTORY AWARDS PRESENTED TO MICHAEL HEITZ PETER KÖRNER BRIGITTA STAMMER BARBARA STAUDACHER & HEINZ HÖGERLE SIBYLLE TIEDEMANN Abgeordnetenhaus, BERLIN JANUARY 24, 2011

2 DEALING WITH THE PAST The Obermayer German Jewish History Awards were established to pay tribute to Germans who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to preserving the memory of their local Jewish communities, including their history, culture, cemeteries, and synagogues. The awards are now recognized as the most significant honor these individuals can receive, especially since they come primarily from Jews who have a full appreciation of the horrors of the Hitler era. These awardees are prime examples of how Germany has dealt with its past. Today, the German government and people are quick to recognize the slippery slope from arrogance to bigotry, intolerance, hatred, repression, dehumanization and barbarity -- and are among the first to say, never again. Today, Germany can be an example for the whole world of how a terrible period in a country s history can continue to impact on the psyche of its inhabitants for future generations. OBERMAYER FOUNDATION, INC. 239 CHESTNUT STREET NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS USA WEB: TEL:

3 ENRICHING THE FUTURE his year marks the eleventh annual presentation of awards that were created to honor the past and enrich the future. German life was once filled with contributions made by Jewish scholars, writers and artists. Music, science, literature and architecture were often collaborative efforts that brought diverse talents together. The collective history of Germans and Jews was profoundly connected and served to benefit the world. The Nazi regime and its obliteration of the German Jewish community ended a long period of collaboration and mutual trust. However, many German citizens, ranging from academics to those working in business and professions, did not let go of their interest and commitment to Jewish history and culture. Many worked at great personal cost to preserve and reconstruct aspects of Jewish life, which had contributed to the cultural richness of their lives and the lives of their respective communities. These individuals have researched, reconstructed, written about and rebuilt an appreciation of Jewish culture that will enrich life today and in the future. Diverse individuals, without thought of reward, have helped raise awareness about a once vibrant community. Their ongoing efforts pay tribute to the importance of Jewish subject matter and its value to German society as a whole. Many volunteers have devoted years of effort to such projects, but few have been recognized or honored for their efforts. The German Jewish Community History Council and its cosponsors believe it is particularly important for Jews from other parts of the world to be aware of this ongoing work. The annual Obermayer German Jewish History Awards provide an opportunity for the Jewish community worldwide to acknowledge German citizens who have rekindled the spark of Jewish thought that once existed in Germany. The award winners have dedicated themselves to rebuilding destroyed institutions and ideals. Their achievements reflect a personal connection to Jewish history and a willingness to repair a small corner of the world. 1

4 Awardee MICHAEL HEITZ Eppingen, Baden-Württemberg Nominated by Zeev Elkoshi, Kefar-Sava, Israel; Werner Frank, Calabasas CA; Nomi Halpern, Jerusalem, Israel; Kate (Weil) Katz, Phoenixville, PA; Menachem Mayer, Jerusalem, Isreal; Fred Raymes, Sarasota, FL When Michael Heitz was 15, he began knocking on doors in his hometown of Eppingen, asking people what they remembered about their former Jewish neighbors. I got mostly closed doors, recalled Heitz. As a high school student, Heitz entered a national German history competition about what happened in his community during the Third Reich. When he knocked on neighbors doors to ask what they remembered about the Jews of their town, many of them refused to talk. His best source and inspiration turned out to be his grandmother. He recalled, It turned out she worked for a Jewish family in the 1920s. She had never shared it before with me. She said, Michael, we committed such a wrong. And I am ready to share this with you. We kicked out people who were living here. Heitz won a prize for his entry. Heitz later earned a masters degree in education, with a thesis and a curriculum on Jewish life in Kraichgau, based on the example of the former Palatinate town of Eppingen in the 19th and 20th century. This was only the beginning. Today, the work Heitz began 30 years ago has helped secure the record of local Jewish history, build ties with former Jewish residents of Eppingen and set the stage for a whole new generation of pupils to create something positive while grappling with the past. Heitz has written numerous articles on local Jewish history and Jewish personalities, and has guided his students in creating a website, book and calendar dedicated to that history. As founding president of Jüdisches Leben Kraichgau e.v., he is working toward creating a learning center about Jewish history in the former synagogue in Eppingen. The association already has established the Kraichgau Forest in Israel, under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund. Heitz has carried out research for Yad Vashem, Israel s Holocaust Memorial, and joined the board of the interfaith Deutsch-Israelischen Gesellschaft (German- Israel Society). He makes this connection with our responsibility for German history but he is also not sitting there. He says we have a responsibility to the Jews today, said retired local priest and educator Albrecht Lohrbächer, who in 1983 created a partnership and exchange program between his own town, Weinheim, and the Israeli town of Ramat Gan. Now, Eppingen is preparing a partnership with [the town of] Zichron Yaakov, Lohrbächer, 67, said. I would like to see more people like Mr. Heitz, working to see that Israel is perceived in another way. Over the years, Heitz now a teacher at the Albert Schweitzer School in Sinsheim pieced together the history of Eppingen s Jews and built close contacts between several Jewish families in the U.S. and Israel, with roots in the town. We phoned and wrote letters, and with this information I went to school and taught. As a result, Heitz and his students created their website and award-winning book published in And then because of these students work, the town of Eppingen invited the survivors to visit in 2008, Heitz said. It was like a snowball effect. Heitz provided the Jewish visitors with information he had gleaned about their ancestors. He conducted videotaped interviews with Jews and non-jews from the town and managed to have the town rename its high school after a former Jewish resident, Selma Rosenfeld ( ), who settled in California. His documentary work will be a lasting memorial not only for our generation, but for the future generations as well, wrote Kate W. Katz of Pennsylvania in her nomination. Bottom line, Michael Heitz is both the conscience and activist in the town of Eppingen, wrote Werner Frank of California, who thanks in part to Heitz overcame his reluctance to speak about the past. In all [his] activities, Heitz modestly remains on the sideline, giving maximum exposure and credits to the youth that he so ably influences. My goal is that what happened here not be forgotten, said Heitz, who organizes an annual school trip to the former concentration camp, Ravensbrück. But our focus is also to have a good relationship with the second generation, a good attitude towards Judaism and a constructive attitude towards Israel. It all began that day 30 years ago, when 15-year-old Michael Heitz sat down to talk with his grandmother, after other doors were shut. She opened his eyes! It was like a miracle [how] everything came up, Heitz recalled. And ever since, Heitz has been working as well to open people s eyes. 2

5 Awardee PETER KÖRNER Johannesberg, Aschaffenburg, Bavaria Nominated by Prof. Benjamin Gidron, Tel Aviv, Israel; Richard Hamburger, Melville, NY; Mayor Klaus Herzog, Aschaffenburg, Germany; Dr. Josef Pechtl, Aschaffenburg, Germany; Dr. Josef Schuster, Würzburg, Germany When Peter Körner was a young journalist in Aschaffenburg, he covered a story that would change his life. It happened in 1978, when his town, as often happens in Germany, invited former Jewish citizens, scattered throughout the world, to return for a visit. I came to this event, and it was clear to me that there was very little knowledge about local Jewish history, said Körner, who writes for the Main-Echo. He realized that if he wanted to see Jewish history preserved, he had to do it himself. Today, thanks to Körner and several colleagues, Aschaffenburg has a Jewish museum; its two Jewish cemeteries have been documented; and a memorial has been established where the synagogue and Jewish school once stood. Lasting contacts have been made with Jewish former citizens and their children. And younger generations of Germans have learned about history through these positive connections. In addition, a remarkable project has been created an online database with no equal in Germany Juden in Unterfranken that combines information gleaned from the cemeteries and local archives. It was remarkable to learn that my family s history went so deep in Germany. I really had no idea, said nominator Richard Hamburger, a New York lawyer whose paternal family stems from Aschaffenburg. Another nominator, Benjamin Gidron of Tel Aviv, said, They set an example of what can be done in a small town to uncover the footsteps of the Jewish community. From the very beginning, citizens and politicians in Aschaffenburg were supportive, Körner said. And when I wrote in the newspaper about it, there were never any negative responses. According to town mayor Klaus Herzog, Körner sparked debate about dealing with the Jewish history of Aschaffenburg in the 1980s, when discussions began on what to do with the empty lot where the synagogue once stood. This [discussion] led to the first of what is commonly called memory work. In Aschaffenburg, this meant a complete reorientation, Herzog said. In 1984, the Jewish museum was opened in the former home of the rabbi. One year later, Körner founded the Förderkreis [Support Association] Haus Wolfsthalplatz to promote the creation of a memorial at the site of the synagogue that was destroyed on Kristallnacht, Nov. 9, Körner became the association s first president. Ten and a half years ago, Dr. Josef Pechtl took over the role, introducing lectures, readings and academic symposium. I learned a lot from [Peter Körner], Pechtl said, particularly about what it means to create a lasting remembrance of Jewish history and culture. In 1993, Körner published a handbook of biographies of Jews of Aschaffenburg from the mid-18th century to It complements the material in the museum, which school groups regularly visit and links to names in the cemetery and family trees. It is now in electronic form at uni-wuerzburg.de/friedhoefe/hauswolfsthalplatz/phpneu/logininclude.php?action=start. The genealogy was all there for us, said Richard Hamburger. So when we arrived in 2007, that was the day that my brother and I learned that we had greatgreat-great grandparents named Abraham and Karolina, buried in that cemetery. Benjamin Gidron wrote in his recommendation that he was astounded to find very well-organized information [about his ancestors], starting at the beginning of the 19th century. Last April, he visited the small neighboring town of Altenau where his father s family lived. I was taken to the Jewish cemetery and found my great-great grandfather s grave, Michael Gradwohl. And it says on the gravestone that he was the one who built this particular cemetery. So this was really a very affecting moment for me. Of the 400 Jews who lived in Aschaffenburg in 1933, about 180 were murdered, Körner said. Today, there is no Jewish community in Aschaffenburg. Körner hopes to expand the database to include other towns. Eventually, he would like to see the material translated into other languages. For all this work, Körner wants to build teams of volunteers and interns. He finds it a good way to show younger generations how terribly easy it is for a civilized society to fall apart. And how diverse Jewish life once was here. It is not just the story of their death that is important, said Gidron, who recently discovered a long-lost relative thanks to the database. It is even more important to document and show the story of their lives. 3

6 Awardee BRIGITTA STAMMER Göttingen, Lower Saxony Nominated by Naomi Revzin, Potomac, MD; Leonard Wein, Miami Beach, FL For decades, a small, half-timbered building in the village of Bodenfelde went practically unnoticed. Used by a farmer to store his equipment, it was hardly recognizable for what it really was a 175-year-old synagogue. Today, about 160 Jews are using this small prayer house, which was moved piece-by-piece 25 miles to the city of Göttingen. And this amazing journey could not have happened without Brigitta Stammer, who oversaw the collection of hundreds of thousands of euros in private donations and arranged for the synagogue to be taken apart wall-by-wall, stone by stone, and reassembled in a new home. I wanted the new Jewish community to have a roof over its head, to have a synagogue, and be integrated in the society of Göttingen, said Stammer, who was born in Hamburg in 1949 and moved to Göttingen 30 years ago. Stammer s interest in the story of Jews in Germany was sparked during her school years, when a Jewish teacher introduced her to the book Jewish Humor by Polish Jewish writer Salcia Landmann. The book prompted Stammer to wonder what Germany might have been like if the Nazis had not come to power. In 1825, when Bodenfeld s Jewish community built its synagogue, they were a small but confident congregation. But by 1933, the members understood that life for Jews was impossible under the Nazis. In 1937, the congregation s last president sold the synagogue to a farmer for 1,000 Reichsmarks, and took the Torah Scroll to Israel, where it remains today. In 1938, on the night of the November 9 anti-jewish pogrom, the farmer defended his new purchase against Nazi hooligans who wanted to torch it. Thus this small synagogue was spared the fate that befell hundreds of synagogues destroyed that night across Germany and Austria. Fast-forward to 1990, and Germany s reunification: Tens of thousands of Jews emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Germany. A few hundred settled in Göttingen. At that time, this city of 200,000 had a Jewish mayor, the late Artur Levi, who had survived the Holocaust in England. Levi embraced the new Jewish community and supported the unusual idea proposed by local educator Detlev Herbst, an expert on local Jewish history of moving the historic Bodenfelde synagogue to Göttingen. It was a crazy idea, a vision, said Harald Jüttner, former president of the Göttingen Jewish Community. And it was a vision that moved Stammer. She recalled entering the old building in its dilapidated state: It was definitely emotional, to stand there and know that this is a place where people came to worship God and celebrate their holidays. It was very strange. I had walked into a house of God, like a church, and it was a shed. At this moment I was convinced that it cannot be so. When a group of non-jews started an association (Förderverein Jüdisches Zentrum Göttingen) to support Göttingen s new Jewish community, they asked Stammer a business manager to be its treasurer. She began raising funds. And I always took an interest that the money be used to give the Jewish community a new home, she said. Stammer believed that a Jewish house of worship was vital to a vibrant Jewish communal life and that Jewish life had valuable contributions to make to life in Göttingen, said nominator Naomi Revzin, who works at the National Archives in the United States. Stammer became one of the [association s] most active advocates for the Bodenfelde synagogue. While others sought permission to move the landmarked building to Göttingen, Stammer, as treasurer, won support from the Protestant church central administration. She then raised 500,000 euros from congregations of the Protestant, Catholic and Protestant reformed church as well as individual citizens, and ultimately helped organize the dismantling of the building and its reconstruction on Angerstrasse where the original synagogue had been burned down in the November pogrom. She watched over the entire process, as workers individually removed and labeled each board and then transported the building in pieces to Göttingen [and as] the structure was meticulously reconstructed and refurbished according to its original design, Revzin said. This small gem of a synagogue, with its painted decorations, was rededicated in November 2008, 70 years after the destruction of the large synagogue of Göttingen and 12 years after the community association had started its work. After a long journey, we finally arrived, said Stammer, who attended the rededication. It was lovely. Word of the project spread around the world. Stammer is one of the heroines of the story of the rebirth of the Jewish community in Göttingen, said businessman Leonard Wien, of Florida, who read the story in I was so impressed that I agreed to repair Göttingen s Torahs. And Harald Jüttner is planning to publish the sermons of Göttingen s last pre-war rabbi, Hermann Ostfeld (Zvi Hermon), donated to the city archive by the rabbi s son. Stammer s work is not done: She hopes to see a Jewish community center completed in a 17th century building that once belonged to the Protestant Church. The association purchased it and is renovating it as a place for celebrating holidays, holding seders and classes, a few steps from where the small synagogue now stands a historic building restored to its original purpose. I don t like to think of the Jewish religion in a museum, said Revzin, noting that some have said Jewish life could not return to Germany. Fortunately, Brigitta Stammer has helped prove this prediction false. 4

7 Awardee BARBARA STAUDACHER & HEINZ HÖGERLE Rexingen, Baden-Württemberg Nominated by Tamara Blum, Tel Aviv, Israel; Menachem Gideon, Haifa, Israel; Kent Hirschfelder, St. Louis, MO; Rabbi Michael & Hanna Keller, Jerusalem, Israel; Shlomo Mayer, Jerusalem, Israel; Mayor Peter Rosenberger, Horb a.n.; Germany; Warren Rosenblum, Cambridge, MA; Mimi Schwartz; Princeton, NJ ; Israel Shapiro, Haifa, Israel; Johanna Zurndorfer, Riverdale, NY Some journeys begin unexpectedly. For Barbara Staudacher and Heinz Högerle, their trip down the road of German Jewish history began with their move from Stuttgart to the village of Rexingen in They found a Jewish cemetery at the top of the hill near their home. With about 1,000 tombstones, it is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Baden-Württemberg, Staudacher, 67, said. This was the trigger of our interest. The pair she is a retired bookseller, and he a publisher put their interests and skills together to research as deeply as possible, and then to publish books and other printed material about former local Jewish life. Their profound work helps preserve the historical record, and helps former Rexingers connect with their own families past. Just as important, they built strong ties with Jewish families with roots in Rexingen, especially in the US and Israel. It is more than a lifetime s work for Staudacher and Högerle. Growing up, they had no information about what is Judaism, said Högerle, 61. I knew no Jews. And then we came to Rexingen, and we noticed all of a sudden that there had been this dynamic Jewish community. In 2000, they joined the association, Trager-und Förderverein Ehemalige Synagogue Rexingen (Friends of the Former Synagogue in Rexingen), founded in 1997 by Michael Theurer, then mayor of the nearby town of Horb. The synagogue, which had been converted to a church years before, already had been changed back thanks to the association. But little information was on hand about the Jews themselves. The pair began exploring archives. Högerle worked on his 424-page, comprehensive volume documenting the graves in the cemetery In Stein gehauen: Lebensspuren auf dem Rexinger Judenfriedhof (Carved in Stone: Tracing the Past at the Rexingen Jewish Cemetery}. Eventually, the pair went to America and to Israel, seeking the story of Rexingen s Jews. They wanted to do more than trace history. According to Theurer, 43, who is now serving in the European Parliament, Staudacher and Högerle felt that It is not enough just to restore the former synagogue, to document the graveyard and to give good lectures to educate people. We should get in touch with those who had to flee, and those who lost their relatives. We have to try to reestablish friendship. Eventually, they learned that there had been about 262 Jews in Rexingen in In 1938, as Nazi persecution intensified, about 40 Jews immigrated as a group to Palestine. These Jews helped establish the community of Shavei Zion. They wanted to stay together and found a new community, and this community still exists, Staudacher said. In 2001, a group of former Rexingers visited from Israel, and Staudacher and Högerle reciprocated the following year. Their research and interviews led to the creation of an exhibit, and then a beautiful published book tracing the history of Rexingen s Jewish community over hundreds of years, up to the founding of Shavei Zion In 2008, twenty people with roots in Rexingen representing four generations came there for the exhibit opening. Some 600 local citizens also attended. Staudacher and Högerle then took the Israeli visitors to visit their family s graves, and then to their former homes in Rexingen, carrying poster-sized photos of the original inhabitants. When reaching each house Barbara and Heinz posted the relevant poster on a stand and related the story of the inhabitants, Israel Shapiro, of Haifa, Israel, recalled in his nomination. Needless to say that no eyes were left dry. Since then, the exhibit has been shown across Germany, as well as in Jerusalem and Shavei Zion. The pair continues adding information, as their circle of contacts and personal relationships grow. We find it very exciting, this emotional aspect that has been set in motion between three countries Israel, Germany and America, said Högerle. The connections are very close now, added Staudacher, who hopes to inspire younger people to continue the work. In addition to their volume on the Rexingen cemetery and their regular newsletter and pamphlets on sites of importance, they have published a 300+ page, extensively illustrated book in German and Hebrew on the life and 70-year history of Shavei Zion, another on the cemetery of nearby Muhringen; a booklet about Jewish refugees from Rexingen; and another on local Jewish cattle dealers. But they are now doing even more. There is still a large mountain that has to be researched, Högerle said. This winter, a photographer will interview and photograph former Rexingers in America; a new museum is planned for a former Jewish prayer room in Horb; and a network of local educators is being formed with the aim of encouraging inclusion of local Jewish history in the curricula. Already, Staudacher and Högerle have joined with Theurer to start an educational program about local Jewish history in Horb, and an exchange program with young Israelis. The German pupils also help care for the Rexingen Jewish cemetery, up the hill from where Staudacher and Högerle live. They really changed the situation here, said Theurer: They opened the hearts of the families of Rexingen and the hearts of the families of Shavei Zion, and their descendants, and brought these people together. 5

8 Awardee SIBYLLE TIEDEMANN Berlin Nominated by George Arnstein, Washington, DC; Ann Dorzback, Louisville, KY; Karen Frank Scotese, Evanston, IL; Lore Stein-Bogo, Palm Desert, CA Sibylle Tiedemann has traveled the world to find the last Jews from her home city of Ulm. And she has captured their stories on film, preserving a memory of pre-war Jewish life that otherwise might have been lost. Over the years, Tiedemann now 59 has made documentary films that focus on Jewish life in her region. In the process, she has built lasting relationships with far-flung Jewish families who have roots in Ulm. Her award-winning films have been shown in schools and museums at home and abroad. She is inspired by the need to confront the past and safeguard the future: It is important to preserve these biographies for the next generation, she said. Her life s work was sparked by a childhood friendship with a Jewish boy whose parents had met in a postwar displaced persons camp in Bavaria. Through him I found out about the Jewish religion and family life, Tiedemann said. She began to wonder what life was like for Jews in Ulm before the war. A chance encounter with elderly citizens of Ulm would lead Tiedemann on a journey of discovery. It began when Tiedemann s mother attended a reunion of her allgirls school. When Tiedemann asked her mother s classmates then in their 70s what had happened to their Jewish friends, she realized they could not, or would not answer. Tiedemann, who by then had studied filmmaking, decided to look for the former classmates herself. Eventually, she located and met with women in Israel, Texas, California, Chicago, Kentucky, New York and Canada. Her first film the award-winning 1997 documentary whose English title is Kinderland - Cinderland includes interviews with four Jewish and eight non-jewish women. While the Jewish women recalled the pain of being excluded and rejected by their friends, the non-jewish women described, sometimes wistfully, the overwhelming sense of pride they had felt in being members of the Hitler Youth, an exclusive German nationalist organization, complete with uniforms, parades, songs, group trips, service appointments and sporting events. Their viewpoints could not have been more different, but I brought them together and got them to communicate, Tiedemann said. We learned a lot, and the effects went way beyond the film. Former Jewish citizens reconnected with non-jews in Ulm, and friendships have extended to the second generation. For the film s first screening, more than 300 guests were invited, including 175 former Jewish citizens of Ulm and relatives of White Rose activists Sophie and Hans Scholl, teenagers from Ulm who were executed as traitors in Another film followed: In Hainsfarth had a Rabbi: Jewish Traces in the northern Ries region (2001), Tiedemann used interviews with elderly citizens to paint a portrait of the town s Jewish community. Tiedemann has remained with the theme. Her recent film, Letters from Chicago, is a profile of former Ulm residents Lore Frank (nee Hirsch), who had attended the girls school, and her late husband, the self-taught photographer Gustav David Frank. The film conveys the role of memory and what it means to grow old in exile. Tiedemann also organized an exhibition of his works for the film premiere in Ulm in November She spent days truly a labor of love looking through the thousands of photographs and negatives that my father had produced, said nominator Karen Frank Scotese, of Evanston, Ill. She also visited my mother every day. My only regret was that my father was no longer alive to see his photos exhibited in Ulm. The collection included photos he took as a teenager in Ulm, and those he took in 1945 when he returned to the city as a US soldier. He came to Ulm looking for his parents they had been deported and murdered, said Tiedemann. He found his hometown in ruins It was 80 percent bombed. But in spite of everything he never lost his love for his homeland. Tiedemann recently helped arrange for Frank s archive to be housed at the New York-based Leo Baeck Institute for the study of German Jewish history. Through her films and her work in bringing together Jews and non-jews of several generations, Tiedemann has helped promote healing and reconciliation, as well as conveyed essential lessons from history. With great skill and tact, Sibylle [has] pointed out the importance to educate today s young people about good and evil, said nominator Ann Dorzback, who was interviewed in the first film. Tiedemann, who now is planning a documentary on the post-war displaced persons camps, says it was left to the post-war generation to make films, and write books and articles looking at the past. The theme of remembrance is constantly with me. If individual memory is lost, then the collective memory is lost, too. 6

9 BOARD MEMBERS AND JURY German Jewish Community History Council The jury is composed of seven prominent individuals who have taken a keen understanding and appreciation of the contributions Jews have made to Germany and an awareness of what non-jewish Germans have done to preserve that memory. Each year, the international media is made aware of the availability of these awards and the formal nomination procedure, and the jury selects the five most worthy nominees for awards. In the first year, every nominator happened to be a Jewish survivor. Most nominators find these awards to be the best way to demonstrate their personal appreciation for outstanding work done in the community where their Jewish ancestors once lived. KAREN FRANKLIN is a guest curator at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. She is co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen, a past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, and a past chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums. Mrs. Franklin currently serves on the International Committee of Memorial Museums of ICOM. She was the only director of a Jewish museum ever to be elected to the board of the American Association of Museums, and currently serves on numerous international boards. ERNEST KALLMANN has been publishing articles in various journals about Jewish-German genealogy and history, prompted and illustrated by his own family research. He was born in Mainz in 1929 and escaped with his parents to France in He has received his education and engineering degrees and has lived there ever since (except ). He worked as an executive in the telecommunications and computer industry and also as a management consultant. Since 1995 he has been a member of Cercle de Généalogie Juive, Paris. WERNER LOVAL was born in Bamberg and at 13 escaped to England with the Kindertransport. He then lived in Ecuador and the United States before immigrating to Israel in Until 1966, he served in the Israeli diplomatic service in the United States and Latin America. He is a founder and director of Israel s largest real estate brokerage company; former president of Har-El, Israel s first Reform Synagogue; and a governor both of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and of B nai Brith World Centre. In 1999, he was named an Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem. He is a frequent visitor to Germany. He is the author of We Were Europeans - A Personal History of a Turbulent Century, which also contains a chapter on the impact of the Obermayer Awards. WALTER MOMPER, President of the House of Representatives of Berlin and historian, was advised and supported by Stefanie Pruschansky. Walter Momper was Governing Mayor of Berlin when the wall came down in Stefanie Pruschansky became head of the protocol department in the House of Representatives in August SARA NACHAMA was raised in Israel, moved to Berlin over 30 years ago, and has worked for German national TV program SFB (Channel 3) and ZDF (Channel 2) editing documentary films. From 1992 to 1999, she organized as a volunteer the annual Berlin Jewish Cultural Festival (Juedischen Kulturtage). From 2001 to 2003, Mrs. Nachama was the executive founding director of the Berlin branch of Touro College (NY); in October 2003, she became Dean of Administration of Touro College Berlin and remains its executive director. Since 2005 she is a vice president of Touro College. ARTHUR OBERMAYER is a high-tech entrepreneur and philanthropist in the Boston area. The Jewish Museum in his ancestral German town of Creglingen was initiated by him. He has been a long-term board member and officer of the American Jewish Historical Society, and a coordinator and webmaster of the German component of JewishGen.org. His family background is described in The Obermayers: A History of a Jewish Family in Germany and America, The German President has awarded him the Bundesverdienstkreuz -- the Cross of the Order of Merit -- the highest tribute given by the Federal Republic of Germany. 7

10 SPONSORS GERMAN JEWISH COMMUNITY HISTORY COUNCIL. The organization operates under Obermayer Foundation, Inc., which has sponsored and directed projects in various parts of the world. In Germany, it has also provided the seed funding and continuing support for the Creglingen Jewish Museum. In the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, it produced about 20 popular television programs on market economics. In Israel-related activities, it has focused on a variety of projects related to achieving peace with its neighbors. In the U.S., it supports programs related to economic justice and international affairs, as well as provides strategic internet advice and support to nonprofit organizations. For more information, go to obermayer.us. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF BERLIN. President Walter Momper sponsors these awards. For many years, the Parliament has been commemorating the German Holocaust Memorial Day of January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The decision was made in the year 2000 to have this event as its principal observance. GERMAN JEWISH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP OF JEWISHGEN. This is an internet-based organization with almost 1700 daily participants who are involved in German-Jewish genealogy. It has been operating since 1998 through its discussion group and web site at /gersig. PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS Past award winners originate from almost all the states, and from both urban and rural Germany. Ranging in age from their 30s to their 80s, they come from such diverse professions as bankers and stonemasons, artists and physicians, teachers and mayors. What they have in common is a love of history, a great curiosity for what was, and a dedication to social justice. All are committed to confrontation with their German past. Most have devoted years of volunteer work to such projects, but few have been recognized for their efforts. The aim of the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards is to honor these unsung heroes. HANS-DIETER ARNTZ Hans-Eberhard Berkemann Lothar Bembenek & Dorothee Lottmann-Kaeseler Gisela Blume Günter Boll angelika brosig Johannes Bruno GERHARD BUCK Gisela Bunge Irene Corbach GUNTER DEMNIG KLAUS DIETERMANN Heinrich Dittmar Olaf Ditzel MICHAEL DORHS Klaus-Dieter Ehmke JOHANN FLEISCHMANN Inge Franken helmut gabeli BERNHARD GELDERBLOM barbara greve Joachim Hahn GUENTER HEIDT ROLF HOFMANN Gerhard Jochem & Susanne Rieger KURT-WILLI JULIUS & KARL-HEINZ STADTLER Ottmar Kagerer Cordula Kappner WOLFRAM KASTNER Monica Kingreen ERNST & brigitte KLEIN ROBERT KRAIS ROBERT KREIBIG heidemarie kugler-weiemann CHARLOTTE MAYENBERGER Lars Menk Josef Motschmann HEINRICH NUHN walter ott Carla & Erika Pick JOHANNA RAU FRITZ REUTER Gernot Römer Ernst Schäll Moritz Schmid Heinrich Schreiner JÜrgen Sielemann HELMUT URBSCHAT & MANFRED KLUGE Ilse VOGEL christiane walesch-schneller Wilfried Weinke Profiles: Toby Axelrod Translator: Heike Kähler Editors: Ernst Kallmann, Betty Solbjor 8