Annotations
Stadtlohn
12/10/1941
The ten Stadtlohn Jews to be deported have to line up for a group photo in front of the "Black Corps" display case.
Image: Stadtarchiv Stadtlohn
Annotations
Historical context
Deportation von Stadtlohn nach Riga am 10.12.1941
On December 10, 1941, the last 10 Jewish inhabitants of Stadtlohn were deported to the Riga Ghetto. They had to assembly at the house of the Sturmläufer family, who had been expelled to Poland in 1938. Their house was used as a so-called Judenhaus (house where Jews had to stay while awaiting deportation). The Stadtlohn Jews were taken to the livestock auction hall in Ahaus by a truck from the Wullers haulage company. On their departure from Stadtlohn, children gathered to watch and sang taunting songs. From Ahaus, the Stadtlohn Jews and other persecutees from the region were taken by train to Münster, where they were accommodated for three nights in the "Gertrudenhof" assembly camp, a former inn that had catered to day-trippers. They were deported from there in 3rd class passenger cars together with more than 1000 other people from Westphalia on December 13 and arrived in Riga on December 16, 1941. Prior to and in preparation for their arrival, almost 30,000 Latvian Jews had been murdered in order to empty the ghetto. 102 persons from this first Westphalian transport are known to have survived – one of them from Stadtlohn. The remaining 929 people were murdered in ghettos and camps.
About the image series
A reproduction of a group photo of the ten deported Stadtlohn Jews in front of the display case for the SS newspaper "Das Schwarze Korps" (The Black Corps), which was attached to the back of Stadtlohn town hall. The town hall was located about 100 meters away from the assembly point for deportation in Rezepterstraße. It is not known why this place was chosen for the photo.
Photographer
Unbekannt
Provenance
The picture was probably taken by a police officer in the field or the head of the press office of the local NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei / National Socialist German Workers’ Party) and was meant to serve as proof of the successful implementation of the deportation of Stadtlohn's Jews. It has been preserved in Stadtarchiv Stadtlohn (Stadtlohn town archives), where it was found after the war by lawyer Heinrich Kühle from Gronau and used to initiate restitution proceedings for a surviving Jew from Stadtlohn Jews in the early 1950s. Later the photo came into the possession of Heinrich Himmelberg, who recognized its value and kept it safe. After the “Holocaust” series was broadcast on German TV in the early 1980s, he published the photo. The whereabouts of the original print are still unknown, the Stadtarchiv preserves a reproduction only.
Call number at source archive
FA 1158
Title at source archive
Deportation Stadtlohn
Acknowledgements
Many thanks go to Ulrich Söbbing from Stadtarchiv Stadtlohn and to Ingeborg Höting from the VHS-Arbeitskreis "Stadtlohner Geschichte 1933-1945” (working group of the adult education center focusing on Stadtlohn history 1933-1945) for generously sharing the results of their research and for their friendly response.
Text und Recherche: Lisa Paduch.
Kooperationsverbund #LastSeen. Bilder der NS-Deportationen Dr. Alina Bothe Projektleiterin
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