What’s New

9 November 2015

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“Jewish Life in Themar” by Achim Hess for Rennsteig.tv “On November 9 2015, Themar remembered its Jewish citizens. The artist Gunter Demnig laid more Stolperstein, to remind people of the crimes committed against the Jewish population. Dr. Sharon Meen from Canada, who has been researching  the fates of the of the Jewish community of Themar … Read more

Achim Heß, “Local History – Jewish Life in Themar”.

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Rennsteig.tv, November 11, 2015 “On November 9, 2015, Themar commemorated its former Jewish fellow citizens. The action artist Gunter Deming continued to lay Stolpersteine to remember the crimes against the Jewish population. Present from Canada was Dr. Sharon Meen, who has been studying the fates of Themar’s former Jewish population for years. Also Dr. Blanca … Read more

Collections: Memories of Themar

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This website began with a ‘collection’ — the Photo Album of Manfred Rosengarten, Themar, My Hometown. The creation of the photo album in the early 1980s led to renewed connection between Manfred Rosengarten, who had very reluctantly left Themar in 1936, and his former non-Jewish classmates. Twenty years after Manfred’s death, his photo album served to connect … Read more

Summer 1921 — Minnie & Lloyd visit the rellies!

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On 3 March 1921, Minnie Marks applied for a passport for herself and her five-year-old grandson Lloyd Marx to travel to Germany. Her purpose? To visit her three brothers — Julius, Albert, and Leopold — and Lloyd’s paternal grandmother, Helene Marx. Little did Minnie know that, close to a hundred years later, this note would go a long … Read more

8 May 1945 — Liberation of Ghetto Theresienstadt

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“On May 8, 1945, a young soldier rode on his horse into the courtyard of the barracks in Theresienstadt bearing the greatest gift — freedom for the barely alive survivors of German concentration camps. ‘You are free, you can go home now to your fathers and sons, husbands and brothers, you are free!” — Bronia … Read more

Who was ‘cousin: Leo Gassenheimer’?

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‘Cousin’ Leo Gassenheimer — on the passenger list of the ship Hansa arriving in New York on 16 April 1939 — caught our attention!  He was sponsoring cousin Ruth Gassenheimer’s immigration into the United States. Ruth Gassenheimer was the granddaughter of Samuel & Lotte Gassenheimer of Themar, and anything connected to Themar interests us. And so started the … Read more

27 January 2015 — 70 Years after the Liberation of Auschwitz!

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  For update of this post based on new research, see: 1945: Liberation of Auschwitz. On Saturday 27 January 1945, Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz. Of the 7,000 remaining prisoners, one man had a direct connection to Themar. His story — although we know little of it — gives us a glimpse into the life of one of those who … Read more