The review is not over yet

She has good reasons for this. The Canadian professor volunteers at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Vancouver and has translated a number of letters there. These letters have brought together a wealth of knowledge about Jewish life in Themar and served as the basis for further research into the topic. In this way, Sharon Meen has encouraged the exploration of the history of Jewish life in Themar. And she has found a whole host of committed supporters in Themar who have gladly embraced and continued this initiative. Barbara and Arnd Morgenroth, the association “Themar meets Europe,” and former mayor Hubert Böse, to name just a few.

This time, too, she insisted on making the arduous journey to Themar to be there when the Stolpersteine ​​were embedded in the pavement of the town. They are the last of their kind in Themar, which is why it was naturally particularly important for her to come here. “This will not let me go,” she says. “From the very beginning, my role has not only been that of researcher,” explains Sharon Meen, but she is also the one who maintains contact with the descendants of Themar’s Jews . Descendants of the Gassenheimer family were unable to attend this year. “After the pandemic, we want to organize a large family reunion here in Themar,” explains Sharon Meen.

On Friedenstrasse – on the site of today’s Netto supermarket – stood the house where Herbert, Edith, Ernst, and Albert Gassenheimer, as well as Walter and Lotte Rosenbaum, lived. The Gassenheimers were one of the first Jewish families to settle in Themar. While all ten siblings left, Ernst Gassenheimer remained on the Werra River. Herbert, Albert, Lotte, and Walter managed to escape the Nazis. The family initially relocated to Gelsenkirchen against their will. Lotte and Walter Rosenbaum later fled to Spain and, after 1945, moved to the USA. Albert Gassenheimer fled to South Africa, while Herbert Gassenheimer managed to move to England through a Jewish association. Ernst and Edith Gassenheimer were deported from Gelsenkirchen to Riga, where they were murdered.

These are the kinds of stories that historian Sharon Meen calls microhistory. All the major events of this period can be recreated in miniature, she explains.

Three more stones are laid on Leninstrasse. In memory of Alma and Max Bachmann and their daughter Sophie. While Alma dies in Themar and Sophie manages to escape to Palestine, Max is deported to Buchenwald. He was reported for not wearing the yellow star. He is later killed in Bernburg.

Among the guests at the event on Tuesday morning was Renate Mayer-Merkel. Stones are being laid in Schulstrasse in Themar, among others, for her father and parts of his family. This is not Renate Mayer-Merkel’s first time in Themar. Her experiences here have been sad and heartbreaking, but always beautiful. She tells of how she first met Sharon Meen in Themar in 2013. “She knew so much about my family. And I knew next to nothing,” she says. Her father, Ernst Mayer, was not a religious person. She only learned later that he was Jewish. A significant part of the family had already emigrated to the USA before the Nazi era. Frieda and Albert Wolf, as well as Flora Müller, also fled there. Karoline Mayer and Klara Eisenfresser died in Themar in 1940. Five stumbling blocks have been placed in front of the so-called Villa Wolf on Schulstrasse in memory of all five.

A final stumbling block is also embedded in the pavement of Schulstraße. It commemorates Erna Haass. She converted to Christianity upon her marriage, which initially offered her a certain degree of protection. However, this became obsolete with the Nazis’ rise to power, explains Sharon Meen. As far as we know today, Erna Haass starved to death in Themar.

Peter Harenberg, Mayor of Themar, thanked the city’s committed citizens for addressing the history of Jewish families. “Antisemitism continues to have a profound impact on the world,” he warned. “Even if the last stone is laid today, the process of addressing this issue cannot be over,” Harenberg said. It is a great ambition and a challenge for the city, but also a necessity, to keep the memory of its former Jewish citizens alive.

Following the laying of the final stones, Paul Müller also took the floor. He and his brother Arne (both live in Denmark) are descendants of the Max Müller family and come to Themar regularly. Müller thanked the people of the town. “We came here in 1992 and didn’t really want to talk to anyone because we couldn’t know who might have been the perpetrators,” explained Paul Müller. But that changed immediately. Themar has now become their second home. “We are very grateful for that,” said Paul Müller. He also thanked Sharon Meen for her academic work. Without her, we wouldn’t know so much about our families.

“For me, this is a full circle,” said Hubert Böse. He recalled the first meeting with descendants of Jewish families in November 2008. Sharon Meen had given his first talk on Jewish history at that time. He recalled the numerous meetings and regular events, and thanked the Morgenroth couple, the Themar Meets Europe association, and Sharon Meen for her tireless work. “What I still remember most about the first laying of the Stolpersteine ​​in 2013 is the incredible warmth the descendants showed us,” Hubert Böse summarized. But the memories are also connected to the terrible stories of the former Themar Jews. “Something like this must never be repeated,” he warned.