Restoration of an old synagogue in Germany and of a Jewish-cemetery in France in which about 500 German-Jewish deportees were buried during the Nazi regime, have been undertaken by German municipalities, according to two separate announcements today.
The synagogue, located in the Odenwald forest at Sandhausen, had been left standing during the Nazi regime because it was evidently mistaken for a Christian church. The structure had been used as a church until it was bought by the Sandhausen Jewish community in 1821. This restoration work is being financed by the Baden-Wurttemberg Historical Society of Christian and Jews.
The cemetery being restored is at the former Gurs concentration camp in southern France, to which Jews from southern Germany had been deported by the Nazis. Several German towns have contributed a total of 350,000 deutschemarks ($84,000), according to an announcement by Mayor Gunther Klotze of Karisruhe.
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