Jewish communities in West Germany are celebrating the tenth anniversary of their liberation from the Nazi regime and the re-emergence of Jewish communal life.
In Berlin, the Central Council of Jews in Germany arranged a celebration in Germany’s largest synagogue located on Pestalozzi Street. The meeting was addressed by Dr. Otto Suhr. Mayor of West Berlin; Heinz Galinsky, president of the Berlin Jewish Community: Dr. H.G. van Dam, secretary-general of the Central Council. The latter pointed out that Germany had capitulated not only in 1945, but also without a fight in 1933 and 1938 when the Nazis took over, He stressed that the creation of Israel, from which he had just returned, had imbued the Jewish community of Germany with a new self-confidence.
At the beach near Neustadt, close to which 7,398 concentration camp inmates were drowned just ten years ago almost within sight of liberation, a memorial service was held in the presence of several of the small number of survivors. Wreaths were dropped into the sea at the point where the “Cap Arcona” and the “Thielbeck,” two Nazi slave ships crowded to the gunwales with prisoners from 24 nations, went to the bottom during a British air raid on German shipping in the Baltic.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
