One of the few synagogues still standing in Germany was used by Jewish soldiers of the 63rd Infantry Division for a thanksgiving-memorial service in Bad Mergentheim, situated midway between Nurenberg and Heidelberg, headquarters of General Jacob L. Devers’ 6th Army Group.
Although all of the 308 Jews who lived in the city in 1933 have been killed or dispersed to other lands, their ancient Holy Scrolls and other articles of worship were handed over to Chaplain Aaron Kahan, of Brooklyn by a Catholic member of the community who had hidden them in his warehouse until the day when Jews might return to Bad Mergentheim.
To Chaplain Kahan, the new Burgermeister, Gerhardt Hetz, addressed the following letter: "As mayor of the municipality of Bad Mergentheim, I have the honor to present to you the keys of the synagogue of the former Jewish Community. By chance, this synagogue was prevented from being demolished like all the others in Germany, because setting this building on fire would have endangered the whole town.
"But I feel a still greater joy in being able to present to you the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Community which the last Jewish leader here handed over to a faithful Catholic, giving him instructions to hide it until Jews would be again in Bad Mergentheim. Unfortunately the Jews who resided here formerly are scattered in all directions of the world or are dead.
"I hope that many of our Jewish residents might come back and that they, as far as they are still living, might collaborate with us in order to rebuild a free and better Germany, delivered from the Nazi plague and from racial and national hatred."
Chaplain Kahan learned that the Jewish community dwindled from 308 in 1933 to a mere handful by 1942. On August 20, 1942, the last Jews, about 17, were transported to Theresienstadt. In this last group was a merchant named Ferdinand Wurzburger. He had saved the Holy Scrolls and prayer books from the synagogue, and just before his arrest he entrusted those items to a Catholic friend, Julian Mulek.
Mulek said he had hesitated to accept them, since if they were found in his possession it would have cost him his life, too, but he took the chance.
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.
