Dark history: City tour shows Burgkunstadt's Nazi past

Dark history: City tour shows Burgkunstadt's Nazi past

Burgkunstadt, Deutschland - A young man, Max Konrad, recently led a group of around 30 citizens through Burgkunstadt to inform about the dark time of the Nazi dictatorship. Konrad, one of four volunteer city guides, offered the participants a historic tour, which illuminated the past of the city and its residents at six to seven stations. The impressive walk conveyed a lot of information and stories about the drastic events that have shaped the city.

The history of Burgkunstadt showed a city in change after the First World War and the consequences of the economic crisis in the Weimar Republic. Bahnhofstrasse was attached in 1928 and the first garbage disposal was introduced in 1930. The political landscape changed drastically when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on January 30, 1933. This led to the removal of Mayor Hans Agath and the appointment of Dr. Leo Feuersinger and ten NSDAP city councilors.

Jewish life in Burgkunstadt

A central role in the history of the city plays Jewish life. In 1851 a Jewish school was founded at Feuerweg 19, which was in operation until November 1938. The fate of the Jewish citizens ended tragically when Ignaz Capricorn was deported and murdered on February 24, 1942. Of the 53 Jewish fellow citizens who still lived in Burgkunstadt in 1933, only 32 were registered in 1939, and the number had dropped to 13 by 1942. Many of them were threatened by a mob that devastated the city during the 1938 pogrom night.

The city bought the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery on November 10, 1938 for 1000 Reichsmarks instead of being set on fire. Nevertheless, the remaining Jewish families suffered terrible reprisals. The Banemann family, who emigrated in 1939, was also affected by these measures. Rudi Fetzer recently spoke about the deportation of the last Jewish citizens from Burgkunstadt, which took place in 1942 in 1942, in a lecture on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of these terrible events. Fetzer remembered how he grew up in the former Jewish district and reported on an emotional visit to the son of a Jewish shoe manufacturer who wanted to visit the grave of his ancestors.

economic conditions and their consequences

The economic situation in Burgkunstadt was strongly shaped by the Nazi dictatorship. Friedrich Baur founded Baur Shipping in 1925, which built a new building in 1936 and took over the Iglauer shoe factory in 1938. The National Socialists restricted the mail order company, which led to a decline in the number of employees. A rich patron, the Püls shoe factory, produced 5000 pairs of shoes a day at their best times.

In World War II, 242 Cunkstarters fell, which corresponds to 10% of the population, and all Jews who could not emigrate were murdered. The unimaginable circumstances during the deportation of the Jewish citizens who were brought to Krasnystaw in Poland with a special train were characterized by inhuman conditions and a 66 -hour drive, without toilets and drinking water. The deportation of ten Jews, including five-year-old Hans-Peter Steinbock, took place on April 24, 1942.

Overall, the tour, which lasts about two hours, illuminates the numerous facets of the history of Burgkunstadt and was perceived as an important range of memory by the citizens. The events and lectures strengthen the memory of the events of the past, which are to be kept alive through the culture of remembrance.