"...there were many pleasant people there" Jews from St. Pölten 1850-1984
„Better late than never“ (Rosa Kubin, née Lustig, St. Pölten–Massachusetts)
The impetus to start a research project on the Jewish community of St. Pölten came from the then thirty-year-old Martin Gewing from California. On 7 October 1995, he wrote to Frau Maria Diete, Lederergasse 12 that he was following the footsteps of his family, a part of St. Pölten. His Großonkel and his great-grandfather Hermann and Karoline Gewing, domgasse 7, had been deported to an unknown place.
Maria Diete died many years ago, until the dissolution of the Jewish community as a non-Jewish housekeeper of the synagogue. The family Diete was thrown out of the apartment in May 1940 after the entry of the SA-Standard 21 because it was "intolerable" for the SA that "the former householders at the Jewish Temple continue their activities with the SA". I realized by Martin Gewing's letter how little we knew about the Jewish St. Pöltner, and that it was high time to start the research. Dr. Hans Morgenstern, who had returned from Palestine as a nine-year-old with his parents in 1947, was of great help to us; He had kept in touch with about twenty Jews and Jewesses scattered all over the world. The mouth propaganda brought more contacts.
My colleague Eleonore Lappin and I sent 35 detailed questionnaires to the former St. Pöltner Jews and conducted fifteen detailed oral interviews in Austria and Israel. Many of our interlocutors provided us with valuable photos and documents that could save them into their refugees. At the same time, the two St. Pöltner history students Matthias Lackenberger and Christoph Lind worked on diploma theses on the Jewish community of their city.
The memorabilia of the St. Pöltner Jews formed the basis for the exhibition "... there were so nice people there": Jewish St. Pöltner 1850-1984 (1850 settlement, 1984 renovation of the synagogue) on the tenth anniversary of our institute and a memory To the 60-year-old November pogroms. Under the motto "Shared history - common memory", an initiative committee was formed a year before, chaired by Mayor Willi Gruber, who was also headed by Ing. Adolf Hasenauer, Dr. Hans Morgenstern, Prelate Dr. Johann Oppolzer, Gen. Franz Rupp, President Adolf Stricker and Director Mimi Wunderer.
The exhibition, textualized by Martha Keil and graphically by Renate Stockreiter, represented the life of the Jewish community of St. Pölten in nine places: the religious and political commitment, the everyday life, the lively social life of Zionist youth in particular, the organization of leisure and living together With the non-Jewish St. Pöltners. Special attention was paid to the fate of the individual people during the Nazi era, their deprivation, expulsion, survival in the concentration camp or as a submarine. On the respective subject, CDs of Jewish and non-Jewish St. Pöltner could be heard and heard. Two stations on the choir were devoted to the history of the synagogue, the rabbis and cantors of the congregation, and religious life in general.
The exhibition was seen apart from about 500 adult visitors from more than 50 school classes. Each school class was given a one-hour expert guidance, and the pupils between 12 and 18 years old showed themselves attentive, well prepared and touched.
The last stop of the exhibition offered the opportunity to publish a post on sticky pages on a pinboard. The words "informative, interesting, touching, heartbreaking, let us understand the life of the Jews better, very successful, supertoll, should always be here, except for a single message which the exhibition commented with" So a Sch ... " To be seen ... ". These positive experiences encouraged us to offer the pupils more information on Jewish history and on national socialism, according to their age.
The exhibition was held in the former synagogue from 27 November 1998 to 31 January 1999.
Martha Keil, November 2000