Obermayer German Jewish History Award

Wolfgang Battermann

Petershagen, North Rhine-Westphalia

Ever since he was an eighth grader, Wolfgang Battermann has been dedicated to the subjects of Jewry and anti-Semitism. Today, at the age of 65, this retired high school teacher is known for helping preserve the former synagogue and Jewish school in his home town of Petershagen; for launching an information and documentation center on Jewish local and regional history going back morw than 450 years; for fighting against modern anti-Semitism; and for making sure that the town’s former Jewish residents are not forgotten. But how does a kid growing up in immediate post-war Germany end up moving in this direction? It’s a combination of nature and nurture.

Growing up in Minden, in the former West German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, young Battermann was exposed to the same influences as everyone else of his generation. Like millions of others, he watched – at the age of 14 – the televised trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel in 1961 and was confronted with Germany’s crimes against humanity personified. Then, he began to confront what he saw as the silence and defensive demeanor of his parents’ and grandparents’ generations regarding the Nazi era.

“When I talked to shopkeepers in Minden, and I asked, ‘Where are the Jews now,’ they said, ‘Yeah, they disappeared.’ And then I said, ‘You must have known where they were.’ And they answered, ‘No, they were simply gone from one day to the next.’”

His parents only spoke about the war years in military terms– victories and defeats. About the fate of their Jewish neighbors, they repeated the well-known phrase – “No, we did not know.” After the Eichmann trial, “We wanted answers and did not get any,“ Battermann said of his generation. “I decided if I don’t get the answers, then I have to find them.”

Inspired by his teacher, the late Hans-Jürgen Rathert (who later would become mayor of Minden), Battermann chose the subjects of Judaism and anti-Semitism for his final high school examination. He later became a schoolteacher himself in Petershagen, following in the footsteps of his mentor.

It was there that he encountered the town’s former synagogue, a timbered-roof structure built in 1845/46 that was hardly recognizable as a house of worship. “It was about to fall down“ when he first saw it in 1978, together with Professor Dr. Arno Herzig of Hamburg. At its peak, in 1866, the Jewish community had numbered 90 (out of 1,800 total population, i.e. 5%). By 1933 their numbers had diminished to 43.

The synagogue was damaged severely, though not destroyed, in the Kristallnacht pogrom of Nov. 9, 1938. After 1945, it was turned into a warehouse. Now, it was abandoned and neglected, and together with the former Jewish school next door – which had been turned into apartments - had been forgotten completely. Battermann dedicated himself to rescuing these buildings and their history from oblivion. For several years, he fought for public support, but even on the occasion of Petershagen’s 1,200th anniversary, in 1984, the local population was not ready. Not until 1988 did Battermann and his supporters succeed in securing the synagogue’s recognition as an historic monument. Battermann tapped as many interested partners as he could find – including friends, politicians, preservationists and others. In 1998 they won support from the state, district and town, which agreed to purchase the building and finance its renovation and preservation. In 2001 the former synagogue was rededicated in a solemn ceremony.

In 2003, the association inaugurated the information and documentation center with an exhibit on more than 450 years of local and regional Jewish history. Today, Battermann not only organizes volunteers to welcome visitors, but also gives tours himself.

In 2004, he co-authored the book, Alte Synagoge Petershagen – Menschen – Spuren – Wege, (Old Synagogue Peters-hagen – People – Traces – Paths) published as the town’s historical almanac.

Meanwhile, Battermann was not only concerned with the past. With others he started a working group against anti-Semitism, which among other things succeeded in having the name of the anti-Semitic German “court chaplain“ Adolf Stoecker (1835-1909) removed from the walls of a local Parish house. Battermann was drawn to the “Stolpersteine” project, the placing of memorial stones outside the homes of former Jewish citizens. The project was started unofficially in 1995 by Cologne-based artist Gunter Demnig, an Obermayer German Jewish History awardee in 2005 (http://www.obermayer.us/award/awardees/demnig-eng.htm). In 2007, Battermann founded the “Arbeitskreis Stolpersteine Petershagen” (Working Group Stolpersteine Petershagen) In 2009, Battermann himself set the first of 29 stolpersteine in place in his town.

Today, the award-winning Association for the Old Synagogue of Petershagen, with 70 members, and its fundraising arm – “Trägerkreis Ehemalige Synagoge Petershagen” (Sponsors of the Former Synagogue of Petershagen), supported by funds of The North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation – continue the work of preserving the old synagogue, the former Jewish school and other sites of Jewish heritage. The building serves as a “Memorial and Information Space” as well as a site for concerts, lectures and other programs related to the Jewish past and present. Nearly 2,000 people visit the synagogue each year.

Battermann said he hopes eventually to create a “lernort“ – a place where people can research local history, as a “bridge to the people who suffered.”

All these projects boil down to one essential conviction: Battermann wants to “give the murdered Jewish fellow citizens [their] names,” said nominator Harald Scheurenberg, a Jewish leader in Minden whose late father, Kurt, was one of the few survivors to return to Petershagen.

For Battermann, it was contact with Petershagen Jews such as Kurt Scheurenberg – who died in 2011 aged 90 – that moved him most of all.

“I was a 13-year-old soccer player,“ he recalled, when survivors Max Ingberg and Emil Samuel used to “sit in our club and play cards. I talked to them, and I will never forget it,“ he said. The two men fought to have a synagogue rebuilt in Minden, and co-founded a society for Christian-Jewish cooperation. Their activism still inspires him.

“When I see that right wing extremism is still active in Germany, I know I need to stay active,“ he said. “I want to show the people of Petershagen that these Jewish people were citizens in our town. It’s not just about building a museum. It’s to remember the people.”