In the 1960s and 1970s, the confrontation with Lemgo's history during the Nazi era repeatedly aroused local opinion. At its heart was the debate about the life story and actions of Lemgo's mayor Wilhelm Gräfer (1885-1945). Gräfer, who was Lemgo's mayor from 1923 to 1945, wanted to surrender the town to the advancing Americans in April 1945, in order to avoid bloodshed. He was arrested on his return from the negotiations, sentenced to death after summary proceedings before a court martial and hanged by SS men and soldiers in Bodenwerder. The issue during the controversial debate of the 1970s and 1980s was Wilhelm Gräfer's role whilst he was mayor during the Nazi era.
The "Alternative City guided tour" project | 
Lecture series "Jews in Lemgo" |
It was only in the 1980s that the issue of the fate of the Jews during the Nazi era came up. Lemgo citizens, old and young, came together to undertake memorial work in the study group "Lemgo during the Third Reich", initiated by the Lemgo's "Centre for development in education" (CEBA). One of the outcomes was the "Alternative City guided tour" project (1985/1986). Civic cultural policy also adopted this theme. In 1986 there was a series of events entitled "Jews in Lemgo - forgotten citizens?" The organisers on behalf of the head of the cultural department, Franz-Joseph Pröpper, were able to engage the services of the Hamburg author and artist Arie W. Sternheim-Goral (1909-1996). One of the important aims of the series of events was to counteract what Goral ascertained to be "a shocking ignorance" of Jewish history and culture with a programme of lectures, concerts and readings.
Karla Raveh's memoirs
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In 1985, a Lemgo teacher, Hanne Pohlmann, had written to members of Jewish families whose addresses were available in the municipal records. Karla Raveh, who lived in Tivon in Israel, replied: "I am happy to tell you what I can about my own and my family's fate and, to the best of my memory, about other (Jewish) families." A few months later, Hanne Pohlmann received a typescript in which Karla Raveh had written down her childhood memories of Lemgo and what happened to her family during the Nazi era. The manuscript was published in 1986 with the title "Survival. The path of suffering of the Lemgo Jewish Frenkel family." With the publication of these memoirs, 70 Echternstrasse – the home of the Frenkel family until deportation - became a significant place of memory in the consciousness of the local population.
Dedication of the memorial on the site of the former synagogue, 1987
Plaque commemorating the dedication of the synagogue memorial, 1987 |
On 7 November 1987 the "Memorial Centre of the Synagogue on the Neue Strasse" was presented to the public in the presence of the Chief Cantor of the Berlin Jewish Community, Estrongo Nachama, and the Regional senior Rabbi Henry Brandt. In 1988 the Frenkel House became an archive and meeting centre. Since its opening many Jewish people, whose ancestors lived in Lemgo and Lippe, have visited it. For many it symbolises and guarantees that the memorial project will endure as part of the city’s cultural and historical work.
 The Frenkel House is dedicated, Lippische Landes-Zeitung,
10 November 1988
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In grandmother's parlour, Allgemeine Jüdische Wochen-zeitung, 9 January 1997 |
Visitors from Israel,
Lippische Rundschau,
13 November 1995 |
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