Nuremberg, the city and the Holocaust. http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Nuremberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria, and forever synonymous with the Nazi rallies which were held annually from 1927 to 1938, the infamous Nuremberg Racial Laws and the home of Julius Streicher the publisher of Der Sturmer, which was fiercely anti-Semitic.

Jews had lived in Nuremberg from the 12^th century, the Jewish community knew periods of prosperity and growth, as well as riots and expulsions, in 1922 the Jewish community was 9,280 the second largest in Bavaria.

Many of Nuremberg’s Jews were affluent merchants, industrialists, bankers and professionals. Their situation took a turn for the worse after the founding in Nuremberg of Der Sturmer, the notorious Nazi weekly newspaper, by Julius Streicher in 1923.

Edition of the anti-Semitic Der Sturmer

This was also the year of Hitler’s putsch attempt in Munich, and 1923 young uniformed Nazi’s roamed the streets of Nuremberg attacking hundreds of Jews and desecrated the Jewish cemetery. One Jew died of his wounds, during these disturbances.

The Reich Union of Jewish Frontline Soldiers reacted by posting armed guards at Jewish community institutions, riots against Jews continued and intensified after the Nazis success in the 1930 elections.

In Nuremberg assaults on the Jewish community after the Nazis rise to power were worse than in other German cities, on the 20 July 1933, SA storm-troopers broke into four hundred Jewish houses and confiscated cash and savings accounts; some 300 Jews, most of them members of the fraternal order B’Nai B’rith were arrested by the SA, herded into empty lots in the suburbs, and beaten up.

From the beginning of the Nazi regime in January 1933 until the 31 March 1934, 1,476 Jews left Nuremberg. The rate decreased sharply thereafter, and in the year beginning April 1937, only 298 Jews left the city.

Hebrew class, Nuremberg Jewish Center 1937

The Nazis efforts to rid the city of its Jews were countered by the Jews radical re-organisation of their religious, educational, cultural, and social life, with the object of making themselves independent of their hostile environment.

At the same time the Jewish community organisation’s revenue and expenditures increased, unlike those of other Jewish communities in Germany. This was made possible by the Jews generally strong economic condition, with 728 Jewish enterprises still in existence at the end of 1936.

On the 8 November 1937 an exhibition opened in the city, “The Eternal Jew,” portraying the Jew as a taskmaster for international Bolshevism, aimed at enslaving Germany within the Soviet system.

The main Synagogue

in Nuremberg

On the 10 August 1938 on the orders of Streicher, the Great Synagogue and the adjacent Jewish community building were torn down, under the pretext “that they were spoiling the look of the city.” The synagogue’s Jewish Stone, a remnant of a medieval synagogue that served as the base for the Holy Ark, was saved by a non-Jewish architect.

On Kristallnacht, which took place throughout the Reich, at 2.00am, SA men armed with sticks gathered in the main city square and set fire to the Adas Israel synagogue, and the Ahiezer prayer hall.

Gangs of Nazi thugs went on a rampage through the streets of the city attacking Jews and wounding hundreds of them; sixteen Jews were murdered and ten committed suicide. These twenty-six victims constituted a substantial proportion of the total loss of life among German Jewry on Kristallnacht.

One hundred and sixty Jews living in Nuremberg were arrested and ill-treated in the city’s prison, and most of them were later sent to the Dachau concentration camp, hundreds of Jewish apartments and businesses were ransacked by the Nazi hoodlums.

Julius Streicher

Sensing now that the tide had turned the Jews of Nuremberg began to flee the city, Nazi Party leaders encouraged city officials bought up Jewish-owned property at a fraction of its value. The corrupt practices at this time were so outrageous that the authorities had to set up a commission of inquiry, which denounced the events that had taken place and called for the punishment of those responsible.

On the 29 November 1941, 535 Jews from Nuremberg were deported to Riga; on the 24 March 1942, 650 Jews were sent to Izbica near Lublin; and on the 10 September of that year, 686 Jews were deported to Theresienstadt.

From these three deportations, only a handful of Jews survived, another 139 Jews were deported in four different groups, and 67 more were deported on an individual basis. In the autumn of 1942, after several dozen Jews had been transferred to the nearby city of Furth, the only Jews left in the city were those married to non-Jews.

1935 rally in Nuremberg

The Nazi newspapers boasted that Nuremberg had become Judenrein – cleansed of Jews. The city was severely damaged by the Allied bombing campaign, on the 2 January 1945 the medieval city centre was systematically bombed and about 90 percent of it was destroyed in one hour, with 1,800 loss of live and 100,000 people displaced, further bombing raids in February 1945 and in total circa 6,000 Nuremberg residents are thought to have been killed in the Allied air raids.

Transports Timeline:

November 29th, 1941: Transport of 512 deportees to KZ Riga-Jungfernhof in Latvia, 17 survivors.
March 24th, 1942: Transport of 426 deportees to the ghetto of Izbica in Eastern Poland, no survivors.
April 25th, 1942: Transport of 23 deportees to the ghetto of Krasniczyn in Eastern Poland, no survivors.
September 10th, 1942: Transport of 533 deportees to KZ Theresienstadt in Bohemia, 26 survivors.
June 18th, 1943: Transport of another 14 deportees to KZ Theresienstadt, 4 survivors. On the same day a deportation train with 16 persons left Nuremberg to KZ Auschwitz; none of them survived.
January 17th, 1944: Transport of 10 deportees to KZ Theresienstadt again, 5 survivors.
67 Jews were deported from Nuremberg to German concentration camps for political reasons, 10 were liberated by the Allies.

Jews from Nuremberg prior to their deportation to Zbaszyn

About 65 of the former inhabitants returned after the war and a community was reorganized, which numbered 181 in 1952 and 290 in 1970. In 1984 a new community center with a synagogue was opened. The Jewish community numbered 316 in 1989; 200 in 1990; and about 1,450 in 2005. More than 80 percent of the members are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union wanted the war crimes trial to be held in Berlin, but the other victorious Allied Governments wanted the trials to be held in the American Zone, in a city which symbolised the Nazi Party, and the Palace of Justice was spacious and undamaged, with a large prison as part of the complex.

The trial began on the 20 November 1945 and it ended on the 1 October 1946 with most of the leading Nazis being sentenced to death, or long prison sentences

Timeline of major events that occurred in Nuremberg during the years of the Third Reich

1933	Hitler, with his uncanny ability to sense the mood of the people, selected Nuremberg as the site of the annual high mass of his regime, even before he became Chancellor in 1933. Nuremberg, like no other German city, served as the ideal foil to lend the ...Hitler, with his uncanny ability to sense the mood of the people, selected Nuremberg as the site of the annual high mass of his regime, even before he became Chancellor in 1933.
1934	TRIUMPH OF WILL was filmed in 1934 Nuremberg, capturing the city of Nuremberg on film, as an historic document, before many of these Nuremberg locations were destroyed by World War Two bombing.
1935	In 1935, the Nuremberg laws were passed discriminating Jews. Jews were prohibited from holding jobs in the civil service, from marrying Germans and Jews lost their rights as German citizens. Jews were later forced to live in ghettos and wear special armbands to ...In 1935, the Nuremberg laws were passed discriminating Jews. Jews were prohibited from holding jobs in the civil service, from marrying Germans and Jews lost their rights as German citizens. Jews were later forced to live in ghettos and wear special armbands to easily distinguish them. Faced with such persecution, 130000 Jews left Germany .
1936	At the Party Rally in Nuremberg in 1936, Hitler announced the establishment of the Four Year Plan and the appointment of Goering as the Plenipotentiary in charge.
1937	In December 1937, the French consul in Nuremberg noted that the increasingly strict application of the Nuremberg Laws by the Nazis "could only precipitate the recent movement of emigration that has taken place in recent months." Other consuls were also ...In December 1937, the French consul in Nuremberg noted that the increasingly strict application of the Nuremberg Laws by the Nazis "could only precipitate the recent movement of emigration that has taken place in recent months." Other consuls were also predicting a renewed Jewish exodus in light of stricter German border controls—Jews, even those who had left on short-term visas, were no longer being allowed to return.
1938	Nuremberg Laws were expanded by new anti-Jewish decrees. Jewish men and women with non-Jewish names were ordered to add Israel or Sarah to their names. All Jews 15 years of age and older were ordered to carry their identification cards with them ...In 1938, the Nuremberg Laws were expanded by new anti-Jewish decrees. Jewish men and women with non-Jewish names were ordered to add Israel or Sarah to their names. All Jews 15 years of age and older were ordered to carry their identification cards with them at all times. A big letter J was stamped on their passports. Jews were prohibited from living in blocks of flats inhabited by Aryans, going to theatres, cinemas and swimming pools or walking on the Aryans' sidewalks.
1939	GAULEITER STRETCHER, at a great demonstration organized yesterday evening in Nuremberg on the occasion of the German troops' entry into Bohemia and Moravia, made the following statement: " This is only a beginning: far ...No. 74 M. ARDIET, French Consul in Nuremberg, to M. GEORGES BONNET, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Nuremberg, March 16, 1939. GAULEITER STRETCHER, at a great demonstration organized yesterday evening in Nuremberg on the occasion of the German troops' entry into Bohemia and Moravia, made the following statement: " This is only a beginning: far greater events will follow; the democracies can rise up and protest as much as they like, they will surrender ...
1940	Der Stürmer was considered offensive by nearly all political leaders in Germany, but Streicher had the protection of Hitler out of gratitude for Streicher's having delivered Nuremberg to the Nazi Party. In 1940, Göring arranged for Streicher to be put partially out of action; although Der Stürmer was not suppressed, Streicher was deprived of his Party position of Gauleiter of Nuremberg. Streicher never held a position in the German Government, before or during the war .
1941	The 202 Jews from Würzburg that were transferred on 27.11.1941 to the concentration camp Nuremberg-Langwasser, two days later were again transported to Schiratowa near Riga (located in Latvia). They were transported together with fellow sufferers from Nuremberg, Fürth, Bamberg, Coburg and Bayreuth. This transport also included 40 children, ages 3 to 21 years.
1942	Eichmann sends a letter to Nuremberg State Police, i August 1942, T/747, concerning guidelines for further deportations to Theresienstadt from Nuremberg.
1942	Germany was declared free of Jews. Any Jews remaining and not imprisoned were primarily spouses of non-Jews, or "half-Jews" as defined under the Nuremberg Laws. It is estimated that about 160000 to 180000 German Jews were murdered by the Nazis in Germany, or to have died as a result of persecution

Sources:

The History of the Second World War – published by Purnell London 1966

Encyclopaedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, edited by Shumel Spector, published by New York University Press 2001

Nuremberg State Archives

Wiener Library

Chris Webb Archive

Holocaust Historical Society