The American Schadenman has been living in Görlitz for a few years. There she looks for stories of the city’s former Jewish population and brings together their descendants from all over the world.
It is Friday evening. Actually the time to celebrate the beginning of Shabbat. But in these times everything is different. Instead of being at home in the warm living room, Lauren Schadenman is with her husband and two children in a church in Cunewalde, a small village in the Saxon province. The church community has invited people to a peace prayer. “The whole conflict in the Middle East is keeping the community very busy. We need a space where we can look for peace and pray for peace,” says Pastor Christoph Schröder.
Lauren Leidman is about to speak about the fate of the Hirschfeld family. The American has been researching Jewish life in Görlitz and the biographies of the city’s former Jewish residents for years. As the last churchgoers arrive and the bells ring, Schadenman quietly whispers “Shabbat Shalom” to her four-year-old son.
In search of the descendants of Görlitz Jews
Unfortunately, you have only been living in Görlitz for a few years. It was only through her Israeli husband that she became interested in Judaism, its history and, above all, the people. “I found so much about Jewish history here. It’s incredible and I wonder, where have these people gone?” Leidman starts writing a blog, founds a Facebook group and brings together descendants of Jewish Görlitzers all over the world.
Lauren and Mark Leidman have lived in Görlitz for several years.
In June 2022, descendants of Jewish residents were invited to Görlitz for the second time, including members of the Feldmann family. Their daughter Eva fled to what was then the British Mandate of Palestine in 1938 and married a Jewish refugee from Breslau named Hirschfeld. Together they had five children. The family moved to what is now the border with the Gaza Strip. The parents Feldmann and son Kurt escaped to South America. At the meeting in Görlitz in June 2022, descendants from South America, Great Britain and Israel came. Together they laid four stumbling blocks in memory of the Görlitz grandparents and great-grandparents.
“And now it’s happening again”
When the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israeli towns around the Gaza Strip on October 7th, the descendants of the Görlitzer family were also threatened, Leidman reports: Eight adults and nine children survived the massacre, hidden in shelters and hiding places. Except for their lives and the clothes on their bodies, they lost almost everything, saysladyman.
Together with other descendants, Leidman started a campaign to provide this part of the Hierschfeld family and also other descendants of Görlitz Jews affected by the massacre with the bare necessities. “The Hirschfelds were refugees from Germany. And now it’s happening again,” says the researcher. But this time in Israel. “Half of the family is now living as refugees again.”
Clearly raise your voice
At the end of their talk, the tragedies were asked whether they still felt safe in Germany. Görlitz is not Berlin, they answer. “Jewish people on the street are afraid to show that they are Jews,” says Mark trageman. He wants the government and the people here to make their voices clear.
You can see more on this topic today in the tagesthemen at 10:15 p.m.