Interior view of the synagogue adjacent to the Breuer Yeshiva in Frankfurt.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 62992

Date: 1935 - 1938
Variant Locale: Frankfort
Photo Designation: JEWISH LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY -- Religious Life/Institutions
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Jacob G. Wiener

Biography: Jacob Wiener (born Gerd Zwienicki) is the son of Selma Stiefel and Josef Zwienicki. He was born in 1917 in Bremen, where his family owned a bicycle shop. Gerd had three siblings: a brother Benno (b. 1918), a sister Liesel (b. 1921), and a brother Alfred (b. 1925). Gerd left home in 1936 to study at the Breuer yeshiva in Frankfurt. A year later he began his studies at the Wuerzburg Jewish teachers seminary. On the night of Kristallnacht the students of the rabbinical seminary, including Gerd, were arrested and placed in protective custody, where they remained for eight days. Meanwhile, Gerd's family was facing tragedy in Bremen. His father was sufficiently aware of the threat posed by the Nazis that he fled from his home during the pogrom. However, he did not anticipate what they might do to his family in his absence. That night when members of the SA came looking for him at his home and failed to find him, they shot and killed his wife and arrested his son, Benno, who was then sent to Sachsenhausen. Following Benno's release, the family departed for Canada, leaving Germany on May 31, 1939.
Keyword: INTERIORS
SYNAGOGUES/CHAPELS
VIEWS
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Jacob G. Wiener
: Record last modified: 2007-02-06 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1146951

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