Commemorative event on the anniversary of the deportation of Freiburg Jews to Gurs

On October 22, 1940, the last day of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, over 6,500 Jewish men, women and children from Baden, the Palatinate and Saarland were deported to the Gurs camp in southern France in a concerted action, including at least 379 Freiburg residents.

Many of those interned in Gurs died of exhaustion, hunger and disease due to completely inadequate food, catastrophic hygienic conditions and a lack of medical care. From August 1942, those still alive were deported via the Drancy collection camp near Paris to the extermination camps in the east, primarily to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were murdered.

On the 85th anniversary of the deportation of Freiburg's Jews to Gurs, the City of Freiburg, together with the co-organizers, invites you to a commemoration ceremony.

Mayor Christine Buchheit will speak on behalf of the city. This will be followed by contributions from the board of the Egalitarian Jewish Chawurah Gescher and from François Blum on behalf of the descendants, relatives and friends of the members of the former Israelite community of Freiburg. After these speeches, Marlis Meckel, Stolperstein-Projekt Freiburg, Thomas Richter, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen Freiburg, Wolfgang Dästner, Gegen Vergessen - Für Demokratie, and Erika Weisser, Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes - Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten, will read texts by those arrested and deported.

To commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, El Male Rachamim and Kaddish will then be prayed by Cantor Moshe Hayoun from the Jewish Community of Freiburg.

This will be followed by a silent march to the Mantel Memorial on the Wiwili Bridge. Wreaths will be laid there.

Organizer is the Cultural Office of the City of Freiburg in cooperation with: Israelitische Gemeinde Freiburg, Egalitäre Jüdische Chawurah Gescher, Chabad Lubawitsch Freiburg, Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen Freiburg, Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft, DGB Stadtverband Freiburg, Dokumentationszentrum Nationalsozialismus Freiburg, Freiburger Hilfsgemeinschaft/Arbeitskreis NS-Euthanasie und Ausgrenzung heute, Freundeskreis Freiburg - Tel Aviv-Yafo, Against Forgetting - For Democracy, Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, Descendants, Relatives and Friends of the Members of the Former Israelite Community Freiburg, Roma Office Freiburg, Rosa Hilfe Freiburg, Sinti Association Freiburg, Stumbling Stone Project Freiburg, SWR Studio Freiburg and Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime - League of Anti-Fascists.

Further information is available from the Freiburg Cultural Office, 0761-201 2101, kulturamt@freiburg.de and www.freiburg.de/gurs. The website also contains information on other events to mark this anniversary.