Europe 2018: Jewish Frankfurt before World War II

By Wednesday afternoon we were ready to visit places that were part of the lives of Ralph’s mother and Heidi’s father in the Frankfurt of the 1930s before World War II.

After lunch at the Palmengarten Cafe, we walked through the adjacent neighborhood. We passed the street where the Keller family lived. It was and is now a lovely neighborhood of graceful old Frankfurt homes. We were not sure which might have been the Keller’s, but we certainly could imagine area as it would have been in the early 1930’s.

We continued to walk in Westend neighborhood of Frankfurt. This was an area of many Jewish families of Frankfurt. We were in search of the only remaining synagogue of Frankfurt— the Westend Synagogue.

This synagogue was built in 1910 as a Classical Reform Synagogue. It was then badly damaged, but not destroyed, during the war. It is now run as an orthodox shul by Chabad.

The plaque, which hangs right outside of the synagogue’s sanctuary, translates as follows:

In memory of the members of our congregation who became victims of the terrorists of 1933-1945.

Honor their memory.

The next photo is of a “Frankfurt Shabbat Lamp”. We have one at home. It was Ralph’s mother’s.

Next we visited Frieda’s school. Frieda attended the Philanthropin (a place for humanity). It was and is now a secondary school for, then, Jewish girls and, now, Jewish girls and boys. For more information click here and here.