Ghosts of the Holocaust in Regensburg | History Traveler Episode 396

The Holocaust has been described as “the absence of presence and the presence of absence”. That absence of presence was felt throughout Europe in the aftermath of WWII in the vacant homes of those who had left and were never coming back. We’re in Regensburg, Germany where we’ve accidentally stumbled upon some memorials that shine a light on that void.

This episode was produced in partnership with The Gettysburg Museum of History. See how you can support history education & artifact preservation by visiting their website & store at https://www.gettysburgmuseumofhistory.com

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Other episodes that you might enjoy:

– The German General That Dick Winters Found DEAD in Berchtesgaden!!! | History Traveler Episode 395: https://youtu.be/qEHLeuwis6k
– The Heroic Stand of the Monchy 10 | History Traveler Episode 392: https://youtu.be/vvepr9xd-Jg
– The Tragic Attack of the Australians at Bullecourt | History Traveler Episode 390: https://youtu.be/l1yHJJPYuwY
– Vimy Ridge: Craters of the Dead | History Traveler Episode 388: https://youtu.be/cVx0yFwuFLk
– Unspeakable Tragedy at the WWI Battle of Vimy Ridge | History Traveler Episode 387: https://youtu.be/QPaGHNSCnt4

[Music] over the past few days I’ve been traveling to different places throughout Germany and right now I am in the city of Regensburg and if you are an Enthusiast of World War II history like me when you hear the the name Regensburg there’s probably one thing that comes to mind the the raid on the city of Regensburg by the eighth Army Air Force in August of 194 three to to knock out German aircraft production capabilities so that raid resulted in a large loss of life in the skies above this city but there was already a great amount of loss that had been experienced here in Regensburg amongst a certain part of the population at the hands of their own government [Music] now like I said I am in the city of Regensburg and I’m in the city center right now and behind me is this amazing structure this is the St Peter’s Cathedral and I have a few things that that I want to show just real quick while we are here uh but there’s some interesting imagery on this this old Gothic Cathedral that was completed in 1520 that I want to show first [Music] standing here at the base of this Cathedral is really kind of all inspiring and it’s just amazing to think of how people built this thing and a as beautiful as this Cathedral is well there are some parts of it that are not quite so beautiful like this right here so the sculpture that that we are looking at is called a UDA sculpture uh this is an anti-semitic sculpture that is carved into this Cathedral uh the the basic gist of it what you’re looking at as you can see is a pig uh which were regard you know pigs are are regarded as unclean in in Judaism and there was this false claim that was made way back when that Jews uh would suck on a s like piglets so here in this carving well you can see what are depicted as Jewish people uh sucking on this pig and it’s it’s intended to cause like revulsion and contempt towards the Jews so this is an attack on Judaism and in Christian art often times the the pig represents the devil so at the front you see what’s depicted as a Jewish person and they are Whispering into the ear of the devil so basically trying to get across the message that that Jews are are in League with the devil now on this particular Cathedral this image that is carved in stone faced the Jewish quarter so by the time that that World War II rolled around not only in Germany but in many places throughout Europe and the world uh anti-Semitism was something that was was fairly hardwired in the population [Music] I once heard the aftermath of the Holocaust described as the absence of presence and the presence of absence after the war there were 6 million Jews and millions of people from other groups like Christians and Jehovah’s Witness and roma who who were just gone uh they had received a visit at their home maybe from the Gestapo or the azot grouping they were taken away and they never came back there is an interesting project that is scattered all throughout Europe that commemorates the the losses of the individuals here in Europe during the Holocaust and I’ve heard about this project uh but today was the first time that I saw evidence of it for the first time we rolled into Regensburg later in the evening yesterday and as my wife and I were making our way from the hotel to the city center well as we were walking along I happened to look down and saw one of these plaques embedded in the sidewalk this is called a stumbling Stone this is the product of an art project that was started by a German artist named gter demnig I believe in 1992 and you can see here on this plaque we have a few names and a little bit of information so here is the name uh Matilda new house she was born in 1869 was deported from here in 1942 went to the th andat concentration camp which was just across the border in Czechoslovakia and she was murdered on the 26th of January 1943 uh also we have the name of mina mayor who was born in 1870 uh deported in 1942 also went to the same concentration camp and was murdered on October 15th of 1942 and these stones have been placed at the last residence of these two women so prior to being hauled off to the concentration camps well this is the spot where they lived and they never came back here is the site of another home that has a set of these stumbling stones in front of it and if we look at it well you can see this is all one family uh here we have a Ruth frying who was born in 1920 and she escaped to the United States in 1938 but was displaced from her home but tragically if you look here her family did not uh so you can see uh like Carl frying uh went to daow uh was deported in 1942 and went to paski and was murdered uh I believe that’s just outside of Lublin and Poland uh here Irma Alfred Doris all the same fate all were murdered in Poland but they lived right here right here at this intersection well there’s a little restaurant here but it wasn’t always a restaurant this was once somebody’s home and that somebody as you can see here on this particular stumbling Stone was selar nimer who was born in 1885 and as you can see uh she also went to the uh thean stot concentration camp and then was eventually transferred to aitz where she was murdered in 1944 now you might be asking yourself why are these things called stumbling stones and there’s a couple different reasons one there was this anti-semitic saying during the Third Reich era where if you were walking along and you like tripped or or stumbled over a stone well you would look down You’ say oh there must be a Jew that that was buried here so these kind of fly in the face of that so when you see one of these Stones it I mean it it represents a a person who was lost during the the Third Reich era and who is actually dead in many cases uh also a stumbling Stone it’s it’s something that you’re not expecting it’s something that you just happen upon we’ve just happened upon these stumbling stones and when you see it it causes you to stop what you’re doing and remember that uh someone lived here and and their lives were were taken from them all right got one more that I’m going to show here we are now standing in front of the hotel Louie or hotel Lewis not sure exactly how you pronounce that here and this is actually the hotel where I am staying and I I don’t know how old this particular building is I’m assuming that it was here during the World War II era but whatever the case this site was the home of Charlotte and Elise Vice who were born in 1870 and 1871 you can see that they also went to the thean stat concentration camp and were both murdered on the same day the 14th of January 1943 so if this is indeed the site where they actually lived and pretty sobering that this is where we stayed last night all right well there you go uh those were just a few of the tens of thousands of stumbling stones that are scattered all across Europe for most Europeans I would guess that they are familiar with these memorials but for Americans I assumed that they probably didn’t know anything about them but anyway again those are just a few of the memorials to those lost in the Holocaust that are scattered all across Europe [Music]