UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM RELEASES DIGITIZED ONLINE COPIES OF DOCUMENTS OF RABBI DR. WILHELM WEINBERG: SHEDS LIGHT ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE HOLOCAUST

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM RELEASES DIGITIZED ONLINE COPIES OF DOCUMENTS  OF RABBI DR. WILHELM WEINBERG: SHEDS LIGHT ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE HOLOCAUST

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has digitized the archival documents of Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, the first post-Holocaust Chief Rabbi of Hesse and Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
 This is a treasure trove for historians researching how individual Jews and entire Jewish communities reconstructed themselves in the aftermath of the Holocaust in the heart of post-Hitler Germany.  The collection covers personal writings and published essays relevant to philosophical, ethical, and moral issues of the period as well as records documenting the reorganization of the surviving Austrian and German Jewish community after the war.

Thanks to the work of Brad Bauer, Chief Archivist, and the staff at the Museum, these documents were painstakingly scanned and digitized and can now be accessed online at http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn502232.

        The education and experience of Rabbi Weinberg in the years up to and through the Holocaust are documented in the book,  Courage of the Spirit, written by his son, Rabbi Norbert Weinberg.
The book is available through:
Create Space     https://www.createspace.com/4773507
Amazon   http://tinyurl.com/m9a4e52
Barnes and Noble   http://tinyurl.com/nw7l582
Kobo  http://tinyurl.com/nxe3my3
Google Books  http://tinyurl.com/lc5dztw


A sampling of topics include:

A Jewish People’s University in the refugee camps near Salzburg , Austria; the fight against anti-Semitism and Nazis in post-War Germany; the renovation and dedication of the main synagogue in Frankfurt am Main; gaining freedom for Jewish convicts held in US custody ; relations with John J. McCloy, United States High Commissioner and the new German government, both on a local and national level; unification of community of German Jewish survivors with the communities of East European survivors that had flooded Germany.

Letters include correspondence with Rabbi Leo Baeck, and philosophers Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, as well as officials of the Hesse State government, Justice and Interior Ministries of West Germany, the various Jewish regional councils, Office of the Adviser on Jewish Affairs to the Allied Forces, the Jewish Agency and others.

Essays, lectures, sermons, newspaper articles and other writings of Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg that cover such topics as events affecting the Jewish communities of Central Europe from the years before the Nazi rise to power to the post-war reconstruction of Jewish communities in Austria and Germany, comments on general issues of philosophy, ethics, morality, politics, religion in general and Judaism in particular as well as thoughts on Zionism and the challenges experienced in everyday life.

Legal papers and correspondences relating to the status of known Nazis in high positions, Jewish prisoners, protection of Jewish cemeteries, and other themes .


Items in digitized records are listed by series, box, and folder
Series 1: Biographical materials, 1941-1985
Box Folder Title
1 1 Becher, Sonja Maria, Family tree, 1943
1 2 Calendars, 1941-1945
1 3 Weinberg, Rabbi Wilhelm, approximately 1956-1985

Series 2: Correspondence, 1941-1986
Box Folder Title
1 4 Correspondence, 1941-1947
1 5-7 Correspondence, 1948 (3 folders)
1 8-14 Correspondence, 1949 (7 folders)
1 15-18 Correspondence, 1950 (4 folders)
1 19-21 Correspondence, 1951 (3 folders)
1 22 Correspondence, 1952-1956, 1968-1972
1 23 Correspondence, Rabbi Norbert Weinberg, 1946-1979, 1985-1986

Series 3: Printed materials, 1909-1995
Box Folder Title
2 1 Articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, 1947
2 2-3 Articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, 1948 (2 folders)
2 4-6 Articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, 1949 (3 folders)
2 7-9 Articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, 1950 (3 folders)
2 10-11 Articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, 1951 (2 folders)
2 12 Articles and clippings about Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, approximately 1952-1995

2 13 Articles and clippings, Miscellaneous, 1949-1951, 1978
2 14 The Jewish Travel Guide, 1952-1953
2 15 Machzor, 1947
2 16 Monatschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1927 July-August
2 17 Monatschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1930 May-June
3 1 Monatschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1939 December
3 2 Nach’lath Z’wi, 1936
3 3 Die Neue Furche, 1951 July
3 4 Programs and invitations, 1946-1951
3 5 Saturday Evening Post, “What’s Happening to Germany’s Jews?” 1949 (see oversize folder
1)
3 6 The Torch, 1968-1969
3 7 Zeitgenossen des Moses ibn Esra und Jehuda ha-Levi, 1909



Series 4: Records relating to legal cases, 1947-1986
Box Folder Title
3 8 Kasperkowitz, Karl, approximately 1947-1949
3 9 Reich, Roman Sylwan, Correspondence from Roman Reich, 1949-1951
3 10-13 Reich, Roman Sylwan, Correspondence and poems from Adrian Russo, 1949-1951, 1976-
1986 (4 folders)
3 14 Reich, Roman Sylwan, Interview and miscellaneous items, approximately 1949-1986
4 1 Reich, Roman Sylwan, Introduction and general case material, approximately 1978-1986
4 2-3 Reich, Roman Sylwan, Legal documents, 1949-1951 (2 folders)
4 4 Reich, Roman Sylwan, Photographs, 1951-1954

Series 5: Writings, 1928-1990s
Box Folder Title
4 5-7 Articles, speeches, and sermons by Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, approximately 1947-1975 (3
folders) (see also oversize folder 2)
4 8-12 Collected essays, lectures, and sermons of Rabbi Dr. Wilhelm Weinberg, compiled and
organized by Rabbi Norbert Weinberg, approximately 1928-1986 (5 folders)
4 13-17 Jews on Search of a New Image (A Hero in Search of a New Role), approximately 1970 (5
folders)
5 1-4 Notecards, approximately 1960s-1970s (4 folders)
5 5-8 Der Parlamentarismus, System und Krisis (1928), approximately 1990s (4 folders)
5 9 Miscellaneous, approximately 1947-1951
5 10 Fredman, Fritz, Mosaik: Analyse des Juden-, Christen-, und Freimaurertum, Synthese zur
Gotteserkenntnis, approximately 1940s
5 11 Nawrocka, Zofia, Poem, 20th century
5 12 Rawitz-Riwatz, Erich, Poems, 1947
5 13 Schrudler, Julius, An die Öffentlichkeit, 1952
5 14 Weinberg, Rabbi Norbert, About Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, 1976, 1985-1988

Oversize materials
Folder Title
1 Saturday Evening Post, “What’s Happening to Germany’s Jews?” 1949
2 Articles, speeches, and sermons by Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg, approximately 1947-1975