Zum Düsterdiek 5
49492 Westerkappeln
Germany
In the spring of 1933, the owner Rudolf Stern left the farmstead with all the farm buildings and land to the Reichsvertretung jüdischer Landesverbände as a training center for young boys and girls in preparation for emigration to Palestine. According to a report by the SD Düsseldorf dated July 3, 1936, however, the retraining camp „was affiliated with the Prussian State Association of Jewish Communities“. It was run by the Jüdischer Pfadfinderbund Makkabi Hazair. The Hachshara operation began on the farm in January 1934 with the arrival of the first three Chawerim: Henry Cohen from Altkarbe, Edgar Adamski from Leipzig and Markus Lichter from Chemnitz.
According to the registration files of the Westerkappeln district administration, a total of 97 teenagers and young adults lived on the farm as Chawerim between January 1934 and November 1938
In the pogrom night of November 9/10, 1938, members of the SA raided the farm. The caretaker couple Löwenstein was brutally abused, the furniture destroyed and windows smashed. Four young men were still living on the Stern farm at the time. They and the manager Siegfried Löwenstein were arrested and imprisoned in Westerkappeln. While Löwenstein was able to return to the farm after a week, the four men were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp for several weeks. From there, they were able to return to the Stern farm for a short time, which they then left for good in February 1939.
Owner and pledgee Rudolf Stern was arrested on Pogrom Night in November 1938 and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp, where the Gestapo forced him to sell the farm. Rudolf Stern was deported to the Riga ghetto in 1941 and in September 1944 to the SS special camp in Libau (Latvia) via the Stutthof concentration camp. He survived the end of the war in Kiel in a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp.
Add new comment