Stele in memory of the Jewish orphanage for Westphalia and the Rhineland and its last residents

A stele cast in bronze has stood on the forecourt of the Westphalian School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Husener Strasse 13, sponsored by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, since 1990. It is the work of sculptor Werner Klenk, Oelde, who created it on behalf of the GCJZ Paderborn. The city of Paderborn provided financial support. The stele commemorates the Jüdische Waisenhaus für Westfalen und Rheinland, founded in 1856 by Fanny Nathan (1803-1877), and its last residents, 21 orphans and their caregivers and relatives, who were sent to the extermination camps and thus to their deaths in 1942. A short text on one side of the stele provides information. On the other side of the stele, verse 14 from the 10th Psalm of the Hebrew Bible warns: „To you the forsaken turn. You have always been a helper to the fatherless“ . This verse was the opening verse above the Jewish orphanage.