Photos

This is a further picture that I made in the Synagogue. These suitcases originally belonged to those,who were not successful to escape Nazi prosecution.

"In 1933 a steady, though initially small scale emigration of Jews from Germany began. As a result of increasing persecution and in particular after the November pogroms of 1938, it became a mass exodus.

Following the outbreak of war on September 1,1939 leaving the country became extremely difficult and in autumn of 1941 no longer possible.

Those wishing to emigrate had to overcome numerous bureaucratic obstacles. Money and other assets could only be taken out of Germany at a great loss. The few countries willing to accept German Jews, above all the United States, Great Britain, Argentina and Palestine, had immigration quotas and expected immigrants to be either affluent, have a particular profession, or able to provide proof of a guarantor.

Jewish organizations aided the efforts toward emigration. Jews from Essen emigrated mostly to nearby Belgium or the Netherlands. Although some 60 percent were able to emigrate, many later found themselves in countries occupied by the German army during the war and were subsequently deported to the concentration and death camps."

-Description quoted from the Essen Jewish Synagogue-