Day 36     Sunday, October 5, 2025

I have a much needed quiet day and Bob visits two Jewish Museums in Frankfurt. He is writing today’s post.

At the entrance to the Jewish Museum is a sculpture that symbolizes the uprooting of the Jewish community during WWII. Of the 30,000 Jews in Frankfurt at the start of the war, 13,000 died in German concentration camps, many were uprooted and only 150 remained after the war.

Amazingly most of the St. Nicholas Cathedral survived the bombings in WWII. 80% of the city was either destroyed or badly damaged.

In November 1938, 1400 synagogues were vandalized and burnt  by the Nazi regime, including the Borneplatz Synagogue.  

I was surprised to learn that Anne Frank and her family lived in Frankfurt before 1933. The grandmother moved to Basel, and other family members moved to Paris and London. Anne Frank’s family moved to Amsterdam. In 1942 the family went into hiding until August 1944 when the family was discovered and deported to Auchwitz.

The grandmother kept these treasures.  For one of her birthdays Anne was given a gift certificate for 2 books.  This was her favourite chair.   

After WWII Anne’s father (the only family survivor of the war) published her diary (The Annex).  He returned to Amsterdam in 1960 to view the family’s hiding place. This is the father’s copy of the book, later titled  “The Diary of Anne Frank”.

In 1460, Frankfurt City Council set up the Jewish Quarter to house all Jews.  By 1700 up to 3000 people lived here.  The remains of 5 houses have been saved in the 2nd museum I visited.   There were a number of artifacts uncovered. The most interesting is this 16th century wedding belt. The belts of the bride and groom were tied together during the wedding ceremony as a symbol of their eternal bound.