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A Chance Discovery Overhead: The Memmelsdorf Genizah

Object in Showcase

In February 2002, workers renovating a house in Memmelsdorf, Lower Franconia, discovered a burlap sack when they opened up a section of the ceiling. It contained fragments of a prayer book, Jewish community regulations, personal letters, a notebook with writing exercises, a calendar, lottery tickets, and calling cards.

An Unusual Collection

This unusual collection of objects, which date from the period 1770–1830, had apparently been rolled up with great care by the house's former owner, slipped into the sack, and hidden in the timber frame. Additional papers and objects were gradually extracted from the clay filling of the frame, including shoes, four tobacco pouches, and a bag for phylacteries. The house had been owned by Jews from 1775 to 1939, and the discovery was evidently a genizah.

A Ritual Burial for Religious Objects

The word genizah (pl. genizot) literally means "safekeeping." It usually refers to a room in which timeworn writings and religious objects were stored because they bore the name of God and could therefore not be simply discarded. In the past, many rural congregations in southern Germany deposited such writings and objects in the attics of their synagogues.

A Rare Find in a Private House

Fully forgotten by the communities themselves, a large number have been discovered in former synagogues over the last thirty years. By contrast, genizot found in private homes are much rarer. Our find in Memmelsdorf, which contains both religious and non-religious objects, provides a fragmentary yet fascinating glimpse into the lives of the house's former inhabitants.

Various crumpled documents with Hebrew letters, a shoe and a bag.

Memmelsdorf genizah; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

Title Memmelsdorf genizah
Collection Material Culture and Archive
Location and year of origin Memmelsdorf in Lower Franconia, 1770–1830
Medium Paper, ink, fabric, leather

Selected Objects: Archive (10)

  • Archive

    Browse selected archival holdings online from the eighteenth century through the post-war period. Personal and official documents speak to the life of a nineteenth-century journeyman, early modern merchant rights, desperate attempts to emigrate during Nazi rule, and much more

  • Adoption contract with stamps.

    Adoption contract Gloeden and Loevy

    Even a Jewish-sounding name could be cause for discrimination. So the siblings Erich and Ursula Loevy chose to be adopted by Bernhard Gloeden, a grammar school teacher and family friend

  • Letter with redactions.

    A desperate letter to their son in Sweden

    “As long as we are still here, we will write to you every third day,” wrote Paul and Sophie Berliner to their son, Gert, who was living in Stockholm, on 6 November 1941

  • Employee ID with photo and stamps

    Martin Riesenburger’s Service Card

    A provisional document from February 1953 certified that Martin Riesenburger was a rabbi responsible for pastoral care in East Berlin prisons

  • A letter.

    Siegfried Leopold’s Get for His Wife Resi

    According to Jewish law, a marriage is only annulled when a bill of divorce is drawn up and presented by the husband to his wife

  • Index cards.

    Index cards from the British Army

    Thousands of German emigrants fought against Germany in the British Army during the Second World War. In case of capture, they had to change their names, as these index cards document

  • A bag filled with several letters.

    Frieda Neuber’s Leather Pouch

    Shortly before being deported to Theresienstadt, Frieder Neuber gave this leather pouch to her niece. The letters inside it document her desperate attempts to leave the country

  • Various crumpled documents with Hebrew letters, a shoe and a bag

    Memmelsdorf Genizah

    In February 2002, workers renovating a house discovered a burlap sack filled with papers and personal items when they opened up a section of the ceiling. The house had been owned by Jews from 1775 to 1939

  • Completed document with stamps.

    Red Cross Letter to Emmy Warschauer

    After the outbreak of the Second World War, the aid organization’s message service gave emigrants a way to contact relatives in Germany. That’s how Emmy Warschauer received confirmation that her daughter was alive

  • Handwritten document from the 18th century.

    Letter of Protection for the Jews of Ichenhausen

    Until the nineteenth century, the residence and trading rights of Jews in the German territories were defined in letters of protection (Schutzbriefe), which had to be purchased

  • Page of the walking book.

    Journeyman’s Book Belonging to the Shoemaker Leopold Willstätter

    Leopold Willstätter traveled around southwest Germany and France as a journeyman from 1836 to 1843. The journeyman's book with a precise description of him also served as a form of identification

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