Seeking information
As part of a research project, Dr Verena Buser is searching for witnesses or relatives of those who lived and worked in the Hachshara and retraining schemes in Berlin-Niederschoenhausen (Berufsumschichtung und Tagesschule für Berufsvorlehre) in the 1930s
Young Jews were trained in carpentry, as locksmiths, in gardening and in other practical skills. Some managed to escape via Kitchener camp to Australia and other destinations
Verena is also interested in similar training sites in Nazi Germany, such as the groups in Neuendorf, Schiebinchen, and Groß Breesen
Any contact or information is welcome. Please email Dr Verena Buser directly: [email protected]
At: Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences / Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg
Research associate Western Galilee College (Holocaust Studies Program), Akko/Israel
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I have already written (though much more is to come) about the Berlin ORT, and a Kitchener descendant in the USA kindly drew my attention over the summer to the larger scale of training camps in Germany in the 1930s. It’s something we will be writing much more about over the next few months
JewishGen has a link to search for relatives in some of these schemes, here: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/0041_German_Training_Camps.html
Our descendant in New York, Ann Rolett, who is doing a huge amount of work for us quietly behind the scenes, explained that her relative trained at Gut Winkel (Good Angle): whereas originally his profession was ‘gardener’, it is assumed that the Gut Winkel training centre helped re-skill him to the more useful (in this context) profession as ‘farmer’, according to his records
Ann also very kindly pointed us towards photographs of some these camps, taken by Roman Vishniac – for example here: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/drawer-of-freshly-farmed-eggs-gut-winkel-a-training-farm-for-german-jewish-0; and here: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/morning-assembly-at-gut-winkel-a-training-farm-for-german-jewish-youth-hopi-0