Remembrance Day: Commemoration of the crimes of 9 November 1938

Bocholt citizens are invited to a silent commemoration at the memorial site of the former synagogue in front of the "Haus des Handwerks" (Europaplatz 17) on Saturday, 9 November at 7.30 pm. Mayor Thomas Kerkhoff will give the commemorative speech.

Pupils from Mariengymnasium will report on the cruel attacks on the Jewish citizens of Bocholt and the devastation of Bocholt's synagogue. The interior of the synagogue building was completely destroyed by Bocholt Nazis 86 years ago that night.

Regina and Salomon Seif, the sexton of the synagogue, were beaten up and hospitalised by the Nazi horde that night. His son Sigmar recalled in a report filed with the police in Rotterdam in 1949: "Around mid-November 1938, we were taken by surprise by 15 people in our house. ... My father, my mother and I were attacked by the assailants. We were beaten with shaking sticks, even with sticks into which nails had been driven. My father and mother were so badly beaten that they were taken to hospital. Almost all the furniture in our flat was destroyed ...."

All of Sigmar Seif's siblings and his parents were deported and murdered during the Nazi persecution of Jews. Only Sigmar Seif survived.

Musical reading at the Lernwerk

Following the commemoration, the city of Bocholt invites you to a musical reading at 8.30 p.m. in the Lernwerk at Industriestraße 1 entitled: "And another piece of love to counter any further cruelty" From the diaries of Westerbork prisoners Etty Hillesum and Philip Mechanicus. The collage by and with Sarah Giese (recitation), Markus von Hagen (recitation), Gudula Rosa (musical organisation) and Norbert Fasse (intros and epilogue) focuses on life and suffering in the Dutch transit camp Westerbork, which also became the starting point for the deportation of Bocholt's Jews. Admission is free.