Jewish Museum

By far the most monumental thing I have done in Frankfurt thus far is visit the Jewish museum and cemetery. Many people have asked me, especially family members, “why Germany? Are you sure that’s a good idea? I worry about a young Jewish girl going there for so long.” My answer has always been that aside from the fact that I study the language, I want to make amends and be part of the healing process. We’ll never be able to get over that stigma until we make new memories and stories to replace the old ones, by facing the pain and dealing with it. This museum was definitely important for that.

It was a neat exhibit that chronicled the existence and development of Frankfurt’s Jewish population from the first records around 1100 up until post-WWII. There were lots of pretty artifacts that I put in my photo album, but there are a couple that are worth mentioning right now. This first one was a wall in the museum that lists thousands of names of lost or dead Frankfurter Jews from the war.

While searching, I found this.

Hm.

I then went to the other half of the museum across town, which housed the ruins of the old Jewish Ghetto (from the 1700-1800s) and the cemetery. The story behind the ruins is that they were uncovered while doing construction on another project, so the builders preserved the ruins and built the building on top. Behind the building is the old cemetery, which is now walled off and sealed behind a locked gate. There was a beautiful memorial with small plaques in the wall for each of the names from the other display. This is also the memorial from the old synagogue that was destroyed in the war. (see my photo album for more pictures of all of this).




There was another stone on her name before I put one there – that means someone else came to visit before I did.