An example of a mediaeval village house built on the Domplatz went up in flames a few days before the start of the exhibition, but as mainly the straw roof was completely destroyed, there was enough left to give a good impression.

The beautifully produced companion volume of 440 pages included essays by renowned mediaevalists and the exhibition catalogue. With its innumerable colour and black and white plates the volume is in itself an education in mediaeval history, culture and daily life of Franconia, a work of art and scholarship.

The exhibition attracted 205000 visitors, a number equal to almost three times the Bamberg population. It was a boon to Bamberg hotels and traders and, although of high cost, it also helped to put some welcome money into the coffers of the financially straitened Bamberg city council.

Although the exhibition was not of direct Jewish interest, there was on display a privilege document from emperor Otto II of 2 April 981 for a monastery, which had bought land in Regensburg from a Jew called Samuel. It was one of the oldest, if not the oldest exhibit, which indicated how far back there was a Jewish settlement in Regensburg.

Two exhibitions in Bamberg during my stay in July were indeed of direct Jewish interest:

(Solicitor without Justice)

In a separate room, the fate of 12 Bamberg Jewish lawyers was displayed. Most of the portraits were taken from my book.

While there was no exhibition catalogue, the Oberlandesgericht published a small brochure describing the life and fate of the Bamberg Jewish lawyers. A partly illustrated version, with the title Diener des Rechts - rechtlos gemacht (Servants of justice - robbed of their rights) appeared in the Fränkischer Tag of 15 June. (See also the FT 22 June, “Ein beklemmender Einblick”).

(German Jewish Soldiers)

Another travelling exhibition, at the City Archive, was brought to Bamberg on the initiative of Chriss Fiebig and with the active support of Dr. Robert Zink, the director of the archive.

Put together by the Military Research Office of the Federal German Defence Forces, the 63 panels show the story of Jewish soldiers from 1805 to 1918. And what a sad story it is. In spite of their commitment to serve what they thought was their country, too, they had to endure many obstacles, insults and lack of promotion. Although at the outbreak of the 1914 war, Kaiser Wilhelm II had announced that he no longer knew parties or other divisions in the social fabric of the country but only Germans, the enthusiasm of Jews to serve and their losses in blood were ill rewarded. Not only was there much antisemitism in the forces, but the War Ministry set up the infamous Judenzählung (a count of Jewish soldiers), because it was rumoured that they avoided military service. The results were never published, because they showed that the percentage of Jews was in fact at least as great as that of the Bavarian non-Jewish population.

After the end of the War, some top military men like Ludendorff blamed the Jews for the defeat of Germany and promoted a vicious antisemitism.

The exhibition was so large that it required several visits to take it all in. Items on Bamberg Jewish Soldiers were added by the City archive.

Not the least remarkable part of the exhibition was a companion volume of essays by specialist historians, with a bibliography which will save future historians much time.

I was asked to make one of the speeches at the opening of the exhibition on 2 July. I had not, of course, seen it beforehand and concentrated on the ex- perience of Bamberg Jews.

I will gladly make a copy of my speech available to anyone interested.

(See FT 5 July “Unrühmliches Kapitel der Geschichte”, FT 13. August “Die Vaterländische Pflicht erfüllt”. and Rathaus Journal Nr. 14, 2002 “Wie aus Integration Ausgrenzung und Vernichtung wurde”). For this occasion Chriss Fiebig reprinted Eckstein’s “Haben die Juden in Bayern ein Heimatrecht?” (1929), (ISBN Nr. 3-00-009528-4), ob- tainable from Chriss Fiebig or the book trade.

More Exhibitions

During my visit in October/November, there were two more travelling exhibitions of Jewish interest

(Information from Catalogue and visit).

This was the title of an exhibition at the Bamberg City Archive,arranged by the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, on the criminal experiments on human beings under the Nazi regime.

The exhibition raised the questions “How could Doctors carry out such experiments” and who were these monsters? How were such doctors dealt with after 1945 and what became of the surviving victims?

“It was worse than death, which is at least a normal end to human life” a Polish woman suvivor of such experiments recalled. (See FT of 28 September, “Schlimmer als der Tod”).