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Infotafel Simon Strauß

Beschreibung

The joint information plaque from the City of Lohr and the District Council in memory of Simon Strauß is located on the premises of the District Hospital (BKH) at the building with the address Sommerberg 43. Simon Strauß lived here with his family on the upper floor. The plaque was unveiled on September 12, 2019, by the District Council President Erwin Dotzel and Mayor Dr. Mario Paul in the presence of numerous descendants of Simon Strauß from Israel.
Simon Strauß served as the head of the ritual (kosher) kitchen and chaplain for the Jewish patients from 1924 to 1938 in this house, the specially built "Israelite Pavilion." See the next station (Israelite Pavillion) for more information on this. From 1926, Simon Strauß was also the chairman of the Israelite Community down in the city. Simon Strauß held the positions of preacher, teacher, and shochet (ritual slaughterer) at the synagogue in Fischergasse. With the Reichspogromnacht on November 10, 1938, communal life ended with the police sealing off the synagogue and the community center, and the forced "Aryanization" of the building.
As a 71-year-old, Simon Strauß witnessed the unspeakable violence against the Jewish community in Lohr and the destruction of the synagogue firsthand during the Reichspogromnacht. A neighbor of the synagogue reported, "The rabbi was crying." Simon Strauß was detained for several days. Since he apparently promised his emigration to Palestine to join his children under pressure from the Gestapo while in custody to be released again, the administration of the institution promptly terminated his lease. He was forced to move from Lohr to Bad Nauheim in March 1939. He died in April 1940. The deportation and murder of the 19 Jewish patients entrusted to him took place in September 1940.