New Book Exposes How East Germany Erased Its Jewish Past for Politics
A new book by Philipp Graf challenges long-held views on Jewish heritage in East Germany. Rejected Legacy examines Halberstadt’s Jewish past and the GDR’s troubled relationship with its own history. The research reveals how a once-thriving community was erased—and how its memory was later reshaped for political ends. Halberstadt was once a centre of Neo-Orthodox Judaism. Between 1938 and 1942, its Jewish community was systematically destroyed. The city’s synagogue, demolished in 1938, marked the start of its erasure, as Martin Gabriel, pastor of the Liebfrauenkirche, later noted.
A memorial at the former Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp was unveiled in 1949. It honoured victims of forced labour, but by 1969, the site had been redesigned. The new layout turned it into a space for political pledges of allegiance, built directly over prisoners’ graves. By 1961, Willy Calm was the last Jew left in Halberstadt. He served as the official contact for the vanished community. Meanwhile, underground tunnels once used by the Nazis were repurposed in the 1950s as a military depot for the GDR’s National People’s Army. Graf’s research also questions the GDR’s claim to antifascist principles. Despite figures like singer Lin Jaldati and writers Peter Edel and Jurek Becker, the state largely ignored Jewish cultural heritage. The 2018 sale of Halberstadt’s Rathauspassagen even revived old antisemitic tropes, with whispers of a 'sellout to the Jews' prompting Graf’s deeper investigation.
The book calls for a rethink of outdated historical frameworks. Graf argues that confronting these contradictions is essential to counter both right-wing and left-authoritarian antisemitism. His findings highlight how memory—and its suppression—shapes political narratives even decades later.
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