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Naphtali Berlinger
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to view]
[click
to view]
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Letters of Naphtali Berlinger
1941-1942
Naphtali Berlinger’s letters provide insight into the last days of the
Jewish community of Buttenhausen. In order to make these letters available
to a broader public, they will be translated into English. Experience shows,
however, that German-speaking and English-speaking visitors bring different
background knowledge to the exhibition. As well, these visitor groups
commonly view the exhibition against the background of their own (differing)
cultural assumptions. In order to allow an appropriate understanding of the
letters by both visitor groups, both the German and English versions require
contextualization.
The principal goal of the project is not only to translate the letters into
English, but also to provide a contextualizing framework for both the
original and the translation, a framework that illuminates the religious,
psychological, and social circumstances in which the letters were written.
At the same time the project seeks to establish and analyze differences how
representatives of different cultures understand the letters, thus
contributing to our understanding of intercultural processes in general. It
will thus be necessary to work not only with the letters themselves, but
also with other primary and secondary sources.
The project is part of a larger trinational initiative involving future
teachers who are studying at universities in Baden-Württemberg and Poland (Poznań
and Kraków) in Europe, and at York University in Toronto (Canada). It also
fits well into the ambit of a group organized by the University of Bologna
that is working of questions of “Memory and Methodology: The Holocaust in
Translation”.
Professor Mark J. Webber
The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies
York University
230 York Lanes
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1P3 / Canada
E-Mail mwebber@yorku.ca
Project: Naphtali Berlinger the
last rabbi and teacher of Jewish school in Buttenhausen.
Class 6/7 of Gustav-Heinemann-School (Förderschule, school for educationally
handicapped children) did a project on the live and the work of Naphtali
Berlinger supported by Mr. Deigendesch (leader of town archives) and Mr.
Walter Ott in nearby Buttenhausen. The class got to know old, but still
existing teaching materials and explored his environment on the spot in
Buttenhausen.
Pupil’s drawing - Date: Oct 16, 2003
Class:7
Topic: Naphtali Berlinger
Naphtali Berlinger was born in 1876 as a son of a rabbi. In 1909, Naphtali
Berlinger came to Buttenhausen as a teacher. He was teaching Jewish, but
also Christian children. At that time there was no Lautertal school and no
Gustav-Heinemann school. All children were taught in Buttenhausen. Today
there is a pottery in the old schoolhouse. Naphtali Berlinger was also the
rabbi of Buttenhausen. The Nazis expelled and killed the Jews of
Buttenhausen. Naphtali Berlinger stayed with his community until there were
no Jewish people in the village anymore. At the age of 66, Naphtali
Berlinger died in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt in 1943.
Translation: Realschule Münsingen
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