User:BrThomas/Test site

The Prager-Haus or Bernhard-Prager-Haus is the former residential house of the Jewish Prager family, situated in Apolda, Thuringia, Germany, in the narrow alley Pragergasse. An association founded in 2007 wants to preserve the house as a location of remembrance and commemoration to the Jewish inhabitants of the town Apolda. This is done by educating about the roots and the occurrence of antisemitism in the region and by documenting the persecution and killing of the Jewish population during the time of Nazism (National Socialism). Furthermore the association promotes research into and publication about the cultural and social history of daily life in the region of Weimar-Apolda, especially the history of social, religious and political minorities. The Prager-Haus Apolda shall become a central meeting point.

miniatur|Logo of the house: a dove with olive branch is flying away from a house

Contents 1 The Prager family and the history of Jews in Apolda 2 The association and the memorial project 3 References 4 Publications of the Prager-Haus Association and the Geschichtswerkstatt Weimar-Apolda 5 External links

The Prager family and the history of Jews in Apolda
The Jewish trader of furs Bernhard Prager, later the owner of the house, was born on June 28, 1888 and was killed on September 26, 1944 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He lived with his family in the house until they were deported. The Prager family completely became victims of the Shoa. The Aryanization of the total property of the family is meticulously documented in a book with historical primary sources published by the Thüringer Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (Thuringia State Agency for Political Education).

The association and the memorial project
The Prager-Haus Association Apolda was founded in January 2007. This founding was preceded by 20 years of research by people interested in history and in the destiny of the persecuted, displaced and for a large part murdered inhabitants of the town Apolda. Material evidence from this time (artifacts ) were collected, oral reports by contemporary witnesses were written down, contacts were established to people who escaped and their descendants in various countries. On Bernhard Prager's 100th birthday on June 29, 1988, a few months before the 50th anniversary of the Pogrom Night, a memorial plaque commemorating this family was placed on their residential house. As a first result of the research a book was published in 1991 that gives an overview over Jewish life in Apolda.

In 1999 the association Geschichtswerkstatt Weimar-Apolda was founded, later merged into the Prager-Haus Association, and published further material regarding Jewish life, persecution in the first Thuringia concentration camps in Nohra and Bad Sulza as well as about the daily regime of National Socialism in the region Apolda.

Since its founding a number of well-known people of public life from the region have been active for the association and its goals, such as the Apolda mayor Rüdiger Eisenbrand and Wolfgang Peller, a Jew from Apolda persecuted during Nazism, who later became deputy minister of justice of the GDR (East Germany) and now lives in Berlin.

Efforts to purchase the house began soon after the founding of the association in order to promote its goals. In 2008 the association began publishing a series describing the destiny of affected families, resistance against Nazism and the life of minorities in town.

In May 2008 Gunter Demnig, performance artist from Cologne, placed the first three Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks) in front of the Prager Haus. In October nine more blocks were placed. At various city festivals and public events the association turned to the public with information booths, also offering souvenirs for financing the project.

Publications of the Prager-Haus Association and the Geschichtswerkstatt Weimar-Apolda

 * Thomas Bahr: Die Rosewitz, Prager, Lichtenstein... . Apolda 1992
 * Peter Franz: Der gewöhnliche Faschismus. Über die alltägliche Herrschaft der „Nationalsozialisten“ am Beispiel einer Mittelstadt des Deutschen Reiches. Eine Chronologie in Jahresscheiben. Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-935275-00-5
 * Peter Franz, Udo Wohlfeld: Jüdische Familien in Apolda. Diffamierung, Ausgrenzung, Entrechtung, Vertreibung, Deportation, Vernichtung, Ungehorsam. Die Apoldaer Judenheit während des Faschismus, Weimar 2006, ISBN 3-935275-04-8
 * Peter Franz, Tina Unglaube, Udo Wohlfeld: Die Pragers. Eine jüdische Familie in Apolda. Geschichtswerkstatt Weimar-Apolda e.V., Apolda 2008, ISBN 3-935275-07-2
 * Karl Berger, Peter Franz, Udo Wohlfeld: August Berger. Sozialdemokrat in Apolda. Geschichtswerkstatt Weimar-Apolda e.V., Apolda 2008, ISBN 3-935275-08-0
 * Wolfgang Peller, Peter Franz, Udo Wohlfeld: Die Pellers. Eine jüdische Familie in Apolda. Geschichtswerkstatt Weimar-Apolda e.V., Apolda 2008, ISBN 3-935275-10-2