Yaron Svoray finds huge array of Jewish items pillaged from Jews during the November 1938 in east German 'dumping ground.'
By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT IN LONDONKristallnacht 88(photo credit: )
LONDON - An Israeli author and journalist has discovered remnants of Jewish property ransacked during Kristallnacht in a huge dumping ground in eastern Germany.
Yaron Svoray, the son of Holocaust survivors, made the discovery in Brandenburg, north of Berlin. Svoray was doing some research on the estates of Hermann Göring, a leading member of the Nazi party, when a garbage dump was pointed out to him.
In a vast area, he found a huge array of Jewish items pillaged from Jews during the November 1938 attacks against the Jewish community which included personal and ceremonial Jewish artefacts. It is believed the items were brought by rail to the outskirts of the town and dumped.
In an article published in The Guardian on Wednesday, Svoray said: "I wasn't fully aware of the historical significance of the find until it was pointed out to me by a historian. We were looking for something completely different when we came across all these items and trinkets."
Göring kept at his estates and hunting lodges at Carinhalle and Romintin in the old state of Prussia.
"The locals of this site have basically been living with this dark hidden secret for 70 years," Svoray said.
Among the items found were glass bottles engraved with a Magen David, mezuzot, painted window sills and the armrests of synagogue chairs.
Svoray did not want to make his findings public, as he feared they would attract far-right treasure hunters. One of the items found was an ornamental swastika. "There's no treasure as such here, but there is still the danger of it turning into some skinhead circus eBay special," he said.
British historian Sir Martin Gilbert, author of Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction, said he was not surprised by the scale of the finds, considering the extent of the destruction that took place. In a single night, Kristallnacht saw the destruction of over 1,000 synagogues and the ransacking of tens of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. In all, 92 Jews were murdered, and around 25,000-30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps.
"Most of the interiors of the synagogues - seats, cupboards, pulpits etc. - were taken away as loot. Most of the interiors of ransacked Jewish shops were likewise taken away as booty by neighbours and looters. Other interiors were set on fire. It will be interesting to see precisely what the items are," Gilbert said.
Svoray is famed for his six-month infiltration of neo-Nazi groups in Germany, documented in his book In Hitler's Shadow, which was adapted into the film The Infiltrator for HBO. During his research, he came into contact with key neo-Nazi leaders and his book revealed a surprisingly large network of seemingly normal middle-class citizens who subscribe to the Nazi platform of racial hatred, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. He also discovered several instances of police collaboration with the extremists.
He is probably best known for his hunt for Nazi-era diamonds which led to the History Channel's film Blood from a Stone. In 2005, he found the hidden possessions of Jewish prisoners of a concentration camp in Poland.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
