Überprüfung der Archivbestände des Schlossmuseums Jever nach Hinweisen auf unrechtmäßige Aneignung von Besitz jüdischer Bürger in der Zeit 1933 bis 1945

Initial questions and project objectives

The history of the collections in the Third Reich had been on the agenda of Schlossmuseum Jever for some time as an area requiring urgent research. Providing the final impetus for the research project was the analysis undertaken by regional historian Hartmut Peters of a file entitled Judenpolizei (Jewish police). This had been found in 2012 in the attic of Jever town hall. According to the file, Jever town council and the Gestapo had instigated the expulsion of the citys last Jewish citizens in 1940 without an order from a higher authority.

This campaign was initiated in a four-way discussion between mayor Martin Folkerts and representatives of the Gestapo and of the district of Friesland. The expulsion was followed by the confiscation of furnishings and the subsequent sale of these objects. Forced sales of houses which had been in the possession of Jews had already been undertaken.

The fact that the mayor of Jever, Martin Folkerts, also held the post of chairman of the Jeverländischer Altertums- und Heimatverein (Jeverland local heritage association) gives rise to particular suspicions on account of the above-mentioned action taken against the towns Jewish citizens, which Folkerts helped to instigate in a systematic manner. Furthermore, other board members were also staunch National Socialists. The (collecting) activities of the Altertums- und Heimatverein, which the inventory books show as increasing from 1937, and the associated sharp rise in the number of new acquisitions also strongly suggest that objects owned by Jewish citizens could have ended up in the Schlossmuseum after they had been looted from their owners.

With the aid of funding approved by the Bureau for Provenance Research, the available file documents (registers of items received, inventory books, lists of objects) were examined in greater detail in a short-term project that ran from September 2014 to February 2015.

The project in numbers

The review of the registers of items received, lists of objects as well as the management board minutes and correspondence of the Altertums- und Heimatverein showed that this stock has not been made accessible and does not provide a reliable data basis. There is a lack of cataloging and documentation both in terms of material assets and in the archives for the years between 1930 and 1945/46. The total number of these objects cannot be determined as the registers of items received were not kept correctly. For example, entries for new acquisitions can be found in the minutes but are not then recorded in the registers of items received.

It was also established that a large number of the documented objects in the Schlossmuseum holdings cannot be evidenced. The number of objects from the 1930s and 1940s actually existent today is very small and accounts for a maximum 10% of the entries made in the inventory books. A catalog/finding aid on the library and archive holdings of the Schloss in this period is missing completely. Consequently, there is a general need for clarification in the first instance. It was not possible to address these fundamental questions further within the short-term project to date; these could be pursued as part of a long-term measure.

One of the priorities of any such research should be an investigation into the whereabouts of the synagogue key passed on to the Schlossmuseum by the National Socialist Paul Liebenow in February 1941, including the so-called Jewish files. There should also be an examination of the files on Jews which were proven to have been in the museum archive around 1940. The museum also possibly owned a mezuzah (a piece of parchment in a capsule) from a house in Jever in 1938, as its inscription in German translation from the same year is kept in the Schloss archive.

The entries on the provenance of the other objects from the relevant period are rather unremarkable. They involve donations and purchases of paintings and prints by local and regional artists, as well as mainly folkloristic objects primarily from non-Jewish citizens of Jever (household appliances, textiles, agricultural implements).

List of persons and institutions that are historically relevant to the project:

Jeverländischer Altertums- und Heimatverein e.V.:

Martin Folkerts, mayor of Jever and chairman of the Jeverländischer Altertums- und Heimatverein, term of office 19371945, was chairman of the association again from 1950

Karl Fissen, senior teacher and local historian, (*1885 in Jever +1978 in Oldenburg)

Carl Woebcken, pastor and local historian (*1878 in Neuenburg +1965 in Jever)

Georg Janßen-Sillenstede, local historian, Schlossmuseum director in Jever (18771947)

Heimatverein Jever:

F. A. Lange, editor-in-chief of the Jeversches Wochenblatt, board member of Heimatverein Jever in the 1920s, founder member of the NSDAP in Jever, responsible for spreading National Socialist ideology in the 1920s

Other persons:

Paul Anton Liebenow, gardener, worked for Jever town council (*November 12, 1901 in Schwerin, +approx. 1951), heavily involved in the destruction of Jever synagogue and in the synagogue burning trial, sentenced 1951

The results of the research are to be presented in an anthology of essays.

© Schlossmuseum Jever