Das Licht verlöschte nicht

Memoirs of a German Jew who served as rabbi of the Jewish home for the elderly on Grosse Hamburger Strasse in Berlin between 1933-43. Discusses the gradual deterioriation of the situation for the Jews, including the "Kristallnacht" pogrom and the deportations. In May 1942 the small synagogue of the home had to be vacated, and the assembly room served temporarily as a prayer room. In November 1942 Riesenburger was arrested and imprisoned for seven days. All the residents of the home were deported; only one woman survived. Until the end of 1944 Riesenburger served at funerals, inter alia of 1,907 Jews who committed suicide between 1933-44. At the Weissensee Jewish cemetery he delivered sermons, comforted people, and gathered with them to observe Jewish holidays secretly. During the last years of the war he helped to hide 560 Torah scrolls and ritual articles. He remained in Berlin thanks to the fact that his wife was a convert to Judaism who nullified her conversion because of the situation. 55,000 Jews who lived in Berlin were murdered in concentration camps. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)