Provenance Research:
Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer (Historical Museum of the Palatinate)
Museum
Historisches
Museum der Pfalz, Speyer (Historical Museum of the Palatinate)
Research into Nazi-confiscated works of art
in the museum's collection
In 1987 three 19th century
painted and labelled torah binders dating from 1822, 1834 and 1860 were
re-discovered in the museum's equipment store. Their inscriptions refer to
Menachem, son of Jacob (b. 1822), Todros Zvi, son of Solomon (b. 1834) and
David, son of Ascher (b.1860). They originally belonged to the Bet- und
Schulhaus (Prayer and School House) of the Jewish community of
Rheingönheim-Neuhofen at Hauptstraße 67 (246 today). The School and Prayer House
was forcibly sold to the municipality in 1938 and was then used by the
Reichsarbeitdienst (Reich Labour Service).
In 1939 the torah binders were transferred to the museum by the Speyer District Office (it is not known how they came into the possession of the District Office). After their rediscovery in 1987, the torah binders were displayed in several exhibitions. In March 2000 the museum transferred ownership of the torah binders back to the Jewish Community of the Rhineland Palatinate, the legal successor of the region's active pre-war Jewish community destroyed under National Socialism. Because a relationship had been established between the museum and the Jewish Community due to previous loans, it was agreed that the torah binders could remain in the museum's collection on permanent loan.
Research into works of art missing from the
museum
No information is available at present
Contact Details
Dr.
Werner Transier, Numismatik und Judaika (Numismatics and
Judaica)
Historisches Museum der Pfalz
Domplatz
67324 Speyer
Tel:
+49 (0) 6232 1325 0
Fax: +49 (0) 6232 1325 40
Email: info@museum.speyer.de
http://www.museum.speyer.de/ Brief
information in English and French
Source
Werner
Transier, 'Drei Torawimpel aus dem jüdischen Bet-und Schulhaus in
Ludwigshafen-Rheingönheim', in Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste (ed.),
Beiträge öffentlicher Einrichtungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zum
Umgang mit Kulturgütern aus ehemaligem jüdischen Besitz (Magdeburg:
Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste, 2001), 285-293.In German, summary in
English
<http://www.museum.speyer.de/>,
accessed 16 December 2002
