Jews in Leipzig - The University of Texas at Austin

On the question of the baths, for instance, we see a letter to the
Oberbürgermeister from Siegfried Hohmann, complaining about the continued presence
of a Jew at the Germania baths. A “German-feeling person”, he viewed it as nothing less
than “a sabotage of the Nuremberg laws” for the owner of the Germania baths to allow
his business to remain open to racially hostile elements. An unsigned response reminded
Hohmann that the city did not own Germania, and that if he wanted to bathe free of the
presence of Jews, he could come to a city-owned bath. 75
The Rosenthal
The most consistently expressed dissatisfaction came from non-Jewish residents
who resented the continued presence of Jews in the city’s great forested park, the
Rosenthal, and especially the presence of Jews on the benches in the park. In summer of
1937, an engineer named Hans Schmidt wrote Bürgermeister Haake, enclosing a clipping
from the Angriff. The story was about the Teutoburger park in Berlin, which had put up
signs on their benches that said “Für Juden Verboten” (Forbidden to Jews”). Schmidt
wanted to know why Leipzig couldn’t do something like this in the Rosenthal. Three
days later, Haake wrote to the relevant group in Berlin, asking how they had done it,
noting that “here in Leipzig in the Rosenthal, so many Jews spread out on the benches so
extraordinarily.” 76
An undated letter to Haake from about the same time apologized for taking up his
valuable time, but noted that he (Haake) was “known as an energetic and sympathetic and
dauntless fighter for the goals of our Führer.” The writer noted that “every Jew insists
75 Ibid., 25 June, 1936.
76 Ibid., 24, 27 August, 1937.
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