Name Hermann Schreiber | ||
 | ||
Dr. Zhivago
Hermann Schreiber (21 August 1882 – 27 September 1954) was a German doctor of philosophy, rabbi and journalist.
Contents
Youth
Hermann Schreiber descended from a Jewish family which was settled in Schrimm in the Prussian Province of Posen (modern-day Srem in Poland). The family was already Germanized in his times (in the second half of the 19th century the Jewish community in the part of Poland which was then under Prussian rule generally adopted German culture and language). Hermann’s father, Pedasur Schreiber, taught Religion in the Jewish school and was an assistant to the rabbi; whereas his mother, Balbina nee Schreier, managed the household. Hermann was the youngest and the only son of their five children. After passing his Abitur examination in the High School in Srem in 1901, he was studying at the Jewish Conservative Theological Seminary in Breslau, where he was ordained a rabbi, then at the University of Breslau, where he earned a degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In around 1910 he got married to Charlotte Neumann, with whom he had one son – Paul.
Activity in Germany
During the years 1912-1938 Hermann Schreiber lived in Potsdam. He wrote articles in newspapers (incl. Israelitisches Familienblatt), translated the Torah from Hebrew into German, for many years was the rabbi in the synagogue in Potsdam. He was the chairman of the Jewish Liberal Youth Association, which was established in Potsdam in 1921; he was also an active member of the Association of Schrimmers (Verein der Schrimmer), an organization established in Berlin in 1902 by Jews descending from Srem (Schrimm) who later emigrated to other provinces of the German Reich.
Emigration to Britain
When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, Hermann Schreiber, like other German Jews, was subjected to persecutions. In 1938, during Kristallnacht, he witnessed the demolition of the Potsdam synagogue. Shortly afterwards he was put in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. At the beginning of 1939, after his release from the camp, he managed to emigrate with his wife and son to the United Kingdom, where he lived in London. He continued his journalistic work, writing articles in English, contributed to the work of the Beth din (house of judgment) of the Association of Synagogues in Great Britain. He also participated in the life of the Jewish community in Amsterdam, and from 1952 he visited West Berlin, where he took part in the celebrations of the Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). During one of those visits, he died during the celebrations, immediately after preaching a sermon in the synagogue at Pestalozzistrasse in Berlin. Hermann Schreiber was buried at the Jewish Weisensee Cemetery in Berlin.
Memories
On 6 March 1927, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Association of Schrimmers, Hermann Schreiber delivered a lecture, which was later published in print as Schrimmer Jugenderinnerungen (Schrimm – Memories from Our Youth'). The memories are a valuable source for research on the history of Jews in the Province of Posen. Schreiber describes in the memories the daily life of his own family and other Jews living in Srem, Jewish traditions, customs and festivals, but also the daily life of the Poles and Germans who lived in Srem. The memories were translated into English. In 2008 the memories were also translated into Polish and published by Krzysztof Budzyn in the journal "Sremski Notatnik Historyczny" (Srem’s Historical Notebook).