Flehingen museum project
Documenting what happened to the Jews that once lived in the small village of Flehingen (in Baden-Wurttenberg)
Our early childhood culture slips away, slowly then as in a sprint, leaving our first language tied to images that become fuzzy and then the colleague continues to develop with new facts and experiences, near facts, and myths, embellishing, covering over what once was. Those first language words occupy a separate place from our new native language and culture. We don’t translate words from one world into the other but they live separate lives, one sprinkled with childhood memories, the other, a more focused but nevertheless an imprecise coloring of our adult world.
Now and then I come across a word that my father used that I always thought meant one thing but after looking it up in a German-English dictionary realize that he meant something totally different. I had it wrong. I didn’t get what he was saying then but do now. I always thought that the German word for someone who was filled with himself, conceited, was a ‘Hochstabler’. Instead ‘Hochstabler’ means confidence man, trickster. The German word for someone that is stuck up, conceited and self-aggrandizing is ‘Eingebildet’.
It is a major cognitive feat to capture and fully understand another culture, another time in history, a foreign literature and values or our own childhood. So….tread lightly and if you get a chance ask “Do I get what you are saying?” What was it really like experiencing the history of others? Do you understand why this is part of Flehingen or why this website came to be?”
The attached pictures may be of interest to you. I would assume that some of you (more likely parents and grandparents) came from Flehingen which is roughly 15 km. from Flehingen. The pictures include Nazi identity papers and pictures of three generations of Weingartners. There is also a picture of the youngest of the Weingartners who may still be living in New Bretten. One of the pictures is of the two brothers with their grandfather standing in front of the burned out synagogue in Flehingen (dated Jan. 1939).
Of course it is not a surprise that the events and circumstances that led to the exodus from the towns around Bretten challenged historical and moral explanations. If you like I will continue to provide documentation about the Flehingen community.
Weingartner family birth dates
Hugo Weingärtner, Handelsmann in Flehingen, (* 30.05.1901 Flehingen, geb. Böttigheimer (* 18.02.1910 Kleineicholzheim, Herbert Jakob, (* 04.04.1935, Karlsruhe); Werner Bernhard, (* 28.04.1936, Karlsruhe)
Herbert, grandfather (Heinrich) brother Werner in front of burned out Synagogue, Jan. 1939
Two young brothers
Identity cards of Grandparents of Weingartner brothers
Weingartner brothers in front of burned out synagogue (Jan 1939)
