Allgäu - The exhibition “Beloved Gabi.
A girl from the Allgäu - murdered in Auschwitz ”will stop at the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer parish hall from October 24th.
The exhibition is based on the research of the Allgäu author and filmmaker Leo Hiemer and focuses on the fate of little Gabriele Schwarz, who was a victim of the National Socialist racial madness.
Gabi grew up on a farm in Stiefenhofen.
She was only five years old.
When the Nazi terror and reprisals against the Jewish fellow citizens in Germany took on ever more dramatic forms, Gabi's mother, Charlotte Margarete Eckart, a Jew from Augsburg, brought her child, who was only a few weeks old, to a foster family in the Allgäu.
Safe, as she said.
You can read an interview with Leo Hiemer about the research on “Gabi” and the play “The Jewess and the Cardinal” here.
Happy childhood in Stiefenhofen
Gabriele Schwarz, also known as Gabi, had happy days on the small farm of the Therese and Josef Aichele family, who had five children of their own.
At least that is shown by the many black and white photos that one of the Aichele daughters took after Gabi's mother brought a camera with her on one of her many visits.
Gabi feeds the chickens, Gabi picks sheep, Gabi helps with the haymaking.
Images of a happy childhood.
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Gabi at the Aichele farm in Stiefenhofen.
© private
For this exhibition, the small photos were turned into large-format prints that tell more than words from the short, carefree life of little Gabi.
The dark sides of this terrible time are highlighted by the highlight-like depictions of the persecution of the Jews in Germany and the desperate attempts by Gabi's mother to save herself and her daughter.
She herself had converted to the Catholic faith and had been baptized.
Gabi was also baptized after she was born.
But that didn't help.
Gabi is regarded by those in power as a “full Jew”.
Contemporary witnesses report
At the end of 1942, Gabi was torn from this small, intact world, in which she grew up in a sheltered state, and was initially deported to a collection camp in Berg am Laim near Munich.
In March 1943 the five-year-old was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there.
Until recently, Therese and Josef Aichele had tried to bring "their child" back.
Vain.
What remains are the memories of the little girl, her children's shoes, a few toys - the camera and the photos that can be seen in the exhibition.
The exhibition closes with the words: "Gabi lives as long as we remember her."
Contemporary witnesses report in video sequences how they experienced those years in Stiefenhofen and its surroundings.
The Nazi terror also quickly got its grip on the “country” and its villages.
The exhibition also wants to give space to other Nazi persecution stories from the respective region.
People who know of such stories are given the opportunity to share this knowledge.
There is a “reminder café” for this in the framework program of the traveling exhibition.
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The court of the Aicheles in Stiefenhofen.
© private
Supporting program
On Sunday, October 24th, at 10 a.m., a service will take place in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Oberstaufen in the run-up to the opening of the exhibition.
The exhibition will then open at 11 a.m. with music by Frank Steckeler.
At 2.30 p.m., author and filmmaker Leo Hiemer will guide you through the exhibition.
On Wednesday, November 3rd, the film "Leni ... must go" will be shown in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche at 7.30 pm.
The Remembrance Café will take place in the Franciscan Hall of the Catholic parish on Sunday, November 7th, at 4 p.m.
Devotion to Reichsprogromnacht
On Tuesday, November 9th, at 7 p.m., a prayer service will be held in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche to commemorate the Reichsprogromnacht.
Afterwards Leo Hiemer will give the lecture “Johann Seelos - local group leader and mayor of Stiefenhofen during the Third Reich.”
On Saturday, November 13th, Leo Hiemer will read from his book “Gabi” at 7.30 p.m. in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche.