Voyage to Ottawa: The photo appears in a book entitled Juden in Köln von der Römerzeit bis ins 20. Jahrhundert: Foto-Dokumentation (1984)
Name of the exhibit: Students in Volkschule Moriah, Cologne, Germany, 1936
Submitted by: Marion Silver
Date of origin: 1936
Origin of the object: Cologne Germany
Description: The student in the back row, second from the right, is my mother, Paula Monderer (1923-2010), born in Cologne to Jeanette (Yetta/Chana) Faber (1894-1970) and Heinrich (Chaim) Monderer (1878-1932).
The death of her father necessitated her going into a “kinderheim”, an orphanage, where she continued her schooling at the “Volkschule Moriah”. As well, she participated in a program called “Hachshara”, which was to prepare youngsters for life on a kibbutz in Palestine.
Because of the events of Kristallnacht, her program was speeded up and she left Germany in March 1938 and arrived in Palestine. Her older sister, Margot, left Germany later but by then war had been declared, and her boat was not allowed to dock in Palestine but was turned back to Germany. She ultimately perished along with many other members of my mother’s family. My grandmother arrived in England on a domestic passport two days before the war broke out in 1939.
