An old church bell has ignited a debate in the town of Herxheim am Berg. The problem? It's inscribed with a swastika and Hitler's name. The town's mayor, however, told DW the bell won't be going anywhere any time soon.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/U. Anspach
Advertisement
For decades, the bells at Herxheim am Berg's oldest church have been ringing in Christmas, Easter and confirmation services. The recent revelation that one of those chimes comes from a Nazi-era relic is making some in the area, situated in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, very uncomfortable.
The bronze bell in question, which is over 80 years old, is inscribed with a swastika and the phrase: "Everything for the Fatherland - Adolf Hitler."
The town website details the history of St. Jacob's Church, from it's founding in 1014 to the celebration of its 1,000th anniversary in 2014.
One timeline entry notes that in August 1934, the village school teacher set fire to the church and that by December of the same year, three new bells were placed in the tower.
The "Hitler bell" was one of them, but the website doesn't mention the swastika or the Nazi inscription. Considering that the bell is ensconced behind thick stone in the belfry, it's likely that visitors to the town are completely unaware of its presence.
Backlash over continued use
A former organist at the church, Sigrid Peters, only recently learned of the bell's inscription and is calling for it to be switched off immediately.
The 'Hitler bell' is ensconced behind thick stone in the tower at St. Jacob's ChurchImage: picture alliance/dpa/U.Anspach
"It can't happen that a baby is baptized and a bell with the words 'everything for the Fatherland' is chiming," she told news agency DPA.
She was also disturbed by the fact that numerous couples around the state of Rhineland-Palatinate come to the picturesque church to get married every year. "They don't know at all" about the bell, Peters said.
Bell 'wasn't a problem before'
The Mayor of Herxheim am Berg, Ronald Becker, told DW that the existence of the bell is common knowledge around the village.
According to Becker, "it was already widely known" among local residents that a bell bearing the name "Adolf Hitler" existed within the stone steeple of the town's ancient church.
Becker says he doesn't see a problem with the bell and has the 'backing of the town'Image: picture alliance/dpa/U.Anspach
Becker, who has been mayor for three years, was concise when asked whether or not the bell was problematic.
"There wasn't a problem before and there won't be a problem with it in the future, either," he said.
Becker noted that bell was a "historic relic," but that it was important to understand and respect the history surrounding it.
The mayor also dismissed some proposed solutions to classify the bell as a WWII memorial or to install a plaque, informing visitors of the Nazi-inscribed bell's presence.
He said he doesn't want Herxheim am Berg to become "a cult site" where people - most likely of the far-wing persuasion - visit the church for the "wrong reasons."
Since this particular bell doesn't belong to the church, but rather to the municipality of Herxheim am Berg, politics will ultimately decide the bell's future. And Becker sees no need to remove it.
"I have the backing of the town," he explained, adding that Herxheim am Berg's nearly 800 residents "support me."
"It is closed in the church tower and it will remain so," Becker said.
'Never Again': Memorials of the Holocaust
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is January 27. Numerous memorials across Germany ensure the millions of victims are not forgotten.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Schreiber
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
A large sculpture stands in front of Dachau. Located just outside Munich, it was the first concentration camp opened by the Nazi regime. Just a few weeks after Adolf Hitler came to power, it was used by the paramilitary SS Schutzstaffel to imprison, torture and kill political opponents of the regime. Dachau also served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi camps that followed.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Wannsee House
The villa on Berlin's Wannsee lake was pivotal in the planning of the Holocaust. Fifteen members of the Nazi government and the SS Schutzstaffel met here on January 20, 1942 to devise what became known as the "Final Solution," the deportation and extermination of all Jews in German-occupied territory. In 1992, the villa where the Wannsee Conference was held was turned into a memorial and museum.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Holocaust Memorial in Berlin
Located next to the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was inaugurated 60 years after the end of World War II on May 10, 2005, and opened to the public two days later. Architect Peter Eisenman created a field with 2,711 concrete slabs. An attached underground "Place of Information" holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals
Not too far from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, another concrete memorial honors the thousands of homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. The 4-meter high (13-foot) monument, which has a window showing alternately a film of two men or two women kissing, was inaugurated in Berlin's Tiergarten on May 27, 2008.
Image: picture alliance/Markus C. Hurek
Documentation center on Nazi Party rally grounds
Nuremberg hosted the biggest Nazi party propaganda rallies from 1933 until the start of World War II. The annual Nazi Party congress, as well as rallies with as many as 200,000 participants, took place on the 11-square-kilometer (4.25-square-mile) area. Today, the unfinished Congress Hall building serves as a documentation center and a museum.
Image: picture-alliance/Daniel Karmann
German Resistance Memorial Center
The Bendlerblock building in Berlin was the headquarters of a military resistance group. On July 20, 1944, a group of Wehrmacht officers around Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg carried out an assassination attempt on Hitler that ultimately failed. The leaders of the conspiracy were summarily shot the same night in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock. Today, it's the German Resistance Memorial Center.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Bergen-Belsen Memorial
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony was initially established as a prisoner of war camp before becoming a concentration camp. Prisoners too sick to work were brought here from other concentration camps, and many also died of disease. One of the 50,000 people killed here was Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who gained international fame after her diary was published posthumously.
Image: picture alliance/Klaus Nowottnick
Buchenwald Memorial
Located near the Thuringian town of Weimar, Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps in Germany. From 1937 to April 1945, the National Socialists deported about 270,000 people from all over Europe to the camp and murdered 64,000 of them before the camp was liberated by US soldiers in 1945. The site now serves as a memorial to the victims.
Image: Getty Images/J. Schlueter
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims
Opposite the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, a park inaugurated in 2012 serves as a memorial to the 500,000 Sinti and Roma people killed by the Nazi regime. Around a memorial pool, the poem "Auschwitz" by Roma poet Santino Spinelli is written in English, Germany and Romani. "Gaunt face, dead eyes, cold lips, quiet, a broken heart, out of breath, without words, no tears," it reads.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'Stolpersteine' — stumbling blocks as memorials
In the 1990s, artist Gunter Demnig began the project to confront Germany's Nazi past. The brass-covered concrete cubes placed in front of the former homes of Nazi victims show their names, details about their deportation, and murder, if known. As of early 2022, some 100,000 "Stolpersteine" have been laid in over 25 countries across Europe. It's the world's largest decentralized Holocaust memorial.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Brown House in Munich
Right next to the "Führerbau," where Adolf Hitler had his office in Munich, was the headquarters of the Nazi Party, called the Brown House. A white cube now occupies the place where it once stood. In it, the "Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism" opened on April 30, 2015, 70 years after the defeat of the Nazi regime.
