Fred Baumgart, Fred B. Kanena

The artist and the stele with the title"Das Glänzende, Schimmernde" (2021) Foto: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

He sees himself as a visual artist for abstract works of art. The work he has created for the temporary exhibition in the Vöhl synagogue has been applied between two narrow, high panes of glass by a glass painter. It can therefore be seen from both sides and can be illuminated from the inside in the dark. The daylight also emphasises the individual Jewish symbols such as the Star of David, the seven-armed candlestick and the Hamsa hand, which is generally used as a symbol of protection in the Middle East. According to the artist's description, the red stripe on the side with ‘doors’ and the incised drawings on the entire painting ground are reminiscent of the railway carriages that brought the Jews to their place of extermination (Translation with deepl.com).

Marco Bruckner

The artist and the stele with the title "Lebensraum" (2021)
Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

He is actually a wood sculptor and lives in Bavaria, where he runs a turnery. However, he created the ‘stele object’ for the exhibition in the Vöhl synagogue entitled ‘Lebensraum’ from iron plates. The upper section of the simple ‘pillar’ is perforated. From one side you can see through a tree of life, from the other through the Star of David to the silhouette of people. The artist describes the two Jewish symbols as protecting people's living space. (Translated with DeepL.com).

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Adrian DeDea

The artist and the stele with the title "The Blue Bird" (2021) Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

He is a painter, lives in Germany and was born in Romania. His paintings create abstract works on a realistic base material. For the exhibition in the Vöhl Synagogue, he has created a massive stele entitled ‘The Blue Bird’. The pillar is white and light blue, as if printed with a photo of ocean waves lapping on the beach.  All four sides show a stylised Hanukkah candlestick, the symbol of the Jewish festival of lights. The stele is illuminated, so light penetrates through the candlesticks from the inside; it shines. A blue bird rises into the sky from a tangle of wire at the top of the stele. For the artist, the bird represents understanding and love for one another. It rises out of the light and the barbed wire - symbolising the hard fate of the Jewish people (Translated with DeepL.com).

Photo: Berthold Herberz

Photo: Berthold Herberz

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Eitan Jacob Katz

Photo: Ulrich Müller

The artist was born in Israel and lives in Hamburg. He is a visual artist and paints abstract pictures. For his stele, he was inspired by the ecumenical campaign ‘Jewish or Christian - closer than you think’. He is Jewish and has ancestors from the greater Kassel area. He has created a black metal stele with the name ‘Hope’. A Star of David is inscribed on a Christian cross. They form a common symbol. He hopes that his sculpture will be widely distributed in all places where anti-Semitism is prevalent (Translated with DeepL.com).

Photo: Ulrich Müller
transl: Hope for more tolerance and coexistence between religions

The artist in the garden of the synagogue. Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

Tobias Kerger

The artist and the untitled stele (2021) Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

He is a student of painting and graphic art in Leipzig and a member of the Jewish Religious Community. His stele is closely linked to the synagogue's past; he took his model from the only known picture of the interior of the synagogue when it was used as a prayer room. The tall white stele is a replica of one of the two side columns of the destroyed Torah shrine. The Star of David is attached to the base of the stele; the upper part shows a human hand holding a candle. For the artist, the candle symbolises hope and loss - giving light and at the same time consuming itself. Through his stele, he has brought destroyed tradition back to life (Translated with DeepL.com).

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Photo: Berthold Herberz

Andreas Laugesen

The artist with the untitled stele (2021) Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

He is a freelance artist and has already dealt with other texts from the time of the Holocaust and about the Holocaust. On his wooden stele, he displays a poem by Nelly Sachs. Born in Berlin in 1892, she went into hiding as a refugee in Sweden during the Nazi regime, where she died in Stockholm in 1970. The text is written in gold-plated letters on one side of the stele and the Star of David on the other. With his stele, the artist wants to thematise the oppressive reality of all ‘strangers’ yesterday and today. (Translated with DeepL.com)

Translation of the poem in English auf lyricstranslate.com

Kommt einer
von ferne
mit einer Sprache
die vielleicht die Laute
verschließt
mit dem Wiehern der Stute
oder
dem Piepen
junger Schwarzamseln
oder
auch wie eine knirschende Säge
die alle Nähe zerschneidet —
 
Kommt einer
Von ferne
mit Bewegungen des Hundes
oder
vielleicht der Ratte
und es ist Winter
so kleide ihn warm
kann auch sein
er hat Feuer unter den Sohlen
(vielleicht ritt er
auf einem Meteor)
so schilt ihn nicht
falls dein Teppich durchlöchert schreit —
 
Ein Fremder hat immer
seine Heimat im Arm
wie eine Waise
für die er vielleicht nichts
als ein Grab sucht.

Nelly Sachs

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Photo: Berthold Herberz

Photo: Berthold Herberz

Lukas Schmid

The artist and the stele with the title  "Fokus setzend, fokussierend" (2021) Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

The artist has created a bright, almost luminous wooden stele with the title ‘Fokus setzend, fokussierend’ (Focusing, focussing). He is a wood sculptor and lives in southern Germany. The two surfaces individually bear the words ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Equanimity’ in Hebrew characters.  The head of the stele is a round element with a hole, the focus. According to the artist, this focus is set by the individual person and also by society.  It ‘gently reminds and reminds us of the fundamental values of living and being together.’ (Translated with DeepL.com)

Photo: Ulrich Müller

Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

© Kurt-Willi Julius; Skulptur: "Auf der Schwelle zwischen Leben und Tod" (2007) von E. R. Nele

Waldeck-Frankenberg district memorial to all deportees of the Nazi era

Not quite 700 Jews were deported from the Waldeck-Frankenberg district during the Nazi era. These 700 people did not live together in a single place, but were spread across many communities in the district:
But not only Jews fell victim to the madness of racism; Sinti and Roma, disabled people, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and political dissidents were marginalised, persecuted, deported and exterminated.
The district of Waldeck-Frankenberg has erected a memorial to these victims in the garden of the synagogue for all those deported during the Nazi era. It was created by the artist E. R. Nele.

Art competition: Remembering-Caring-Experiencing

In 2021, the Förderkreis Synagoge in Vöhl organised an art competition. In the final exhibition, 32 artists from all over Germany exhibited 35 works of art. The association purchased 6 steles, which are placed around and in the synagogue. In 2024, the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg provided two further stelae on loan.

Photo: Karl-Heinz Stadtler

Description of the 8 steles

See the Pen CSS LED Lights by Eph Baum (@ephbaum) on CodePen.