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The Landsberg Community: A Microhistory of German Jewry under National Socialism


Opening Remarks by Yigal Cohen,
CEO, Ghetto Fighters’ House

Speakers:
Prof. Guy Miron
Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies at the Open University of Israel

Sonia Schätz
Director of the Stadtmuseum in Landsberg am Lech


The first program in the series focused on the German Jewish community before and during the Holocaust. The event opened with remarks by Yigal Cohen, CEO of the Ghetto Fighters’ House.

Prof. Guy Miron examined the world of German Jewry from the eve of the Nazi rise to power through the outbreak of World War II, exploring how the persecutions of the Third Reich reshaped personal lives, communal structures, and Jewish identity. His lecture highlighted how communities living under oppression nonetheless exercised agency in shaping their everyday experiences.

Sonia Schätz presented the new permanent exhibition Wege nach Landsberg (Paths to Landsberg) at the Landsberg am Lech Town Museum, which addressed the Nazi period and its postwar legacies. Focusing on the daily lives of six Jewish families, her talk explored the changing realities of Jewish life from 1933 onward, the responses of the non-Jewish environment, and the curatorial choices involved in conveying this history and its relevance today.

Together, these perspectives offered an intimate microhistory of Landsberg am Lech—revealing how individual lives and local communities illuminated the broader story of German Jewry under National Socialism, and invited reflection on memory, responsibility, and the meaning of witnessing in the present.