Rabbi Leo Baeck was a liberal rabbi and thinker, who was the head of the Jewish community in Berlin. He was also elected president of the Reich Representation of German Jews, established in 1933 in order to represent German Jews vis-à- vis the German authorities and to coordinate educational and welfare initiatives.
In September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were passed, constituting the legal basis for evicting the Jews from all walks of life in Germany and for furthering anti-Jewish policy. The publication of these laws was a turning point for Germany's Jews. The legislation completely overturned the Emancipation and shook them to the core. As President of the Reich Representation of German Jews, Rabbi Baeck sought to raise the morale of the Jewish communities with words of comfort and civil resistance. He wrote a sermon entitled "The Reich Representation of German Jews is Addressing Us", that was meant to be read before the Kol Nidre prayers in synagogues in Germany on the eve of Yom Kippur, 10 October 1935, with the aim of bolstering the Jewish communities' spirit, deepening their Jewish consciousness and negating the accusations being cast against the Jews of Germany.
He encouraged the congregation to stand strong against the impending persecution, and referred to Jewish history, explaining that just as God showed the forefathers the way forward, He would also guide them.
"We stand before our God; we draw strength from His Commandments, which we obey. We bow down before Him, and we stand upright before Men. Him we serve, and remain steadfast in all the changes around us. We put our faith in Him in humility and our way ahead is clear, we see our future."
After one of Germany's rabbis approached the Gestapo to clarify whether it was permissible to hold a public reading of the sermon, the Gestapo issued an order banning the reading of the document in synagogues, on pain of arrest. The Gestapo even appeared at some Yom Kippur prayer services, mainly in Berlin, in order to ensure that Rabbi Baeck's words would not be read out to the public. Despite this, the sermon was read out in many synagogues, and gave the congregants encouragement and support. Rabbi Baeck himself read it out at the synagogue on Fasanenstrasse.
Rabbi Baeck and Otto Hirsch, Director of the Reich Representation of German Jews, were arrested as a result of the sermon, and thrown into different prisons. Rabbi Baeck was released 24 hours later without any charges having been brought against him. The incident was reported by a London Times journalist in Berlin, and the arrest of a religious leader of Rabbi Baeck's stature aroused a wave of protests outside Germany. Rabbi Baeck was arrested by the Gestapo on a number of additional occasions in different contexts, but refused to leave Germany and his Jewish community. In early 1943 he was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where he remained until liberation in 1945.
_2.jpg?itok=gYdTa_Sy "The Siddur (Prayer Book) that Gabriele Kohn Received after Liberation")
