Meta and Erich Klibansky

Balancing self-confident Judaism and Modernity

(Photo: NS-DOK Cologne, Corbach Collection)

Meta and Erich Klibansky represent those Jewish Germans who lived consciously orthodox and were at the same time politically and intellectually part of modern German society.

Dr. Erich Klibansky, principal of the “Jawne” in Cologne, the only Jewish grammar school in the Rhineland, planned to move his entire school to Great Britain after the November pogrom in 1938. The beginning of the war shattered these plans, but between January and July 1939 he succeeded in saving more than 130 children by the so-called “Kindertransport” to Great Britain. Before her marriage, Meta Klibansky, née David, was a teacher at the “Israelitische Töchterschule” in Hamburg. In the Jawne she taught English.
On July 20, 1942, Erich and Meta Klibansky together with their three sons were deported and four days later murdered in a forest near the city of Minsk (Belarus).

The exhibition, developed in 2017 by a project group of the Yavne Memorial and Educational Center, presents the life and work of Meta and Erich Klibansky in texts, historical documents and photographs.

Lending of the exhibition is possible and desired, but it is only available in German language.
It consists of 17 PVC exhibition banners of 80 X 125 cm each. If you are interested, we will be happy to send you a PDF. A companion booklet (German and English) can be ordered free of charge (donation welcome!).